Excerpt: Deafening

Deafening
Chapter 1 – Delia and Mrs. Finn
She resolutely walked with her head down, forging her way home against a strong, warm Westerly wind. The winds were always burly here in the Gorge; it was a windsurfer’s paradise. Today was different though they were fierce, almost malevolently battering and slowing her pace. She’d actually smiled when it had first begun to blow. The warmth was unusual and surprising this time of year. It wasn’t long though before she began to curse its persistence. The whistling made her ears ache and throb. I must be getting an ear infection she thought pulling her jacket up a bit higher in the collar. She passed a man approaching from the opposite direction; he looked as if he was being blown right past her. She saw him mouth a quick hello but the words were lost to the wind.
With determination she increased her pace willing herself home away from the whipping storm. Finally she reached her front porch and pried herself through the door, gripping it tightly so as not to let the wind rip it free from its hinges. Once inside she laid her back against the door and slid down, feet splayed in front of her like a small child preparing to play. Her fluffy white cat Sips came and entangled himself among her limbs. Closing her eyes she sunk her fingers deep into his fur, surprised he wasn’t meowing his protest loudly at the lateness of dinner. Typically he was quite the complainer when routines were broken. Worried she opened her eyes to examine him for signs of distress; maybe the wind had upset him. As she looked him over she gradually realized that he was in fact meowing. She could see his mouth opening and closing but nothing was coming out.
“Could he have damaged his vocal cords somehow?” she thought. She did know a lady whose cat had bit into an electrical cord and rendered itself permanently mute.
She walked over to the telephone deciding she should call her friend David, he was an assistant to a veterinarian, maybe he would have an idea of what could be wrong with poor Sips. Picking up the phone she received no dial tone. Damn wind has blown down the phone lines she thought; this was definitely going to be a Murphy’s Law kind of day. She reached over and turned on the television set happy that the power was still intact for the moment. She raised the volume several degrees and still could find no sound to accompany the plastic looking news woman who had materialized on the screen. Slowly she raised her head and looked around the room, no clock ticking, the noisy radiator was suddenly struck quiet, no meows, no dial tone and now no television volume? Oh My God, it’s me she thought as she stuck a finger in her ear and shook it around a bit. The wind must have affected my ear drums, but to hear nothing from either ear? No, that was just too strange. Still twirling her finger around inside of her ear to no effect, she realized that she wasn’t even getting the dull, fuzzy thud of her finger moving around. Suddenly she was very frightened.
She grabbed her jacket and struggled her way back out the door crossing the yard quickly to her neighbor, Mrs. Finn’s house. Her car was in the driveway so she must be finished showing houses to prospective clients for the day. She knocked loudly several times to no avail. Damn, she thought peering in the side window of the door; I can see her in there, why in the world would she avoid me? Just then Mrs. Finn looked up and noticed her standing in the window, she rushed over to open the door and simultaneously they spoke in almost harmonic unison “I can’t hear anything.” Since neither one heard the other to know that each was deaf, they continued to speak, quite loudly to one another without result. Finally realizing that she was getting nowhere the well coiffed Mrs. Finn held up a finger and disappeared for a moment. Delia wished she had invited her in out of this insane wind; she was shivering from head to toe in fear as much as from any imaginary chill.
Moments later Mrs. Finn held up a small steno pad on which she written in purple marker “I seem to have lost my hearing from the wind.”
Delia shook her head in disbelief and quickly, almost rudely snatched the steno out of her hands and wrote, “But my hearing is gone as well, what’s happening?”
“No idea.” Mrs. Finn wrote back concisely.
Just then they looked up to see several others had gathered in the street nearby. Everyone seemed to be gesticulating wildly and holding their ears.
“What is happening?” Delia said loudly to no hearing ear.

Chapter 2 – Matty and Patricia
Matty and Cameron, his best friend in the whole wide world, were playing pirates on the wooden structured playground built to look like a large sea going vessel. They were arguing over who got to be black beard when the wind came up. It gusted through the playground in great swirls sending the swings flying in high arcs, causing them to look as if they had silent ghost riders. Matty’s Mom Patricia yelled frantically to get his attention but could not hear her own voice through the rushing winds. Matty didn’t hear her either he was too busy staring at Cameron’s mouth which was working hard with the argument at hand but making no apparent sound. This made him think of the time he’d watched his cartoons with the volume turned off because his Daddy was sleeping. Finally he looked up to see his mother gesturing that it was time to go, her hair was whipping wildly around her face and she was clutching her paperback tightly to her chest as if it too might blow off into the gale. He waved to his friend and turned to follow his mother who was already heading toward the car. Climbing in he quickly latched his seat belt and began to tell his mother that he was hungry, except he couldn’t hear his own voice. That’s weird he thought, the winds not blowing in here. He brought his hands to his ears and wiggled them about a bit He waved to his friend Cameron then started waving his hands about hoping his Mom would notice him because he knew better than to undo his seatbelt when the car was moving. He sure hoped she noticed soon, he was getting really worried and a little scared too.

Patricia drove silently glad to be out of that crazy warm wind. It’s a bit late for Indian Summer she thought and then began a mental list of the items she needed to pick up from the local Safeway. Matty’s so quiet she thought, he must be really tired. Glancing in her rear view mirror, she saw him moving his hands about wildly and mouthing words at her in the mirror. She smiled indulgently at his game and continued driving. Her cell phone rang unnoticed on the seat beside her.
As she pulled into the Safeway parking lot she saw people congregating in the parking lot. That’s really unusual she thought, looking hard to see if there was some attraction. Many of them seemed to be mimicking a form of sign language. She almost giggled at the thought of some her fellow towns people taking a class on mime in this crazy wind. The Community Education center in town was known for its creative bent and all types of unique and interesting classes kept popping up around town. She turned back toward Matty and started to say, “Hey Kiddo”…..when she realized she couldn’t hear herself talking. Once again she noticed Matty mouthing words but this time understood that her ears were not working. She wasn’t hearing anything, not even a ringing or a buzzing of any kind, just complete dead silence. “Oh my God,” she thought what’s wrong with me. She gestured to Matty to put his seat belt back on and squealed out of the parking lot toward Providence, the small and only hospital in her little town. She talked to Matty the whole way trying to reassure him that she was going to be all right. She kept glancing in the mirror expecting him to try to respond but he only continued to play with his small plastic Bionicle that he’d gotten from McDonald’s yesterday.
She attempted to pull into the hospital emergency room parking lot but it was completely filled with cars and surprisingly,many cars had just stopped and been abandoned, blocking in the rows of neatly parked cars. Her conscious need to follow rules caused her to heave a mighty, silent sigh as she managed to turn her car around and pull back out parking it several blocks away on the street. After securing parking she reached back and touched Matty’s shoulder, he jumped in his seat completely surprised by her touch. Looking up at her he made a small grimace and mouthed to her that he couldn’t hear her and wiggled his ears with his hands. This isn’t fun or interesting any more, he thought as large tears began to fill his eyes.
Patricia’s heart filled with trembling horror as she realized that Matty couldn’t hear either. She patted his back reassuringly as she gathered him in her arms and entered the emergency room. What the hell is happening she wondered, raking her fingernails through her hair.

Chapter 3 - Norman
Norman ran through the tall grass in full pursuit of a small squirrel just as the wind began whipping through the field. He felt the warm rush of wind flow into his panting mouth and his soft brown eyes began to water, momentarily causing him to lose track of the chattering beast that had been tormenting him all morning. He’d broken his leash to give chase and was gloriously happy. He could still smell the critter but it was no longer chattering at him as he pursued. Surprisingly, it had stopped dead in its tracks and seemed quite confused as it could no longer hear his crashing approach. Not expecting the small varmint to stop, he literally ran right over the top of it causing it to bowl over and roll several feet away. The little squirrel was beside itself quaking with fear now that it could no longer hear its adversary approaching. Norman shivered and shook his yellow fur as he trotted up behind the creature sniffing with all of his might at the wonder of actually being so close. Finally it sensed his presence and jumped with amazing agility, literally bouncing off the top of his head and onto the trunk of a nearby tree scurrying to the top in mere moments. Norman smiled in the way that only Labrador’s do and loped away back to his yard. He shook his head every few minutes trying to understand why he couldn’t hear the normal sounds that usually accompanied his back yard world.

Chapter 4- Darcy and Owen
Darcy’s heart was racing as she felt Owens’ warm breath on the back of her neck. She could feel every tiny hair standing on end as his lips gentle brushed a spot just behind her ear. She was thrilled that he was finally going to kiss her but her stomach flipped and rolled when she thought about skipping third period English. She’d never skipped school before even though all of her friends had, but when Owen asked her she just couldn’t take a chance on refusing and have him change his mind about being interested in her. Get hold of yourself she mentally told her stomach and leaned back into the warmth of Owens’ lithe frame. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and breathed gentle into her ear. She shivered with excitement and delight. Putting his hands on her shoulders he turned her toward him gently placing a finger under her chin he lifted until she was looking directly into his dark green eyes.
“I want to kiss you.” He said with a gentle smile. “Would that be alright?”
She nodded her assent and he brought his lips gently down to hers and lightly kissed her. Pulling away he searched her face for confirmation. Her eyes were still closed and her face upturned indicating to him that he could continue. Owen was no fool; his father had impressed upon him the importance of going slowly and making sure that he respected a girl, all girls. It had served him well and his reputation for being the most wonderful boyfriend in the school caused him to be highly sought by most of the freshman girls and even some of the Juniors in his high school, girls who usually didn’t go for younger guys. In fact, he treated his girlfriends so well that when he broke up with them they were devastated for months at losing him but eventually, after time healed their wounds a bit they would come back to become some of his closest friends and even helped him find the next love of his life. Owen loved well but his young heart was still quite fickle. Darcy was his latest fancy and he was a bit nervous about her, somehow he knew that she might capture his heart in a way none of the other girls had. She was deliciously beautiful but had none of the artifice or pretense of a gorgeous girl. She had really only blossomed this year and wasn’t quite sure what to think of her new curves. She was blessed with radiant skin, a miracle in this stage of puberty when they all seemed to sport at least some spots. She was also a very good girl, an honor roll student that actively participated in the anti-drug campaigns and lobbied for environmental changes whenever the opportunity arose. That’s how he’d met her; his Dad was an environmental lawyer who constantly took on big business to protect the beautiful community in which they lived. He’d been angry when his Dad had drug him to the River keeper’s meeting, until he’d seen her sitting in the first row. He recognized her from school but hadn’t really spoken with her before. He made sure they sat right behind her. He watched her raptly as she actively participated throughout the meeting. Afterwards while everyone else milled around and had coffee, he’d wasted no time in introducing himself. She was sweet and easy to speak with and they had talked and talked until her ride arrived honking for her. Since then he’d sought her out at every opportunity but they had no classes together and both engaged in a large variety of after school activities. He’d been able to share a few lunches with her and had progressed to holding her hand for a few moments in between classes. Finally he’d decided to ask her to skip with him, he hated to do that because he knew she wasn’t the kind of girl who skipped school and he didn’t want to appear to be a bad influence but he so badly wanted to spend a little time with her and have an opportunity to kiss her. Which he was doing now, he thought with utter delight bringing his lips down to meet hers a bit more firmly this time but waiting for an answering response. She melted in his arms and surrendered her lips to him completely, slightly parting them with an invitation to more intimate kissing. They were leaning against the athletic equipment shed locked in deep embrace when the warm wind came rushing over their hot bodies making them both shiver a bit. Taking a break from the long make out session he looked deeply into her eyes and stroked her face gently. He opened his mouth to tell her how much he liked her but couldn’t hear his own voice through the rushing wind. She smiled at him and pointed to her watched and mimed that she needed to make it to her next class. Holding hands they ran across the field toward the school hoping no one would see where they had come from. As they entered the school he was surprised by the utter quiet of the place, almost tomblike. He looked up at the clock waiting for the bell to ring and spill the students out from their various classrooms. Looking up at the bell he saw the arm vibrating against the round red system but heard no sound emitting from it. He looked at Darcy who was also staring at the bell and sweeping her gaze from classroom to classroom. She was mouthing words to him but he could hear nothing. He spoke back not hearing his voice and she put her hands over her ears and shrugged with a frightened expression on her face. Moments later they saw Mr. Phillips rounding the corner and sticking his head in each classroom with a slew of small notes in his hands. He handed one to each teacher and rushed on to the next room. Darcy and Owen had no choice but to follow behind him. Finally noticing them he handed them a slip that said Auditorium. They turned in the direction as other students spilled out of their classes heading that way.