It's a warm summers day. The air is still and except for a few crickets serenading, it is a lazy, hazy afternoon. A bus pulls up at the rest stop and a teenage boy with a small duffel bag get off the bus and wanders into the stark sunshine with a bewildered look on his face. The attendant leaves his post behind the counter and wanders up to the boy. "Son, are you lost?" the attendant asks the boy. The boy just looks at the male attendant. "Is someone waiting for you son?" the attendant tries again. The boys says nothing. Suddenly the boy collapses and the attendant barely manages to catch him as he falls. "Son, what on earth...?" The old attendant holds the boy to his chest and shouts: "Leanne, come real quick, there's a boy here just collapsed". A woman in her late sixties comes running from the back of the rest stop while shouting back: "Leroy, what on earth is going on here?" Together they carry the boy to the backroom of the rest stop and put him down on a bed. The boy's forehead is dripping with perspiration and he is trembling, but no sound escapes his lips. "We ought to phone for doc Whithers Leroy" says Leanne. "Now, now, Leanne, lets just cool the boy down and try to find out who he is first" Leroy answers. The old couple sit with the boy for 24 hours, placing cool compresses on his forehead and changing the sheets over and over as needed. Finally the fever brakes and the boy settles into a restful sleep. Leroy and Leanne, who have been taking turns in looking after the boy, are exhausted so they decide to place a 'closed' sign in the shop window and catch up on some well deserved sleep themselves.
A week later the boy is still with Leroy and Leanne, but he has uttered not one single word. They have no idea where the boy comes from, if there is any family missing him, or what his name is, so they name him Eric after their son who had died in the Vietnam war. The rest stop is quite busy, Eric proves to be a good little worker, he is very kind, helpful and Leroy and Leanne have a spring in their step again. Eric pumps gas, smiles and clean windscreens, and for Leroy and Leanne, it is like having a second son. They get used to his silence, they find ways of communicating in other ways. So does other people. Eric sit and listen for hours to people who have things on their minds they need to speak out, but he never says anything back, he just smiles, nods and occasionally he gently places a hand on the speakers shoulder.
Eric becomes the "go-to-guy" for people with concerns, nobody seem to worry about the fact that Eric never speaks, somehow his way of listening helps.
Time passes and then one day a friend of Doc Whithers pulls up at the rest stop. Eric pumps the gas, cleans the windscreen, smiles and nods. Doc Whithers friend asks Eric questions, but Eric just smiles and carries on with his business. When the Doc's friend comes in to pay for the gas, he asks Leroy for a pen and paper, and with the items in his hand, he walks up to Eric who is sitting on a chair in front of the the rest stop. He writes something on the piece of paper and hands it to Eric.
Eric looks at it and after consideration, writes something and hands the piece of paper back.
Doc's friend smiles, and still smiling he walks up to Leroy and gives him the piece of paper, then he gets into his car and drives off. "Leanne, honey, come on out for a spell, I have something to show you" Leroy says. Leroy looks at Eric, gives him a wink as Leanne saunters out from the shop wiping her hands on a towel. Leroy hands Leanne the piece of paper.
On it is written: are you deaf and dumb? and Eric's answer: Yes, but I lipread.
One may ask why Leroy and Leanne never thought to communicate with Eric by writing, why Eric never asked for pen and paper, and many, many more questions. But why?
Eric found a loving home and many friends; Leroy and Leanne, a son.
Silence, perhaps does not necessarily have to be viewed as "absence", maybe when used "creatively" and compassionately, silence is teeming with presence....
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