Farther Than Expected

The assignment was simple.

Find thirty minutes somewhere in the world where you cannot hear any man-made sound.

I thought it would be easy.

I was wrong.

When you stop moving and actually listen, the world hums with us.

Trains from miles away.
A plane you cannot see.
Factory rhythm somewhere across water.
A horn in the distance.
Machines you cannot name.

We travel farther than we know.

I drove north.
I tried fields.
I tried tree lines.

Then I found the pier.

The storm came in while I was standing there.

Rain first.
Then wind.
Then thunder moving through like something that had been patient a long time.

And underneath it—

silence.

Not the absence of sound.

The presence of something older and larger than our noise.

Thirty minutes.

Soaking.

Assignment complete.

There is a church steeple in the photograph.

I did not notice it until much later.