Radio

David Kennedy was annoying. It was a stipulated fact. And no, it couldn’t be disputed, nor would anyone care to do so, not even David’s lovely wife, who lived him very much. The war was the cause of David’s annoyingness, and David tried to dispute it in the beginning of the war, but to no avail. Since then, he quietly ignored those who told him to shut up and continued to do what he would do every night when he got home from work: report the latest war news.
After David would get home from work, he’d put his raincoat on the rack which stood next to the house’s white door. Lilly, his wife, would usually greet him by the door, as she could tell when he got home by his car’s front lights, which hit the windowsill in the kitchen when he pulled up in the driveway. She greeted David with a kiss, and promptly gave him the evening edition of the newspaper for him to read. David would then plant himself down in his leather chair which was beside the fireplace. He would sit there for a few minutes soaking up the leather and reading the headlines before being content enough to pace his finger on the radio dial to turn it on where the voice of local announcer Walter Jennings came on and filled the room. From there he would lean over and listen to it as Walter Jennings filled in a daily report of the war in Europe and the one in the Pacific.
While David listened to the radio, his beautiful wife of three years would lean on the wall, which separated the living room and the kitchen, and watched her husband. She was concerned, nearly mortified at what David had become. Instead of living a normal life under the circumstances, he would constantly fret over those boys in Europe as if they were his own sons.
David would sit there for about a half hour. He wouldn’t move an inch from his chair until the news report was over. After it, he would then slide back into his leather chair, close his eyes, and stretch out. He would think about the boys he knew that were off to war. He would then think about how he would be over there if he didn’t pass out during boot camp.
The sudden thought of it made him cringe. He remembered how he felt before he fell into darkness. He remembered how light headed he had become and how pale his drill instructor looked as he began to fall. Then, his memory went blank and the next thing he remembered was waking up in a hospital bed in camp. After his memory of the event ended, he would open his eyes boldly as though he had just been electrocuted. And at this time his wife would come over and put her arm around him. They would embrace each other and she would thank God that David collapsed which allowed him to bypass the war altogether. She would then get up and grab David a glass of water which would help him calm his nerves.
This scene would happen each day. It happened so often that David’s wife, Lilly, would have a glass of water out on the counter, waiting for David to need it. She noticed that David’s reaction to the news changed drastically. He was now impatient and furious sometimes. Other times he would remain silent as usual but not talk for a good hour, even during dinner. This worried Lilly but she knew why he reacted the way he did. There was talk of an invasion of France soon and David believed that this would end the war.
What David thought about the war would be broadcast around the neighborhood. Everyone, from old ladies to small babies, would know how David felt about the war’s progress. His thoughts about the war was the reason why many people felt he was annoying. Once you got him going about the war, you couldn’t shut him up.
One night David came home and did his usual routine. However, when he sat down and turned the radio on he heard the President speak to the nation. David sat there quietly and motioned to his wife, who was once again leaning on the wall, to come in. Lilly sat down beside David and listened as the President informed the nation that he sent the boys over to invade France. David slid back into his black leather chair and massaged his chin while looking at his wife gravely.
“Oh my God,” said David who didn’t know what else to say. “They finally did it.”
Lilly smiled faintly but didn’t say anything. It didn’t matter though because David was listening intently to the president who finished up his little fireside chat. After he was done, David turned the radio off. Neither of them said anything and Lilly got up to finish dinner.
Dinner was a quiet affair. David only talked about work and how it was boring without any of the men that went off to war. Lilly noticed that David seemed to depressed and wondered if David’s co-workers were the ones storming the beaches of Normandy.
After dinner, David went upstairs, stating that he had a headache and wanted to rest. Lilly knew he didn’t have a headache but instead wanted to think about more of the latest developments of the war, which was quite alright with her. She just cleaned up and continued to read her novel.
A few hours later she went up to bed where she found David laying on the bed reading a newspaper. After he saw her, he put the newspaper down and got under the covers. Lilly decided not to bother him, figuring he was thinking about the local boys who were off to war. Before she closed her eyes, she prayed that the war would soon be over. She couldn’t stand to see her husband depressed any longer. She wanted him back to normal.
Hours went by and David’s alarm went off. Lilly woke up and opened her eyes slightly. The alarm was still going off. David must have gotten out of bed because Lilly couldn’t feel him next to her. Finally, Lilly had enough of the alarm and slid over to turn it off. As she was doing so, her side collided with something wooden and heavy. She looked down and saw a radio. She wondered what in the world a radio was doing in bed with her.
Becoming alarmed by this, she got out of bed and looked in the bathroom. David was not in there. Knowing that it was too early for him to leave for work, she ran downstairs to see if he was in the living room. He wasn’t there either. Suddenly Lilly became nervous as she looked in the kitchen. However, there was no sign of David either.
“David!” Lilly yelled as loud as she could. “David, where are you?” She heard a faint sound come from her bedroom. Lilly, after hearing the sound, rushed up the stairs and into her bedroom where she saw the radio propped up on the pillow and turned on.
“In other news, officials were dumbfounded today to find that a man named David E. Kennedy has apparently turned into a radio during the evening. His only message is to let his wife know that he is okay.” A voice, similar to David’s, said in an announcer like tone. Lilly did a double take and looked at the radio strangely as though it was some alien object.
“David?” Lilly asked faintly. “Is that you?”
The radio announcer came on the air again. “We have breaking news to report to Lilly Kennedy, the wife of David. David wants to tell his wife that he really is a radio and all he can do at the moment is speak, nothing else.”
Lilly stared at the radio as though she was going crazy. She thought to herself that it couldn’t be real, she was just having a very bad nightmare, or worse, morning. She left the room impatiently as though having the radio speak was worthless. She looked all through the house to find David. Yet, she couldn’t find him. She then looked outside, stood in her nightdress and walked across the lawn to the street where she got curious and flirtatious looks from the neighbors. However, David was nowhere to be seen—even more troubling was David’s car; it had never left from the previous night. Frustrated and tiresome of the looks, Lilly went inside close to giving up entirely.
Yet, Lilly waited for David, even a sign of his existence. She called David’s work to see if he was there but the receptionist had told Lilly that he never even showed up to work. The idea of David not going to work worried Lilly to no end and she spent the whole day sitting in the leather couch. Boredom taking its toll on her. In fact, she noticed off hand that the radio had disappeared off of the table next to the chair. Lilly laughed only at the thought of David’s return and the fact that there was no radio in the room, hat would he do? sitting and patiently waiting for David to show up out of nowhere. It got to such a point that Lilly expected David to at least call or just appear with a tiny popping sound. However, there was no such luck to occur for Lilly and she would only get even more beside herself when she called David’s work. He had not shown up.
Sporadically, Lilly could hear the radio go off and on. The announcer’s voice which sounded like David’s would sing songs, tell stories, report more news on the D-day invasion. Lilly would become interested with the radio and would frequently get up to look at it. However, she would stop right before she reached the stairs and forced herself to believe that the radio wasn’t David.
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. She got up, stomped up the stairs, went into the bedroom, picked up the radio and screamed at it.
“If you’re really David then you will speak now!” She exclaimed but the radio did nothing. The announcer’s voice didn’t speak. Annoyed with it, Lilly threw it to the ground in frustration. The radio smashed into pieces, but the speaker of it remained intact. She stared at it for a few seconds until slowly walking away.
“Lilly,” said the radio announcer faintly as though it was saying he was saying his final words. “David shut himself up because of a commercial and now you killed him.” The announcer stopped speaking and Lilly stood there frozen. She yelled and screamed at the pieces of radio but nothing else happened. She then threw herself in frustration on the bed where she remained for the rest of her life. Slowly realizing what she had done and still waiting for David who would never come back home again.