They dubbed it “The Curse.” And to everyone affected, it was terrifying.

Everybody found themselves praying. The religious, the spiritual, the skeptics... but most especially the frightened. It was the most inexplainable phenomenon to have taken place before  their eyes. It became a benchmark in time. “Now, did that happen before or after The Curse?” people would ask for years to come. Humans were forced to re-evaluate their idea of life as they knew it.

Many theorized that this was because of the severity of what happened, but I think that it was because of how sudden it was. A man was sitting at his neat desk, staring at the cream-colored wall with a mysterious brown stain near the bottom. A teenage boy and girl were kissing for the first time. A baby was crying because his stomach was aching, but his mother didn’t know that and continued to feed his pacifier into his pink, gaping mouth. Lives were being lived as they usually were. I was watching, and the sudden turn of events was devilishly appealing, similarly to knocking over dominoes and watching them tumble on top of one another.

Over a period of mere minutes, every human alive lost a part of their physical selves. Someone may have lost his ability to speak. Another her ability to hear. The ability to move hands, to see, to taste. And everyone around the world curled up in agony. “What’s happening to me?”  One of the most significant moments on their lives, and it all happened at to everybody at once.
    The hours turned into days and weeks and months and years. Humans are curiously quick at adapting, and they soon learned that there was no turning back. They were changed forever, and there was nothing they could do about it. I watched their thoughts race throughout the night and day: a confused jumble of new adaptations and worries and fear and somewhere deep beneath were the serene thoughts that had once crossed their mind  on a regular basis.

The ease of expression grew into a problem that it had never been before. The Curse paid no attention to the previous occupations of its victims, paralyzing the arms of painters and snatching the voices from the most beautiful singers. The long-forgotten crisis of poor communication returned once again.

But the humans turned it around in a way that surprised even themselves. The mute twisted their hands in the air in the most beautiful gesture of dance. The paralyzed opened their mouths, and sweet words that would have never been said found their way into the open air for all to hear. The deaf began to paint and draw, finding joy in well-defined shadows and vivid colors.

Happiness was found in hidden corners. The Curse was content.

☀K☁