My Own Four Cents [2016]

Chapter 7: Long Lost

My alarm vibrates when I wake up the next morning. I eat breakfast and run to the bus stop. I sit with Tanisha again and we talk about the horse back riding lesson yesterday. I ask if we can do it again today. She signs, Of course!

Great! Can you teach me how to canter?

Maybe. We might have to do a little more work on trotting before you learn canter.

Okay. Whatever you say.

You're funny.

I have fun up to recess time. Sandy walks up to me at recess with her ever-present angry glare on her face.

I'm supposed to stay with you at all times... no matter how much I'd like to stay a mile away. I should never have applied!

I stare at her. What the heck makes her so grouchy?

I forget about Sandy's odd behavior the second I ease myself onto Liberty's back. I trot around the pasture for a while, then we set up some poles that Tanisha makes jumping fences out of. We set them on the ground in a line, and I trot Liberty over them. Riding a horse gives me a wonderful feeling-- I'm flying, blissfully ignorant to the world around me. The silent world.

The week passes smoothly. I come to Tanisha's house every day to ride after a pretty good day of school with several Sandy spots. Most school days are uneventful.

One day, I am sitting next to Tanisha in math class when a light begins to blink in the corner of the room. I glance over for the source of the light, and discover that the fire alarm is the blinking thing. All the kids wince and stand up. Most of them put their fingers in their ears. I stand up and follow them outside.

The fire alarm gives me bad memories. First of all, it reminds me of that day six years ago. It also reminds me of the blinking light at the orphanage that basically means, People get to stare at you and learn about your problems and when they're done, you'll get rejected again! Won't that be fun? Plus, I'm scared of fire. I'm not afraid to admit it. Fire is the thing that ripped my family and my life apart.

Real fire or practice? I ask Tanisha worriedly.

Practice, she says and then covers her ears.

Good. I relax.

I can still see the blink from outside. All the kids are talking with their hands over their ears, including Sandy and Tanisha. Tanisha takes her hand off her ears long enough to say LOUD! Then she plugs her ears again.

I can't hear anything, I sign calmly, grinning at her.

I bet I'm the only person in the school who isn't bothered by the fire alarm. All the kids look really uncomfortable, plugging their ears and pointing at the fire alarms angrily. For once, I'm really happy to have a silent world. Sometimes being deaf isn't actually that bad.

That day Tanisha tells me I can't go to her house after school tomorrow. I ask my parents if they're home and they say no, but they trust me to look after myself. They say I'm thirteen years old and I can stay home by myself after school until they come home.

I tell Tanisha that my parents are letting me look after myself on the bus ride to school. She looks envious of me.

After school, I unlock the door and sit down on the living room couch to read. I read for about ten minutes. Then a little gray box in the corner of the room starts blinking. That box is connected to the doorbell. When the doorbell rings, it blinks. The doorbell is ringing. Could Mom or Dad be home?