I opened my mouth and screamed at the top of my lungs. The wind snatched up my scream, carrying it far, far away to a land where all people are mute.

As a result, I too became mute, and was so for many years. The scream had left me completely spent, so I retired to bed and existed there in a state of perfect, perpetual sleep.

Meanwhile, those people in that faraway land had all caught the scream. They took it, they shared it, and they all began to talk to one another again.

And they’d never felt more awake.