Sally's Secret

Chapter 29

"I know why I'm here," she said.

John's face looked the most surprised she'd ever seen it. Scott actually turned his head and looked around the back of his pilot's seat at her. "What is it?"

"I'm pretty sure your trapped victim is severely hearing impaired or deaf. That's what people sound like when they've never heard another voice. That's why she didn't pause to listen when someone called to ask if she needed help. I'm saying 'she' because it sounds like a girl to me, but it could be a young boy. The reason Sally sent me is I know a little sign language and the manual alphabet. If she's old enough to spell, I can communicate anything you need to say by spelling it out. If she can't spell yet, well, I know enough signs to maybe calm her down a little, tell her you're here to help."

"We've never had a deaf situation before," John said with either surprise or awe in his voice. "Synthetic implants and nanotechnology therapies have reduced the incidence of hearing loss considerably."

"Believe it or not, John," Maria said, "some people don't consider deafness a condition that needs curing. If two deaf parents have a deaf child, they might not seek any kind of intervention at all. Deaf people have their own culture and looking for a 'cure' is regarded the same way we would regard trying to change a baby's skin colour or eye colour. The three-year-old deaf child who attended my preschool had one deaf parent and one hearing parent. They decided to put her in an inclusive mainstream program with an interpreter, so she could be a part of both cultures and identify with both parents. That three-year-old is the reason I learned what little I know."

"And we're lucky for that," Scott said. "I don't think any of us could handle this kind of communication, even if someone told us what to do."

That much was certainly true. Unlike verbal languages, it took too long to describe how to perform the shapes and movements. Sign language needed to be learned from other signers, not from drawings and definitely not from someone trying to explain it second-hand.

"You'll probably need the cable cam or Mini-MAX if you want to try to communicate before you attempt the rescue," Maria said, not really to Scott, but thinking out loud.

Scott answered without looking back, "Cable cam is on Thunderbird 2 and Virgil's busy in Singapore at the moment, but Mini-MAX is a great idea. However, you could have used Mini-MAX from Tracy Island, so I'm not sure that's the only reason you're here."

"Maybe Sally thought I'd need to go down in that pit in person?" Maria suggested.

"Have you ever done any rappelling or mountain climbing?" Scott asked.

"No."

"Then that's out of the question. Not putting you in danger when Mini-MAX can project your image from a safe location."

"Fine by me. Just tell me what you want me to do."

"You've already done a lot by figuring out what's going on. We can't make any further plans until we get there and assess the situation."

Actually, Sally was the one who figured out what was going on long before Maria did, but it was nice of Scott to give her credit. Maria sat back and enjoyed the ride in silence. Scott wouldn't need any input from her to fly. She'd just be an annoyance.

"You okay back there?" he asked after only a few minutes. "Motion sickness bags are under the seat if you need them."

Maria was pretty sure that was for Brains. He seemed to be extremely sensitive to every mode of travel. "I'm fine. It's a lot more fun from this seat rather than staring at the walls from the capsule."