Wing Biddlebaum, a lonesome man, and Anna Sergeevna meet on the street. Their eyes make contact, but their connection is so strong that Wing’s hands begin to shake. They shake uncontrollably but Anna doesn’t notice. Her eyes are solely focused his. The grim weather surrounding them on the busy street in Italy doesn’t seem to matter all that much. All of their attention is directed at one another. As people hurry beyond them, they seem to be stopped in time, the silence ever long.

What happens next?

If you want a happy ending read A.

A - Wing Biddlebaum and Anna Sergeevna experience love at first sight. His hands stop shaking after the initial shock of such an encounter. The pair remain in Italy, returning to the very corner where they first met every year on their anniversary. Wing Biddlebaum is a well recognized teacher whose wife spends her days teaching across the hall. They are inseparable, doing everything together, but never getting tired of one another. They have children who are raised well. Everything is joyful and they live happily ever after, until they die of old age. This is the end of their story.

B -  Wing Biddlebaum and Anna exchange contact information and begin to spend more time with one another, having been so deeply affected by the moment that they shared on the busy and dull street, with their interaction having brightened up the dark sky. Wing Biddlebaum feels a sense of nervousness when he is around Anna. At first, he does not particularly enjoy spending time with her because he cannot control the movements of his hands. They shake as if seizing, in a way like that of a young boy who feels quite uncomfortable when he is forced by his mother to show his relatives his skill at playing the maracas. Anna does not like to show their affection in public. As they walk down the street, they do not hold hands nor do they gaze into one another’s eyes. Maybe if they were to hold hands, his would refrain from shaking. The minimal support from Anna might make such a drastic improvement, but they mainly remain silent, during which periods his hands shake. Wing is filled with anxious energy that only appears when he doesn’t know what to say. He admires Anna but often times, he does not appreciate the silence between them. On the other hand, Anna enjoys the silence and feels as though she learns more about Wing through these silences than from anything else. Wing doubts himself. Anna is the first beautiful woman to ever talk to him. He is quite secluded from the rest of the world. He sometimes believes that she does not want to hold his hand or show affection in public because she does not actually want to be seen with him. They eventually get married, but there is no big ceremony. They go to the courthouse and have a justice of the peace declare their marriage. Having moved in with one another, following the marriage, their relationship comes to the point where they are unable to speak at all. The last words they spoke were the two word phrase at the courthouse. Wing’s hands shake at all times and Anna never says a word about it. One day, without even uttering anything, Anna leaves their house through the bright red front door and never returns. Wing is in even more solitude and remains in their house at all times. He leaves one day and walks down the sidewalk in the front of their house. He passes by two figures, Janet and Henry, who have just bumped into each other in a similar manner to that of how Anna and Wing Biddlebaum first met. Janet and Henry instantly fall in love. They go to a coffee shop to continue getting to know one another. Unlike the relationship between Wing and Anna, Janet and Henry are not silent and continuously speak to one another. They learn much more about one another through their conversations than through silences, demonstrating how their form of communication is vastly different from that of the separated couple. Everything continues as in A but with Janet and Henry.

C - Wing’s hands shake so strongly that one of them flies up into the air and hits Anna on the side of her arm. She is appalled by such an immediate response, having not noticed his hands shaking previously. She lets out a wince of pain and briskly walks away, leaving Wing Biddlebaum to drown in the silence of his misery, having ruined what could have led to a connection with one of the only people who has ever taken interest in him. As she continues to walk, a pen falls out of her bag, and a gentleman named Henry stops to pick it up. Surprised by this genuine act of kindness, Anna leisurely walks alongside Henry. The two are very silent until they reach an empty narrow passageway. Anna pulls Henry into the passageway. The two stay alone for hours, solely talking. Once Anna and Henry decide that it is time to leave, they exit the passageway between the two buildings, and their conversation stops. Silence appears, but draws them closer together. Henry finds that he learns most through conversations whereas Anna values silence, but ultimately the balance between the two types of communication strengthens their relationship. Everything continues as in A but with Henry instead of Wing Biddlebaum.

D - Anna and Wing blink and the bond ends. They do not feel any loss and neglect to acknowledge that there ever was any connection. Both continue walking on their way and never think about what occurred. Nothing continues on as in A.

No matter what happens after Wing Biddlebaum and Anna Sergeevna first encounter one other, ultimately both characters will die. No matter how this ending is construed, it will always occur. Whether the characters die while in a healthy relationship or completely disconnected is irrelevant because they will always be connected through the silence after their deaths. Their passings will leave an endless silence as they are completely unable to communicate with words. This silence will connect them in intimate ways that they may not have noticed previously as it is a type of silence that can only bond people after death. The inability to speak strengthens to power of the silence and further connects the two characters.