The Girl Who Doesn't Speak

Chapter 10

It's still dark when I wake up, the back of my head throbbing where I was hit. I have no idea where I was, but I seemed to be lying on the rocks rather than sand. I can hear the waves crashing into the cliff so I know I'm still on the beach. I sit up, groaning from the pain, rubbing my head. I look around to see where I was when I see her.

She is resting her back up against a rock wall, the light from my phone lighting up her face. She was viewing something on my phone. I now know where I was. I was on the cliffs, inside a tunnel.

"What are you doing?" I ask her.

She jumps at my voice and looks up at me, terrified of what I might do to her. I wait for her to answer, but doesn't say a word.

"Why did you hit me?"

She shrugs, and then hands the phone back to me. I take it from her just as the light from the screen turns off, leaving us in the dark. I turn on the screen, swiping the screen then tap the torch button on the tool bar, giving us light. We sit there in silence, staring at each other.

Tired of the silence, I fire questions at her, wanting to know every detail about her. "Who are you? And please do not sit there in silence. Tell me who you are, what you are doing here, why you hit me across the head, and why were you going through my phone?"

She stares at me.

Why won't she open her mouth and speak?

I then remember what the doctor told Rhett and me yesterday how she wouldn't speak at all. Maybe she had some kind of speech disorder or something to stop her from talking.

"Are you mute? Is that why you can't speak?"

It takes her for a while to respond, nodding her head to answer.

Great. How was I supposed to communicate with her if she couldn't speak at all?

I glance down at my phone. Maybe I couldn't get her to type what she needs to say on the notepad.

I press on the notepad app and then hand the phone to her. "Here. Type what you need to say."

She takes the phone and stares at it. She glances at me before turning back to the phone and types quickly on the keypad. She hands it back to me.

Sorry. I thought you were someone else. I panicked and wracked you with a rock.

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry for startling you. What are you doing out here so late anyway? Don't you have a home to go to? Any family?"

She shakes her head.

My heart sinks in my chest. "So you are homeless?"

She nods.

"Sorry to hear that. How long haven't you spoken for? Have you always been mute?"

She gives me a blank stare.

I tell her to write what she wants to say on my phone, but she doesn't. She just sits there staring at me. I try not to feel so frustrated with the way she was acting towards me. I couldn't judge her from being mute. I just need to find a way to get her to communicate with me.

"Listen, you can talk to me," I tell her. "I'm not going to hurt you. Can you tell me your name?"

She continues to stare at me blankly.

I sigh. I'm never going to be able to get through to her at all. I glance down at my phone, seeing that it was just after nine thirty. I couldn't imagine what my parents must be thinking since I had run out of the house two hours and a half ago. By ten o'clock I know they will start calling me, wondering where I was and when I will be home. Maybe Dad is out right now, searching for me on the beach. I should head home. I shouldn't put my parents through so much worry, but I didn't want to go home just yet.