Silent Men

Somewhere in some strange town, two men sit in a room watching the television. They aren’t watching anything in particular; their faces just seemed to be pointing in the direction of the TV set, their eyes pointing towards the screen absorbing the bright flashing colors. But the men are really just sitting there listening to a brightly colored radio.

The two men sit more for the enjoyment of each other’s company. The two men have known each other for so long that anything they say is most likely to be anticipated by the other and a laugh is had and one owes the other a beer.

In this town, hardly anything new happens. No new faces have turned up at either of the men’s doors in quite some time, nothing out of the ordinary has really occurred. Little nuances like broken pipes, leaking roofs, squeaky floorboards and flat tires hardly get the men to flinch. When one has a problem, the other, without so much as a word, gets his materials and assists the other in near absolute silence.

Naturally, one might think their wives would be driven crazy by such odd behavior but, just as strangely, their wives understand and know better than to waste their breath and energy on trying to stir something up between the two.

Of course, everyone slips up now and then; every once in a great while, one of the men’s wives will start to speak up. Before she gets out a full sentence, the two men have exchanged a set of looks in an almost rehearsed way and before too long the wife of one of the two men will have a spoon full of peanut butter in her mouth and both men are laughing hysterically. Because the two men have known each other for so long, during their laughter they will look at each other and remember more instance of slapstick comedy and laugh until their laughter is without sound and are left to pound the armrests of the furniture as they catch their breaths.

The two men have, in some sense, run out of things to say to each other. Some days are spent where one tries to think of something the other hasn’t heard in a long time or something new and witty only to be told it right before they other speaks it. Other days are shared with a few shrugs, a couple of grunts and some vague gestures. To anyone watching, these two men are just plain, ordinary men. When watched for long enough, as local children sometimes find themselves doing in a park as the two men sit on a bench in the shade, they’ll note that the two men have never said a single word.

In parks, they are gentlemen. The remove their hats when passing women, they wave at children, they smile at young men escorting their female companions (without letting them see their remarks at what might be about to occur the following day).

Indeed, the two men are a bit of a spectacle for anyone who notices their strange behavior. Sometimes the children will try to get one of them to say something on a dare from the other kids. Other days adults who don’t know what’s what will try to get them to speak only to be left absolutely speechless afterwards.

Sometimes, they two men treat their behavior like a game and see who they can get a rise out of first only because they know who it bothers. Other times they are genuinely perplexed at how some react to their behavior, their silent conversations and arrays of looks. Sometimes, they will walk the town, shrugging, gesturing, laughing loudly or nodding earnestly. When asked if they are mute, the two men will both put their hands to their ears and lean in. When approached by someone who is deaf they shrug and shake their heads.

The two men sometimes stand in front of a storefront observing the street; watching cars pass, people walk, children talk, and all the while their gazes never meeting but conversations being had. Some people notice and wonder what on Earth they could be laughing or chuckling about. Sometimes they two men just start to dance with no music, one showing the other how to move properly and fighting silently about whom is right.

Most of their time, however, is spent without meaningful gestures or looks or shrugs. Most of their time, they are remembering everything they’ve experienced together and when they weren’t together. Stories told hundreds of times, revelations had and conclusions drawn; how some stories remind the other of some stories.

In each other’s company they need not a radio or a TV, but just a couple of chairs, a large window, couple of beers and a clock to tell them when their wives get home to fill the houses with noise about who did what and where and what that could possibly do to so-and-so.

Then the two men will see each other again recounting their wives’ tales in silence and figure out how to taunt the children while the other formulates what to taunt them with.