Can't You Hear Me Now?

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Penny Massey is a young fifteen year old girl she has long straight as a board plain brown hair that lands at her hips, but has eyes that are crystal clear green, like looking through green glass. Which makes up for her dull hair. She has a twin brother Jacob Massey he also has brown hair which he keeps short similar to a military cut. He also has the same crystal clear green eyes Penny has. They have very similar features as well Jacob is over six feet tall while Penny is only 5'7” which tends to be an average height. Both have thin athletic bodies. Other then the difference in height they share the same small nose and thin faces,lightly tanned skin and eye shape which are wide an bright.

Penny and Jacob were born and left abandoned In a small town almost sixteen years ago. They were found in a basket covered in a flannel mans shirt, near a Massey Pizza restaurant. They don't know much about their past, Just that they were left with a note saying:

'Please keep my boy and girl together, they are twins, I named them Penny and Jacob'.

They also know that their last name came from where they were found, in the news they were labeled the Massey twins. No one came forward to claim the twins. They grew up moving from one home to another, they never stayed long in a foster home. They were not bad kids, they kept quiet and mostly to themselves. See Penny was born unable to speak, but this was not discovered till she was nearly ten years old. At the age of three the twins had already been in three different homes. On the forth home they were with an abusive older woman, she used to beat Penny for not talking when talked to. The old woman would say its rude to not speak when spoken to and Jacob would get in trouble for trying to stop her, even at three Jacob could speak very well and he was very smart. He would yell at the old woman for hurting his twin. But this only earned Jacob his own beatings. He tried to tell the old women his sister could not talk but the old woman never believed him. Penny would yell out silent screams nothing would come out but air, and tears. But Jacob could here her screams in his head, he could hear her voice she would sob a and tell Jacob to tell the woman to stop, it hurt so much. They would get beatings with a long switch that Jacob would have to get from a tree in the back yard. He hated having to get the weapon that would be used on his defenseless sister and himself. They used to get beat several times each week and Jacob would have to get a new switch when the current one would break from overuse. The abuse also went as far as no dinner and being locked in their rooms which they did not share, but Jacob would talk to his sister in his mind to keep her calm and help her feel better.

Jacob and Penny spent five years with the old women till she died, she was old after all, her body wore out. The twins were thank full for her death they were sad to move again but at least they would no longer receive beatings from her. Jacob protected his sister as well as he could during the five years with the old woman. As they aged he would tell his sister he would always protect her and take care of her, no matter what home they were sent to. The state then became involved with their care again after the old woman died and were moved to several more homes over the next two years. Jacob would always talk for his sister and most family’s that took them in would think Penny would not talk because Jacob talked for her, the state of Ohio then sent her to an ENT (ear nose and throat) doctor to find out is she really could not talk or not. She was ten when everyone finally found out. Turns out Penny has no vocal cords at all. It was a birth defect. Where Penny had no voice Jacob was gifted with speech at an early age, He was talking full sentences at the age of one, with complete comprehension, which is how he was able to verbally defend his sister toward the old lady.

Penny was very smart and did well in school, she was a strait A student as well as Jacob. The teacher just gave up calling on her and would pair the twins together. They had no friends, they were each others friend, kids would stare at Penny because when someone new would talk to her she would just walk away or her brother would speak for her and people were just uncomfortable with that. But the twin did not care. They had each other.

There was a time when they did tried to teach Penny sign language but she did not care to learn, it was easier for her to just talk to her brother. She did use had gestures when communicating with her foster parents, especially if Jacob was not in the same room. Since she had no outside friends she just thought it was best to not get her hopes up. Penny was very shy. The twins would talk to each other all the time, they had long conversation in each others minds. Jacob always knew what Penny's needs were cause she could tell him. Jacob did try to tell their foster families about how he can here what she says but most people dismissed it as a twin thing, some sort of twin connection. The twins were not able to figure out how they could talk to each other they just knew they were special some how, but they did not know how special they really were.