The Side I Chose by Saying Nothing

Around 2022, my neighbours wife left him. A lot of people talked about this for weeks. Everyone had their opinion on what the man did wrong and what the woman also did wrong. I was only observing how people moved with different narratives without saying anything. Not because I don't have anything to say. But because throwing in my own narrative felt heavier than I wOtl carry on for that day.

I once heard her say some stuff because I usually buy something from her shop. The kind of f thing someone says when they are tired and reconsidering whether it is still safe to say more. I gave her a sympathetic smile and quickly drifted to another conversation because I honestly don't know what to say to what she said because I didn't want to be caught up in-between.

What I told myself was to stay neutral because a family affair like that is none of my business in the real sense of it. That just minding my business was the right thing to do. But when the room has already made up it's mind, minding my business has a direction. And because I didn't say much when I went to her shop, that landed me on the side that already had more voices.

The word ally sounds very large. Like speeches and protests and deliberate loyalty. But the majority of the moments that needed it were small. Someone deciding to speak up the truth in an environment that does not want to hear what the truth is. A discussion where one person is in need of a single voice beside them and got none. And I am very much convenient and honest because I was not that voice.

Thank you for reading.

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