Selah had a family.
She had it all. A happy home in the city of Aaun which she maintained diligently, a large kitchen where she cooked for her husband and her three children and their children, a garden which she tended and read in, childhood friends, jealous neighbors, a woman's dream.
Selah does not hail from a particularly notable family but they got by and were comfortable, comfortable enough for her not to work and catch the eye of a wealthy man. Her parents were happy for her when she married.
And overjoyed to hear when she was with child. Her three children; Lerol, Maera, and Tertis brought her purpose, and as their family grew, her father passed.
She had loved her father very much, and when he passed away, it was the first time Selah experienced loss, experienced anything negative really.
Selah did not take the loss well, she grieved for many years with the comfort of her mother, and when she too passed, Selah as an only child, felt.. Lonely. Yes she was a grown woman, but somehow in many ways this was the first time she felt no longer a child. She isolated herself from her husband, still cooking and cleaning and doing all the things a housewife was expected to do. She raised her children into strong, healthy adults. But she was never really connected to them in a way a mother should have been. As her children left the home, and her husband found warmth in other women, Selah tended to her family home diligently, but.. For who?
On some days, she would not clean, or cook, but just sit in the garden, pondering it all. What did her life truly mean? What did she actually do? As these questions and many others started to haunt her, and her body began to grow old, and her hair began to spring out silver locks, Selah realised that she never had anything that was truly.. well, hers. A fortnight passed without any visitors, not even her husband. And another, and another.. And another, and another. And all the while Selah stayed, sometimes cleaning, sometimes cooking, sometimes tending to her garden, but most of the time.. She just sat, staring. At the walls, at the ceiling, at the newly made bed, or the withering roses in her garden that once made her neighbors oh so jealous.
Her lifelong friends either died or stopped coming around years ago. As if she herself had died, as if she had never existed. Why did Selah stay? What was she waiting for.. Did Selah think her husband would some day return, or her children? Your guess is as good as mine. But that's what she did. And she worked just hard enough to prevent the once warm and lively home of falling into ruin.
And then on a warm summer's afternoon.. A knock on the door. Selah looked up warily, the chair complained when she stood up, as did her joints.
Slowly she made herself to the front door, for some reason her heart started pounding. "A visitor?" She thought. "Finally! I'll make them a nice cup of tea!"
With fingers trembling her hands moved towards the latch, when was the last time she had a visitor? Selah did not remember. But with a smile she opened the heavy wooden door, with hinges complaining almost as much as her joints, and as sunlight filled the room she smiled in joy to see. No one? "No, but I'm sure they knocked, yes I'm sure!" Selah said.
She leaned out and looked left, looked right, she saw some passerby's on the street. For a moment she considered asking whether they had seen anyone, but instead she closed the door slowly, and as the sunlight left the room and she put the latch back on the big wooden mouth, there it was again. *knock knock* Two knocks this time!
Selah swung the door open and the sunlight blinded her, but again, no one, some of the passerbys looked curiously at her. Selah swiftly closed the door again.
Selah turned around, and walked back to her chair, and sat down. *knock knock knock* Three knocks this time! "Why what awful prank is this?" She thought, but without realizing, she had jumped out of her chair and rushed to the door, swinging it open once more.. And once more, no one, no one but more curious passerby's. With a grunt, she closed the door a third time. She went to the garden instead. The door knocked again. But she ignored it this time, instead opting to continue her daily activities. She cleaned, *knock knock knock*, she cooked *knock knock knock*, she went to bed, and late at night she heard it too *knock knock knock*.
The knocking continued for weeks, Selah grew frustrated, angry even, at the constant knocking. Many sleepless nights went by, at times she would doze off, only to be woken up by the knocking on the door. Then she wondered "who in their right mind would keep knocking on her door?" Then one morning, as she dressed herself, broke her fast, sweeped the floor. She realised, there had been no knocking all day.
At the moment she let out a sigh of relief. *knock knock knock* "ARGH" Selah shouted "STOP YOUR DAMN KNOCKING!"
Selah couldn't help herself though. She kept going on with her routine. And so did the knocking.
Then one morning after yet another sleepless night, Selah had enough. She packed a small satchel, locked the door to the home she had tended for decades, and stepped into the streets of Aaun.
Whether the knocking came from madness, memory, or something else entirely, Selah intended to find its source.
For the first time in her life, she chose something for herself.
As Selah stepped beyond the gates of Aaun, she paused for a moment. Behind her, carried on the morning breeze, she thought she heard it once more.
*Knock. Knock. Knock*
