Keesha Martin slowly walked around her house. Her mother's friend
Dina, or something, was coming over with her kids. Sighing softly she
walked up to her room on the third floor. Africa, her golden retriever
padded along with her. She was slowly changing into her loose leather
pants when a light blinked by her door.
Africa nudged her leg. Keesha ruffled it's hair. Finishing changing,
she quickly went downstairs. Her maid Louisa pointed to the
recreative room. She nodded her head and went to the door. There were
three guys and a little boy.
They noticed her and she smiled shyly. Extending her hand to the
first one who came up to her she stared intently on his face. "Hi, my
name is Keesha." She said hoping her voice sounded normal to him.
He smiled. "I'm Taylor."
Isaac was standing off to the side next to Taylor. "I'm Isaac." He
added. "This is Zac, and that's Mackie." He said pointing to the small
child wondering around the huge room.
Keesha kept staring at Taylor. Oblivious to what he just said.
Isaac frowned and Zac looked hurt. Mackie just kept wondering around.
Not knowing what was going on.
Taylor saw his brother's faces fall as Keesha ignored them. He
suddenly grew angry. "I do have brothers, you know?" He questioned a
bit more harshly than he wanted to.
Keesha's face burned. She knew by the way Taylor looked as he spoke
that he was angry. "Did you not know that I was deaf?" She questioned.
Taylor's mouth dropped open. "I'm so sorry." He apologized quickly.
Isaac took a step back. "But you understood what Taylor was saying."
He said a bit confused.
Keesha barely got what Isaac said. "Say again."
Isaac stood in front of her. "You understood what Taylor said." He
repeated.
Smiling Keesha replied. "I can read lips. What's your name?"
"Isaac." He said a little shocked.
Zac tapped her on the shoulder and Keesha turned to him. "Yes?" She
asked smiling warmly.
Zac smiled back. "I'm Zac." He said putting his hand out.
Keesha shook his hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that you guys
didn't know about me being deaf. I just assumed that you all did."
Mackie was now playing with Africa as Zac went over to him and started
to pet him too.
"He doesn't bite does he?" Taylor asked as Keesha looked at him.
She shook her head. "It doesn't bite. That's Africa. My ears." She
said smiling.
Mackie was soon being licked to death by the golden retriever.
Keesha, Isaac, and Taylor stood laughing. Soon Zac got a bath from
Africa too.
Isaac tapped her shoulder. Keesha tore her eyes off the hilarious
scene and looked at Isaac.
"Why is it that you speak so well?" He asked.
Keesha smiled. "I'm postlingually deaf. Meaning I became deaf after I
had learned to speak. I've only been deaf for a few years now. Six
years actually."
"Oh." Isaac said.
"I'm told you guy's are in a band." Keesha said taking the focus off
her.
Taylor's face lit up. "Yeah! Isaac, Zac and I are in a band. We're
Hanson."
Keesha smiled. "I've seen you on tv. From what I've read on the
closed captioning and from magazines, and the net you guy's seem pretty
hot with the music."
Isaac smile brightened. "Well, we don't know about that. We just
like to play music and to have people listen to us."
"Well, it kinda seems to me like the whole world is listening." She
said laughing. "Well, almost." She said shrugging slightly.
It grew a bit tense when Louisa came in. "Dinner is ready, Miss."
Keesha didn't see Louisa come in. Someone tapped her on the shoulder
and she jumped. Laughing she looked at Taylor.
Taylor smiled. "Dinner."
"Okay." She said smiling.
She showed them into the dining room and seated herself by Dina. No,
wait, that was wrong. She caught her mother saying Diana. 'Dina,
Diana, whatever.' She thought resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
During dinner all communication with Keesha was terminated. She had
to focus mainly on her plate of food and her water glass. Being the
klutz that she was she could destroy a whole dinner without even hearing
a word of warning. And she hated the fact that she could do that. It
may her feel like an invalid. And she wasn't.
After dinner Keesha showed them into the small music room. It wasn't
actually small. It was like the size of a three car garage. It was
small to Keesha, because everything in her house was huge.
There was a piano, a Kurzweil synthesizer, and a regular keyboard.
Two sets of drums were almost directly in the middle of the room and
there were four guitars. A bass, electric, acoustic, and a slide.
There was also a flute and a fiddle in the far corner.
"Wow."Zac breathed. "Can we play for you?" He asked hopefully.
Keesha frowned at him, and Taylor elbowed him giving him a dirty look.
Then it dawned on Zac and his cheeks turned bright red. Keesha smiled
at him. "You can play if you like. But I still won't be able to hear
you." She said smiling slightly.
Zac looked uneasy. "You sure?" He asked.
Laughing, Keesha pushed him towards the instruments. "Go ahead. I'll
try to read all of your lips. But I can only do one at a time. So be
patient."
Taylor smiled at her as did Isaac and Zac. They quickly went to the
instruments and fiddled around until they were comfortable with the way
they were and felt.
Keesha watched in amazement at how they played the instruments with
such ease. But they could be playing nothing at all and she wouldn't
have known. She started to follow Taylor's lips. 'Look at you baby.
Oh, standing in the shadows wondering what I'm doing here. Wishing
something would happen. Maybe I could disappear.' She turned to Isaac
and tried to catch on. Missing a few lines. 'Everybody wonders when
they look at you. Everybody wonders what you're gonna do. You got it
all wrapped up you do. Everybody wonders when they look at look at
you." She read Isaac's lips when she finally got back on track. Quickly
she turned to Zac. And he looked so happy beating away at the drums,
that she didn't pay attention really to what he was singing.
Soon it was over and the guy's had put the instruments down. "Well,
all I can really say is that I wish that I could've heard you." Keesha
said looking down for a moment. Ashamed that they had played for her,
but she couldn't really compliment them on how they sounded, because she
didn't hear them.
Zac touched her arm lightly. "You okay?" He asked worried.
Forcing a smile she nodded her head. "Yeah, just trying to remember
what music sounded like." She lied. Then she started thinking about if
she did remembered what music sounded like. She didn't.
"Do you?" Isaac asked tilting his head to the side.
Keesha tilted her head like Isaac did. She shook her head. "No, I
don't. I don't remember what anything sounds like. It's strange."
Taylor's brow furrowed slightly. "How is it strange?"
"It's strange to know that you are talking, but you can't hear
yourself. You can feel your throat vibrating under your hand, but you
can't hear anything coming out." Keesha said sadly. She had her hand
on her throat, and was desperately hoping that she might hear herself.
She didn't. 'Left in silence.' She thought to herself. 'As usual.'
The room was tense again. But it was soon broken when Mackie came in
with Africa on it's black leash.
Keesha smiled and ruffled the dogs fur. Isaac, Taylor, Zac, and
Mackie did the same.
"Walking Mackie for us?" Taylor asked Africa.
Keesha had caught what Taylor said and laughed lightly. She
remembered when Africa used to walk her when she was ten and trying to
adjust to being deaf and having a dog be her ears. Totally beyond
strange at first. But now she couldn't imagine her life without Africa.
And with sounds.
She had always wondered at how she became deaf. It seems her older
brother Marcus and her mother Asia knew, but didn't want to tell her.
She didn't mind it that much, but the question always rang in her mind.
She remembered little before she became deaf. Almost nothing.
Keesha was thrown out of her thoughts when the guys stood up. She
stood up to. Unaware of why they were standing though.
"It's time for us to go." Taylor explained.
"Oh, okay. It was nice meeting you four." Keesha said politely as
she held her hand out to them.
They all shook it. Including Mackie. And Keesha couldn't help but
smile as the tiny had barely gripped hers.
"I'll see you later?" She questioned, unsure if she would. She
doubted it. Once people found out that she was deaf they usually got
too uncomfortable to be around her. She couldn't really hide the fact
that she was deaf either. And she had cried many nights for being
excluded, treated differently, and for being deaf most of all.
"Actually I think that you're coming over to our house tomorrow. To
meet the entire family." Isaac said thoughtfully.
Keesha's eyes widened. "You mean there's more of you?" She asked in
complete shock.
Taylor smiled. "Yeah. There's Jessica and Avery. And then we have
our father too."
"Big family." She said calming down slightly.
Zac laughed. "Yeah, it is. But it's cool. You can never be alone in
our house." He said shaking his head.
"Well, you better go. I see your mom waiting for you guy's at the
doorway." Keesha said as she pointed to the double doors.
The guy's nodded and left. Then Keesha ran up to her room.
Flinging herself onto her bed, she started to cry into her black pillow.
She wondered if she was crying loudly. She had no way of knowing,
unless someone would come in an ask her why she was. Placing her hand on
her throat, she felt it vibrating from her cries of pain. Then she
started to beat her pillow.
After about ten minutes of throwing her fit she was completely
exhausted. Her energy almost completely drained. She figured that she
should take a shower before she fell asleep.
When her extremely hot shower was over she laid gently in her bed and
lit her purple candle. Smiling as she watched the flame dance, she fell
into another dreamless sleep.
