The Sound of Nothing

A mid-February afternoon in Johnson, Vermont

The cold snap broke sometime in the night. I didn’t hear it go — I just woke up and the house felt different. Softer. After weeks of that relentless, bone-deep cold that makes the walls tick and the pipes groan, the air had finally let go.

I walked outside this afternoon and stood in the driveway and listened. Nothing. Not a single sound. No birds yet — …