Bayaan Café | Tape #19
Tagline:
“Sometimes, even silence has its own voice — it just needs someone who can listen.”
It was Saturday morning again, and the sunlight at Bayaan Café was a little softer.
Nilofar was opening the window; a faint chill floated in the air.
Ayaan was finishing the sketch of the “Lost & Found Wall” in his sketchbook.
Zaria opened a new notebook and wrote the date on the first page.
She did that every Saturday —
as if every Saturday was a new birth.
The door opened slowly.
This time, no one came running in.
Just one small step… and then another.
It was a girl, about ten years old.
There was no panic on her face,
just a strange kind of silence —
as if she could speak,
but didn’t feel like speaking.
Her eyes were very deep.
So deep that Ayaan’s pencil stopped on its own.
Nilofar bent down and said softly,
“Come in, dear.”
The girl nodded and quietly stepped inside.
“What’s your name?” Zaria asked.
She stayed silent for a while.
Then her lips moved, and a soft voice came out:
“Mahira.”
Zaria seated her beside her.
“Mahira, do you know what this place is?”
The girl nodded, “A place of stories?”
Zaria smiled.
“Yes. Here, stories aren’t spoken… they are heard.”
Mahira asked quietly,
“What if I don’t speak at all — will someone still listen?”
There was a strange tiredness in that question.
Zaria’s heart seemed to fill up.
She held Mahira’s hand and said:
“To speak, you need words —
but to listen, you only need a heart.”
Ayaan opened his sketchbook.
“Come on, let’s make a story without words today.”
Mahira looked at him curiously.
“You don’t have to say anything,” he said.
“Just stop my pencil whenever you feel like stopping.”
The sketch began.
The first line — a girl.
Then, slowly, Mahira’s fingers began to guide the pencil,
stopping it again and again.
Each pause appeared where the leaves fell from a tree,
where a house’s window was closed,
where the sky turned a little hazy.
Nilofar watched silently.
Every pause seemed to tell her a story of its own.
When the sketch was finished,
Mahira smiled — for the first time.
“What should we call this?” Zaria asked.
Mahira whispered softly:
“The Places Where I Stop.”
Ayaan wrote beneath it:
“Sometimes the stops tell the story —
louder than the journeys.”
After a while, Mahira asked for a blank sheet of paper.
She didn’t write any words.
She just drew a small, round sun —
with a dot in the center.
Zaria asked,
“What’s this?”
Mahira said,
“When everything becomes blurry,
only one small light remains in memory.”
Nilofar asked gently,
“Shall I drop you home, Mahira?”
Mahira shook her head — “No.”
“I’ll come again.”
And she left.
After she went,
a new kind of silence filled the corners of the Café.
Zaria hung that sketch on the “Lost & Found Wall.”
Below it, she wrote:
“The Girl Who Drew a Sun Inside Her Stops.”
That night, Zaria wrote in her notebook:
“Some children get lost by making noise,
and some by staying silent.Bayaan Café has taught me —
every silence has its own language,
it just needs the right ears to hear it.”
Bayaan Café | Tape #19
Tagline:
“Sometimes, even silence has its own voice — it just needs someone who can listen.”
Bayaan Café | Tape #20
Tagline:
“Sometimes, friendship isn’t made by talking…
it’s made by holding someone’s silence.”
A week later.
The morning at Bayaan Café was a little different.
It was raining lightly.
Raindrops on the windows,
and inside — the same warm, calm atmosphere.
Zaria sat near the window with her blue notebook open.
Ayaan sat opposite her, sketching —
he was darkening the same picture of Mahira.
Nilofar smiled gently.
“Looks like she’ll come again today.”
The door opened.
Mahira came in.
Her silence was still there —
but her eyes carried a little more courage now.
She went straight to Zaria,
and without saying anything,
sat down beside her.
Zaria closed her notebook.
“So, do we listen to a story today… or make one?”
Mahira shook her head softly,
“Today… I just want to be here.”
Raindrops were falling on the glass.
Both of them sat quietly.
Then, suddenly, Mahira pulled out
a small piece of paper from her pocket.
It was damp, edges slightly torn.
Zaria asked,
“What’s this?”
Mahira said,
“This is my… ‘pause.’”
There was only one line written on it,
in a childlike handwriting —
“I don’t tell anyone… because everyone listens, then leaves.”
Zaria gently held her hand.
“What if someone doesn’t leave?”
Mahira looked at her.
“Then maybe… I’ll speak.”
For the first time, Mahira smiled — a faint, tender smile.
Ayaan captured that moment in his sketchbook —
two people sitting by the window,
and a small, damp piece of paper between them.
Nilofar came closer.
“Mahira, would you like us to make a new corner here?”
Mahira’s eyes lit up.
Nilofar said,
“I’ll call it the Stop Wall —
where any child who feels stuck can hang a page,
so they’ll know no pause is ever alone.”
That day, Mahira pinned her paper to the wall.
Below it, Zaria wrote:
“At the root of every pause lies a waiting —
and every waiting just needs a friend.”
By evening, Bayaan Café had changed.
Mahira was now a little more open.
She was filling colors in Zaria’s notebook.
Every page that Zaria had left blank,
Mahira drew a small sun on it.
Before leaving, Mahira said softly,
“Zaria… if I speak someday,
will you listen?”
Zaria smiled,
“Always.”
That night, Zaria wrote in her notebook:
“For the first time today,
I felt that sometimes,
friendship begins with just one page…
and slowly becomes an entire book.”
Bayaan Café | Tape #20
Tagline:
“Sometimes, friendship isn’t made by talking…
it’s made by holding someone’s silence.”
✨ Author’s Note for Readers ✨
If this story from Bayaan Café —
“The Silence That Spoke & The Friendship That Stayed”
touched your heart,
please share it with your friends and loved ones ❤️
Sometimes, a simple story can make someone’s day a little lighter
and their heart a little warmer.
And yes, don’t forget to leave a comment —
Tell me how you felt about Mahira and Zaria’s quiet friendship.
Have you ever heard a story hidden in someone’s silence?
Also, let me know where you’re reading from —
your city, your country, or your cozy little corner of the world 🌍
Your one line of feedback means the world to me 💌
– Afsana Wahid (Writer, Bayaan Café Series)
https://afsanawahidwrites.blogspot.com/2025/11/blog-post_07.html
https://timespeakestruth.blogspot.com/2025/11/hyundai-creta-2025-review-design-engine-features.html
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