On Mute

Chapter 15: When Your Eyes Open Fully

                 As we trekked down to the creek my foot met the board walk with a clunk; Marc motioned that we should stop. The hand on my shoulder squeezed lightly as he looked out onto the open water.

                 "Isn't it a sight?" he asked, pointing out to the amazing assortment of reds and greens, yellows and browns that swept over the forest like a mosaic of stained glass.

                 "Yes it is." I replied, but my gaze was distracted by the beautiful scenery enveloping me to notice... "It's splendid."... To notice Marc was coming closer.

                 "So, are you going to open it?" two black irises were upon me, waiting anxiously in anticipation. I looked down to the black box, long and thin and rectangular. The contents jingled and banged about as I looked it over in my hands from all angles. My mind was screaming "necklace" but that didn't make any sense? Why would Marc give me a...? Did this mean...?

                 I shot my free hand onto the box and pulled off the cover. Six silver rods jumbled about in the red lined case as I jolted back in surprise.

                 "What is this?" I saw something catch the light and my eyes shot to the side, a knife was grasped in Marc's hand, my heart leapt. "What are you_?!" Marc stared at me like I had two heads. He picked up one of the rods and put the knife to it. He sliced off an edge.

                 "If we want to get started before sunset we better sharpen them?" I stared at the rod for a moment. It was a pencil? He looked at my face, his hands slacked and he returned them to his sides as he expelled air. "I thought if I brought you here I could take your mind off of Aubrey." Huh?

                 "Who is Aubrey?" Seriously... who is this Aubrey person? He sat down, biting his lip as he flushed.

                 "Did I get her name wrong? There was this girl who talked to me in the hall..." He recollected. "Saying something about being your best friend, at your house I remember you calling her "Aubrey"?" I eased myself down with my legs crossed; I couldn't help but stifle a laugh, it was too funny! He shot me an annoyed expression. "What?"

                 "You got it almost right." I closed my eyes, twirling my finger in the air like an intellectual. "Her name is actually Brie." He jumped.

                 "Brie?" Marc mouthed the word several times as if to memorize it.

                 "Yeah," I smiled, holding back laughing at his surprised reaction. "You know, like the cheese?"

                 "Really?" He huffed with a smirk.

                 "Mhmm, that's how I always remembered it." Marc turned away after our eyes met, returning to sharpening the pencil. We -I mean I- listened to the sounds of the stream hitting the board walk as the sun traveled sluggishly across the late afternoon sky. I began to wonder...

                 I snuck a look over at Marc, his eyes focused on the pencil attentively. His hair wasn't exactly long, but not short either. It fell to his brows as his head dipped in focus. My gaze travels down to his face, until finally falling to his ear. He looked so perfect... who would have thought he could be so... so broken?

                 "Done." I blinked, noticing the sharpened pencil being held out to me. I took it in my hands and examined it. "What's wrong, don't like my work?" The sun fell on him to the side, his features glowing in a bath of many tones and textures.

                 "No it is great, just never seen a pencil sharpened the old way before?" He smiled warmly and picked up the next.

                 "Well, only five more to go?" but as he turned to the side I turned also, holding my legs crossed as I rotated.

                 "Marc, can I ask you something?" he stopped mid slice as he looked up.

                 "Say that again?" I repeated myself. He told me to continue.

                 "How long have you been," I motioned with me hand, trying to pull the word out. "Y-you know...?"

                 "Deaf?" I flinched; he spat it without any feeling; like it was a common word you would use every day? I nodded, twiddling my thumbs. He set aside the knife and pencil, grasping his hands as he sat up. "It feels like yesterday... and yet like forever ago." His smile saddened. "It was back about two years ago. I don't really remember what happened, one minute I was in the car, listening to my music as my dad talked on his headset, the next minute," he snapped his fingers, it carried an echo that sent chills down my spine. "I woke up on a metal table with a broken leg, arm and..." He lifted up his thick black hair to reveal a long scar across the back of his head. "I apparently had a pretty serious blow, they said I had a concussion and it damaged the nerve receptors to my ears."

                 I pictured the crash, my eyes flashing back to the document I found in his file. The boy with his happy smile, the person I was looking at now.

                 "Is there... any way of fixing it?" This time he grinned, his eyes glowing.

                 "At first I couldn't hear anything but slowly I guess the nerves began to repair. I can hear small muffles but nothing comprehensible. That's the only reason why I can speak at all." He went back to carving the pencil. "I had to re-teach myself how to speak. It was a hard two years but I got through it."

                 "How about sign language, wouldn't that be useful?" he looked up, I repeated myself.

                 "What is the point_" he gritted his teeth as he pushed hard against the knife. "Of learning a language_" He pushed harder. "That no one else understands?" The chunk finally came free. He handed me the pencil.

                 "Will you someday maybe get your hearing back?" I saw him flinch, like he bit his tongue.

                 "Actually, since they found out my nerves are recovering... they have scheduled me for surgery." I leapt out of my skin.

                 "S-surgery?!"

                 "Apparently they only have a small window to do this, something about teen's brains being able to respond to treatment better since they are still growing?" I felt like I was going to faint, this was unreal?

                 "When?" He looked me straight in the eye.

                 "I am booked for next month."

                 "I-Is there any chance you could_?" A pencil was shoved in my vision.

                 "Three to go." He picked up the next one and turned away, his shoulders bunched and his features were being swallowed up by the shadows of the sluggishly setting sun.

                 He was disappearing before my eyes, and I was scared I would never get him back.