Refuge of Lies

Chapter Six: Signs

(Author's note: When the girls sign, I will be using ' instead of " and American Sign Language grammar rather than Signed Exact English grammar.)

Over the next few days in the privacy of Iliana's bedroom after school, Iliana and Chiara taught Stella the sign language they had invented with Jack. She caught on quickly, and soon they were all 'chatting away' with their hands. They especially loved using the signs in front of Dmitri since not knowing frustrated him, though he tried to hide it.

"What does this mean? And this? And-you're going too fast!" complained Dmitri. Trying to contort his hand into completely different and odd shapes than the girls were, he finally gave up and pulled up the screen on his Band.

The girls just laughed and continued talking.

'Poor Dmitri so frustrated!' Iliana signed, 'He not know what we doing!'

Chiara's eyes widened in understanding then twinkled with mirth. 'I know something he not know!' Then she grabbed Dmitri's wrist and started typing on his Band. "I know something you don't know!" Waiting in fits of silent laughter, she watched him grow red.

"It's not my fault you will not teach me these hand contortions! Besides-" he held up first his Band, then his Solar Screen, or as it was commonly called: Sol-Screen. "- I can use my Band to type or my Sol-Screen to talk in thumbs! But you will be sorry for not teaching me these contortions one day! You might be injured and have the Lock on and nothing to write or type nearby and then you will die because you cannot tell me what is wrong!"

Shaking in silent laughter, Chiara grabbed his wrist again and typed: "Oh really? I highly doubt that since you always have your Band on you!"

"But-but you will be sorry one day!"

"I don't think so!"

Dmitri turned to Iliana. "Iliana! Help!"

"Of course!" she chirped and turned to Chiara. 'This fun! I like teasing Dmitri! See his face red!' They both turned around again to view the very frustrated Dmitri.

"You two!" he spluttered. "You are conspiring against me!"

"How observant!" Iliana sweetly smiled. "But anyways, you will never have to use it in real life - so why learn it since it will not be relevant for the Test?"

"This is true," Dmitri replied and thoughtfully stroked his non-existent beard. "I only need relevancies and necessities - Not ridiculous hand motions." Then he looked up at the clock and then swiped a screen or two on his Band. "At any rate, it is time for our annual physical examinations."

Chiara rolled her eyes and grabbed his wrist again. "Why don't you just call them APEX's like everyone else?"

He snorted in disdain. "That is not the proper procedure, Compatriot Feray. And why can't you get your own Band? Or your Solar Screen?" But then he stretched out his wrist with a dramatic eye roll since she still had the Lock.

"Not all of us can afford Bands, Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes - and besides, using my Sol-Screen for anything other than assigned work is not allowed during school hours."

Dmitri huffed and started walking down the hall ways to the Doctor's office. "Come on!"

They hurried down to the Doctor's office and got in line. Dmitri went through first, then Iliana, and finally Chiara.

It was a good-sized, but not overly large room with bright white lighting but calming blue walls. Even though she had been in this room at least once a year every year in high school, Chiara was still surprised every time she saw the glass bookshelves full of real paper books lining the tops of the walls. But somehow, this also comforted her, though it was not strictly approved by modern society. Yet, this seeming eccentricity of the Doctor's connected them in some mysterious way. Maybe it was the nonconformity with normal society? Whatever it was, Chiara liked it. Of course, there were the standard medical charts and cabinets full of random medical instruments, but Chiara supposed that couldn't be helped. She also loved the obviously amateur homemade canvases that filled whatever wall space the bookshelves  and medical stuff left empty. One of them had a very pale green background - celadon, she supposed it was called - and paint dipped handprints. All four of the handprints had names beside them and were varying sizes. The two largest, which Chiara supposed were the Doctor and her husband, were labeled Jamie and Dantress. The next two read Jacob and Melody Rose.

The Doctor looked up from her desk and smiled at Chiara's attention to the painting. "That's my family - although I suppose you guessed that already." She got up, removed the Lock, and began prepping for Chiara's APEX. "So, Compatriot Feray, any complaints, physically or mentally?"

Chiara shrugged. "Not really. That thing makes me feel claustrophobic once in a while, but nothing much other than that."

"I suppose some of your teachers have some complaints about you though!" Doctor Dantress laughed and gestured to the Lock. "Which ones?"

"Ones?" Chiara frowned. "More like all! Well...except that dark one. You know, Teacher Noel - not that she looks dark! She just feels dark!"

Dr. Dantress' smile froze for a second. "All?" she almost whispered to herself, but then turned her attention back to Chiara. "Ah yes, I can more than understand your description of her. She is indeed very shadowed. But I suppose there is a reason for that. People don't just happen to be how they are. Their daily lives shape them and we see the results in the criss-crossing of our paths. But remember that she too was once a girl with hopes and dreams of a bright future." There was a moment of silence while the Doctor continued with the physical, but Chiara mulled over her words in the meanwhile.

Suddenly, Chiara noticed the black clad guard reading in the corner and simultaneously squeaked and jerked. "There's a person there!"

The doctor followed her gaze to the guard and then smiled in amusement. "Yes there is. That's my security guard, Private Talmadge. Talmadge, this is Compatriot Chiara Feray."

Casually glancing up from his book, Talmadge's eyes met Chiara's. "Pleased to meet you, Compatriot," he drawled. "Did you think I was a piece of statuary? Or a hologram perhaps?" His eyes twinkled in amusement but he somehow kept his mouth straight.

"Of course not!" Chiara humphed. "I just didn't notice you there!"

Talmadge smirked. "You ought to work on that - not noticing people behind you could get you killed one of these days."

"Little old me? Who'd bother to murder a blonde?" Chiara laughed and shrugged off the comment.

His eyes darkened for a moment. "Oh plenty of people," he muttered. But then he reached up and rubbed the side of his face like he was trying to scratch an itch through a piece of clothing. Then his eyes flicked over to where the Lock lay on the Doctor's desk and he frowned. "You too, eh?"

"Too? You've had it?"

Shrugging, Talmadge replied, "Oh, once or twice. Didn't like it too much."

"Who does?" Chiara snorted.

"Principal Blackmont?"

All three of them laughed for a moment, but then the Doctor finished Chiara's APEX. "I need you to sign these forms, and then you are good to go!" Dr. Dantress handed her a MedScreen for official documents and then sat down at her desk to do some paper work of her own. Chiara noticed that while the Doctor had handed her an electronic, she did her own paper work - on paper. Pulling a pencil out of her blond bun, she began writing, careful to ensure that neither her lab coat nor wrist length lace edged lavender sleeve did not trail lead onto the other parts of the paper.

Finally, Chiara finished everything and bounced out the door. But just before the door closed all the way, she heard Talmadge remark to the Doctor: "You'll have to watch that one closely, Dr. Arkone." 

(Thanks to my readers and voters! And as a special aside, I suggest #HPA awards!! Hurry and enter your book in the running because time waits for no person!!)