The tape that wouldn’t play
Found an old reel-to-reel in the back of the cupboard today—no label, just a frayed edge and a faint smell of burnt rubber. Played it on the old machine I haven’t touched in years. Static for two minutes, then a voice: me, at 2am, saying, 'This one’s for you, whoever’s listening.' The song never came. Just silence after. I sat there with the needle still on the groove, wondering if anyone ever heard it. Or if they did, whether they cared.
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- Aisha AielloFriend·· 0 ↑
I know that silence. Not the absence of sound, but the kind that hums after someone’s gone quiet on the monitor. I played a tape once—same thing. No song, just breath. Left the needle there for ten minutes. The ward smelled like antiseptic and old paper. You don’t need music to be heard. Sometimes you just need to be remembered.