Location:
Skills:
Oct. 31 2018
Mandy had gotten enough stories from her dad about why he didn't enjoy family dinners. However, this year her grandmother had pressured them to join for the holiday. Her mother had flatly refused, saying she was going to stay home and hand out candy. She hadn't been to her grandmother's in ages. So Mandy found herself standing outside the little place that was her dad's mom's, dressed in a homemade octopus costume. He was knocking on the door. Something Mandy thought was silly. Hearing people could hear the weirdest things. She still remembered learning farts had sound. That made her smile and the door was answered.
Standing before her was a little boy, no more than four foot five with dark curly hair and deep green eyes. His face and neck were painted grey in a black and white film style, fake stitching lining his forehead as two bolts stood on either side of his neck. He looked at Mandy and her father, seeing them both dressed up and offered them a big toothy grin.
”You're supposed to say Trick R Treat! But…aren't you a little too old for that?” There was a candy bucket in his hand as he held the door ajar with the other. A nasally voice shouting from behind him just in view of it all as her heels clicked against the hardwood floor. The woman was dressed as the “Mom” of Frankenstein, her large curly hair put into an updo with a streak of white spray alongside it. “Be nice Frankie, that's your cousin Mandy and her father. Come in come in!” She said as she waved the two in, her Italian accent thick as ever.
Mandy frowned a little. The kid was talking, she caught a few of the words by reading his lips. He wanted them to say ‘trick or treat.’ Another person, her Aunt Fran. She said something to them that was completely impossible for Mandy to understand, but she waved them in. That was at least an invitation. Her dad gave her a little bit of a push to go into the home. Mandy stepped over the threshold. She kept her head up, looking around taking in everything.
Once the pair had stepped in, Hermes closed the door behind him, silent as he watched what were essentially two strangers walking in. If they had ever come to previous parties, it wasn't anytime recently. His mother was clearly excited as she practically ran in place, arms spread wide as she squealed in such a loud manner it was impossible not to hear her. She squeezed her brother tightly before letting go slightly and squealing again. “Tony it's been too long! What took you guys?! I haven't seen you in, God only knows how long! Come in come in take a load off! We have drinks and snacks and- oh I almost forgot. I wasn't sure how many of you’s were gonna come so I may a few of them. Frankie, darlin’ go fetch the papers we made ok?”[/color]
Hermes was about to grab one of the tentacles on Mandy's costume when he heard his mother call to him. He wondered if that's why they hadn't responded to him, though he looked a bit crestfallen. He recalled the first time he'd heard about this side of the family, he'd thought his mother said they were Death. A whole side of the family associated with the reaper himself. It made him jealous to hear that because how cool would it be to have powers? Then later he was corrected and told they were hard of hearing, deaf. His mother had practiced some signs before they had gotten here. Nervous she might get them wrong. He had no idea what they meant, but it must've been important.
As he left to fetch the papers his mother was talking about, she turned towards Mandy and Antonio and signed to both of them. It was shaky, and clearly she had to put thought in between each sign as she did them. Simply saying
”Sorry, he's a little excited. It's his favorite holiday”. By then Hermes was back, handing both Uncle Anontio and his cousin Mandy some pages he'd written that said
“Welcome to the Di Angelo Halloween Bash! Refreshments are in the coolers, Red is for Adults, Blue for Children. Make yourselves at home and enjoy the food.”
Hermes waited long enough for what he assumed would take Mandy to read the paper before pulling a string on a popper to have confetti fly out.
Antonio smiled at his sister as she talked. “It has been a while.” He said, his voice was deep and there was a strange ‘accent’ to it. One that people who knew it recognized the sound as what was often called the ‘deaf accent.’ Mandy looked lost. She couldn’t hear what Fran was saying. To her it was noise, but the words themselves were lost. She had worn her hearing aids at her dad’s request, but they weren’t helping at all with Fran. When Fran signed she blinked. Oh, so she knew some sign but it was awkward and looked word-for-word rather than actual ASL. Frankenstein was handing her a paper. She read it and then confetti was flying. She looked up and tilted her head.
”What is that?” She asked. Her voice was even more heavily accented with the same strange tilt. She had had speech therapy but she was what was called an Oral Failure. Her speech was just intelligible. If she didn’t have a lot of pride in being Deaf thanks to her mother’s side of the family she probably would have been mad about that label. But really she didn’t care. She was happy being Deaf and if hearing people had an issue that was on them.
Hermes couldn't quite understand what his cousin was saying, but she sounded confused…intrigued? Both. He'd decided.
”It's a popper! You see you pull the string here and…” He remembered then that she couldn't actually hear him. His face scrunched up as he thought about this for a second. He opened up a drawer from the entryway table they kept by the front door, pulling out a pen out of dozens that were haphazardly thrown in there. He wrote the word “Popper” onto a post-it note and stuck it on Mandy's page before demonstrating how they worked and then handing one to her.
Mandy read the word and nodded, her cousin was a bit easier to understand, reading his lips wasn’t easy though, so the note had helped. She put down the paper on the entryway table and pulled the string of the popper. She felt it vibrate under her fingers and confetti joined the growing mess in the entryway. She laughed. It was cute. There was a strange smell that had started to accumulate and wiggled her nose. Then with two fingers she tapped her nose and then swung the hand down to tap her other hand in the same handshape. “She says that was fun.” Antoino says, his voice clearer than Mandy’s interpreting for his daughter.
Hermes smiled wide, the same toothy grin as when he'd greeted them.
”So cool! Wait what does this mean?!” He said as he asked in rapid fire words before perfectly mimicking the fireball jutsu from Naruto.
Mandy was used to this question. Hearing people asked all the time what nonsense things meant. She didn’t even need to hear what he said. Mandy shook her head. And held up both her hands in matching O’s and shook them.
”Nothing.”Hermes crossed his arms into a big X as he made a buzzer sound.
”Wrong! It's Katon! The fireball jutsu!” He said as he mimicked blowing out fire from his mouth before letting out a giggle. “Alright sweetie leave them be ok? We don't want to offend them, they just have their own language like how we know Italian. They do a little something called ASL, it's how they can communicate.” She placed her hand atop his head and ruffled his hair. “Kids I swear. They say the darnest things. I blame the television I do. All them animus they watch just rots their brains.”
Hermes removed his mom's hand from atop his head, scribbling a note down onto another post-it.
”So do you read lips? Are you like a secret spy?”Mandy didn’t know what Aunt Fran said but her dad smiled and nodded with patience. She wondered what she had said, but her dad would interpret for her if it was important. He knew how much it mattered, that was if he understood enough of it to be able to interpret. He could just be nodding along passively. Some people did that when they didn’t want to seem dumb. Mandy had on more than one occasion. She leaned over and read the post-it. She smiled and nodded, then added to the note. Her handwriting was neat and perfect.
”Yes, but it is hard. If you get half you’re doing amazing.” Hermes' face dropped. HALF?! That's like, half the sentence! He wanted to know more, but also didn't want to just stand idly by the doorway. He placed a third post-it on top of the others, a simple message.
“Want to play a game?””What game?” She wrote. Her face, if Hermes looked, had furrowed brows and her free hand was flat, palm up moving slightly side-to-side.
”Paper football and twenty questions. I'll show you how to fold them and then we gotta try and score points while asking each other questions on the note.” At this point Hermes had taken out the legal pad stashed inside the drawer beneath all the pens. They rarely used it, it was mostly for long messages and grocery lists, though a few doodles of crude dinosaurs could be seen drawn along the margins of the pages.
Mandy nodded. She was interested and it would spend time. She also didn’t think she’d feel left out. Her dad had warned her that would probably happen. And Mandy had memories of meals that he had tried to keep up with and interpret for her. Those had been when she was little though. Now she was in college and this was the last year she’d probably dress up. She hoped she could have a bit of fun with a cousin she didn’t know. Mandy didn’t even know what paper football was, but Hermes was saying he’d show her how to fold the paper so she could make some guesses.
As soon as she nodded, Hermes grabbed onto one of her tentacles and began pulling her away.
”Squidward and I are gonna go play a game ok?!” He'd said as he made a beeline for his room. It was in an awkward in between stage, just late enough to be a kids room but still in the early stages of teen angst beginning to creep in. The walls were an olive green, his sheets tossed as he hadn't expected anyone to come into his room during the party (no matter how much his mother nagged him it would happen). There was a guitar off to the side, leaning on a stand, a collection of comic books splatter across the floor spilling out from a milk crate. He'd gone to his desk, opening up a drawer and pulling out a composition notebook as he tore out a page.
He didn't know any sign language, but just pointed towards his eyes and then towards the paper hopefully letting her know to watch closely as he began to slowly make the paper football. Once the final piece was tucked into place he pressed one point of the triangle into the floorboard, another finger on the top point before flicking it with his free hand to demonstrate how to kick the ball. Hermes scrambled towards the other side of the room, searching for the paper football before opening it back up and writing down a question.
”What's your name?”Mandy thought, as Hermes dragged her along, that maybe this had been a silly childish idea. She hadn’t played a game in years. That didn’t count the games at Deaf Club, but things like tag she hadn’t played in ages. She felt old as they ran, but entering his room that shed away. Mandy remembered being little and just playing for the sake of the game.
When Hermes pointed to his eyes and then the paper, it was easy to know what he meant. He was telling her to watch, so she did. The folds were straight forward, she’d be able to repeat them. As long as she did it soon she’d never forget the folds. She mimicked the flick. When the ‘ball’ came to her she read the note.
”Mandy. You?’ She wrote. She wanted to ask how old he was, but she knew the game, she’d get to ask that later.
Hermes held his fingers up like a goal post, waiting for the flick to see if she could get it in. In his excitement he'd forgotten to mention that portion of the rules, but he figured she'd pick it up easy enough. He opened up the note and saw. Mandy. He scribbled down his name, one arm covering the top of the paper as he hid his head behind it while he lay flat on the floor.
”Hermes Francesco Leonardo Di Angelo. But you can call me…well any of that really. Your turn” He folded it back up, his tongue sticking out as he lined up his shot and flicked it towards her.
Mandy mimicked the goal posts. Football was a known factor. The Deaf community loved football. She knew what the point was now. She smiled and picked up the paper, unfolding it again and reading his answer. That was a lot of names. She wondered why someone would give someone that many names. She had only given her nickname really. Technically her name was Amanda but no one ever called her that. She wrote a question,
”How old are you?” Folded up the football again and flicked it back to him.
He felt as the paper hit his chest and rolled down, getting caught in a wrinkle on his shirt. As he unfolded it, he began to write. There was an 11 scratched out on the page before he rewrote his answer.
”I just turned 12 this month. You?” With that it was time to kick the ball again, a part of him had wanted to ask why she wasn't at his birthday party, but then he figured it might be rude so he'd left that part out of the note.
”18 last April. And really my full name is Amanda Marie Mason. But no one calls me anything but Mandy. I’ll show you how to sign my name.” She didn’t consider Mandy her name. No, it was HS:M SMILE. That was her real name. The letters were English and borrowed so the hearing world was comfortable. She flicked the re-folded ball back to Hermes, and waited for him to look at her so she could show her name to him.
Hermes opened the note and immediately wrote down
”So old” Before looking up and nodding at Mandy. He wanted to learn how to sign her name, but he also wondered how to sign his own now. A huge part of him was now thinking about how hands can become letters can become words, and where it all originated from. But he figured Mandy wasn't the right one to ask, or at least not for tonight. So he watched attentively to see how to say her name.
Once he was looking at her she smiled, and held up her hand brushing it at the side of her face. Then she held up her hand showing him what it looked like and said
”M” It was one of the easier letters. Though she might have confused the sound with another when she was younger she knew them all well now. Then she brushed her cheek again, smiling brightly as she did. She held up both hands and in a flat B she dragged them from the corners of her smile up. Then pointed at her smile and repeated the gesture. Then she showed her name again. Hoping to convey that her name was ‘SMILE’.
Hermes mimicked the sign, his tongue poking out as he stared at his hands trying to figure out how to get his fingers to move that way until he finally got it. He tried to replicate what it was she was doing. He saw why his mother practiced so hard, it was like his fingers didn't want to participate at all. He remembered this was how it was when he was learning the jutsu's too. When he finally got it, he formed his fingers into an L shape and placed them on the bottom corner of his jaw as if he was cool before writing more down onto the paper. [Color=67AB6D][i]”How do I say my name?”[/color]
Mandy was too stunned to catch the paper. She then busted up laughing. At first she had been trying to figure out if he was calling her a lesbian or asking if she was one or what he meant. But it hadn’t been that it had just been him making a sign without realizing it. Hearing people were hilarious. She calmed down and read the note. That’d take a moment. She might as well teach him the whole alphabet. So she stood up and got the paper and sat closer to him writing out the alphabet in the same neat handwriting. Then she pointed at the A and held up her hand showing him what the A looked like in ASL.
Hermes quirked an eyebrow as Mandy began to laugh. Did he do the sign wrong? A little self consciousness filled inside him as she closed the gap.She pointed to the A and Hermes shook his head, then pointed to the H as if she'd forgotten his first name. He then stopped and wondered if maybe A’s were H’s in this new language. And scribbled beneath the alphabet
”Are A’s like H’s?”Mandy read the note. She smiled and shook her head and wrote.
”No, but your name is so long you might as well know the whole alphabet and not just what’s in your name.” She quickly fingerspelled his name, referencing the paper, to show how long it was and try to illustrate that if she was going to teach him how to spell it in ASL he might as well know all the letters. Then maybe they could fingerspell talk to each other. She thought of the Rochester method and how much she hated that, but it would be better than nothing.
Hermes laughed, gripping his stomach with one arm as he read Mandy's note. She wasn't wrong, he was sure if you counted each letter there was probably more in his name than in the alphabet. He thought about it for a second and remembered her sign she said was M before doing more motions. So he wrote down another question.
”You said M, but then did more signs. How did you make that word mean Mandy?”Mandy read the note and considered how to respond, then she wrote.
”What do your friends or family call you? I mean like your mom as a nickname? That’s what I did. My name isn’t Mandy that isn’t who I am. I smile. My smile is bright. It is identifiable. In my community people know if you do that name sign who you’re talking about. It is me. You aren’t Deaf. You have to earn a sign name, it has to be given by someone who is Deaf. It identifies you as part of the community, as trusted, as a friend. So for now, you would just fingerspell your name. That’s accepted. Though probably just your first name not the whole thing you’d be stared at like you were an alien if you did the whole thing.” She passed the paper back.
Hermes felt a little disheartened. To feel left out from an entire community. Then again, that's how most of them must've felt at parties and places where speaking was the norm. It was a strange feeling, a mix of emotions that combated each other and constantly stood at odd ends. He'd have to fingerspell…fine. A part of him felt a tinge of sadness inside his chest, like there was a threat for tears, but he didn't want to cry. It just felt…lonely. He thought back to the sign Mandy had made, the A. Simple enough, though if he tried that sign out near the wrong neighborhood he might get shot. But he mimicked it regardless.
Mandy smiled when he finally copied her A. She nodded and started taking him through the whole alphabet. One letter at a time. She paid especially close attention to make sure he got the letters in his own name right, giving slight adjustments if needed until he had it all down.
”Now spell your name.” She wrote.
Hermes paid close attention, each sign pushing the thought of loneliness further and further away as he began engrossed in learning the alphabet anew. When they finished he was asked to spell his name. Once again his tongue poked out in concentration as he began to spell his name out slowly. Trying to make sure he didn't mess anything up before finishing it off and looking at Mandy with a smile.
Mandy beamed and nodded. Her hand moved quickly spelling it out again. Her hand touched her chin and then the palm of her other hand and then both were made into fists and tapped twice at the wrists. She wrote down
”Good job.” And then went back to her spot where they had been playing paper football. She considered for a moment what to ask this kid. Then she smiled.
”What’s your favorite thing to do?” She guessed it might be playing guitar or something. Mandy flicked the paper back.
Hermes began practicing his fingerspelling, though he in between each spelling of his name he also tried spelling out ‘fuck’. When the ball had been passed back to him he had to sit and think for a while. He'd never considered what his
favorite thing was. He loved his guitar, but he also liked gaming, and he was an avid horror movie buff even if his mom didn't like him watching that. Finally he wrote down
”I don't know. Probably gaming or playing guitar. Mmmm maybe guitar yeah. What about you?” He then wondered as he folded the football back up, could Mandy play games? A huge part of some gaming was being able to hear and it was a massive reason as to why 3D audio was becoming so big in headsets.
Mandy opened the note and read his response. She nodded, that was about what she expected. She wrote down quickly
”Roller derby. I’m in a Deaf league.” And flicked it back. She wondered if Hermes knew what roller derby was. If not she’d just pull up youtube. That was a lot easier than trying to write an explanation.
Hermes looked at her response and back at her then back at the response. Roller Derby? Didn't that…require music? Were there silent roller derbys? How could they hear a whistle blow? He had so many questions but figured he'd just look up videos on YouTube later so that he didn't seem so ignorant.
”Why did you laugh earlier after I signed your name?”Mandy read the note and snorted again.
”You put your hand on a chin in the L Hand shape. That means lesbian. In some groups you might have started a fight with that. It would be very rude. I don’t care. It was funny though.”Hermes' face went flush with red as he began to blush profusely. He never felt self conscious about his hand movements before, but now he wondered how many of them had been accidental signs he didn't mean to make. He finger spelled ‘fuck’ once more before having a small laugh at his own expense.
”Oh. Whoops.Mandy smiled and laughed again, especially at his fingerspelling fuck. She knew a lot of hearing kids learned all the cuss words first so she wasn’t surprised he was using ASL for that already. She started to write her next question.
”What was your mom saying in the entryway? I can’t understand a word she says.”Hermes chuckled before writing his response and flicking it back.
”What part? My mom says a lot of things very fast. Sometimes i think she still believes they charge us for minutes with how quickly she'll get her words out.”Mandy snorted at his response. That was accurate. It was part of why Mandy had been so lost Aunt Fran spoke too fast for her to follow.
”After you did the hand thing. She wrote and flicked back the ball.
”Oh.
She was scolding me for my jutsu's. Said I was being insensitive and that your hand signs are like Italian. A different language meant for you guys. Sorry.” Hermes didn't want to look Mandy in the eye, he'd felt bad for making fun earlier, especially now that he understood there was a whole community like this. He didn't really know any deaf or hard of hearing kids back at school. They were more like a myth or legend you see in stories or TV.
Mandy read the note and smiled. She had had worse over the years. Part of the IEP she had in school, required her to have socialization time with hearing kids her own age. And the CODA kids in the community didn’t always count. She wrote back,
”It could be rude, but you’re a kid and you don’t know anything about the community. No one would have blamed you for it. But now that you know better you would get labeled as ‘audist’ and people wouldn’t like you. Your mom is right though ASL is not the same as English, or Italian. It is a different language, though it does borrow from English just like English borrows from other languages. Don’t worry. I’m not mad.” The paper had gotten full. She flicked it back to Hermes.
The small triangular paper fell harmlessly onto the floor, Hermes was afraid to open it to see what she'd written. Lucky for him when he finally did open it, she was understanding about the whole situation. He grabbed a new sheet out of his notebook, tearing it out before tapping his pen to his lips as he debated on what to ask next. Finally he'd decided to ask her something he hoped wouldn't be considered rude.
”If you're deaf, how do you listen to music?”Mandy stared at the fresh new paper. The question that she didn’t feel a lot toward. She wasn’t a music person. Some of her classmates in High School were. She knew some kids with CI could get blue-tooth connections to their phones. All sorts of things. She didn’t do that though. She stood up and went to pick up the guitar, she looked at Hermes with an eyebrow raised, a question in her face, did he mind if she touched it?
Hermes watched her with baited breath as she stood up. Did he say something wrong? He watched her carefully until she stopped at his guitar, looking at him for approval. He slowly fingerspelled ‘Cool’ before speaking.
”You play? Go ahead” He'd done some music studies and knew that Beethoven was also deaf, and he'd composed some amazing music. Hermes nodded at her incase the half she missed was his approval.
Mandy tapped her chest with her thumb, her hand splayed out and wiggled her fingers.
”Cool” She said and picked up the guitar gently. She didn’t actually play but that would ruin the explanation. She strummed the guitar. It wasn’t plugged in or on so there was no music. Not really. She looked at him and raised her eyebrow again. She mimed plugging her ears and waited for him to plug his ears.
Hermes raised his eyebrow at her once more. How was he supposed to listen to her play if he plugged his ears up? Either way he listened to her, taking his pointer fingers and putting one in each ear as he waited to see her play.
Mandy nodded and strummed again. This time a few times. Even less noise made it to Hermes’ ears. It was muted and muffled. She smiled and then pointed to the speaker and the guitar. She held up her hand with her pinky fingers out and drew a line in the air.
”O-N” She fingerspelled.
Hermes looked at his Amp and back towards his bedroom door. His mom didn't like him using it indoors, he typically used it for outside practice with his friends, opting to plug his headphones into it instead so that no sound left the room. The sound of the party could be heard from beyond the door, he decided they were loud enough it wouldn't matter so long as he kept the volume low. Scrambling over towards the Amp, plugging them in and turning it on with the dial down to 2. He offered Mandy his headphones that were now plugged into the port, asking her if she wanted them in or off.
Mandy smiled and shook her head. She did reach out and placed Hermes’ hand so it was inside the headphone, he’d be able to feel the vibrations of the headphones. Mandy took off her shoes and stood close to the amp. She strummed again, still not really playing any notes. She had no idea how to play the guitar; she was just making a point. She fingerspelled,
”F-E-E-L?” His eyes widened. He understood what she'd meant. Not just because she'd shown him, but in a sense it was how he dealt with music. The sound itself helped him to get in tune with it, but the way it vibrated against his chest, how it felt as it moved through him while he played, that's why he was so drawn to it all. He wrote down
”Can you hear it?”Mandy set the guitar down back in its proper place and read the note. She shook her head no. Then started to write. [color=BB33FF][i]”I’m not completely deaf, but my hearing range doesn’t include most music. It’s pretty narrow and when there is a lot like drums and guitar and vocals it all gets lost. I like stuff with good bass that I can feel. But other than that I don’t ‘listen’ to music. I have some friends that do and they’ll play stuff they like in the car.”[i][/color]
Hermes nodded. That was fine, she could still feel this song, or at least he hoped she could. He got up and moved the all closer to her feet, it was a good thing they had hardwood floors, they helped to amplify vibrations and sounds. He handed her the headphones and pantomimed putting them on before he grabbed the guitar and sat against her back to back, waiting for her to place the headphones on.
Mandy did as requested. She had asked a lot of this kid today so it was only fair. She didn’t expect much from the headphones. She did take off her hearing aids though. The combination of hearing aids and headphones, of any kind, was basically impossible. All the hearing aids did was make things louder. It didn’t put sound into a range she could hear, and headphones were basically the same.
He had turned the music up louder, figuring he can't hurt her hearing if she doesn't have any, besides she needed to
feel it and she couldn't do that if it was as low as his usual settings were. He began to strum a song he'd heard recently covered, ‘Zombie’ by the Cranberries. He began to strum the opening chords to the song before finally going into the lyrics himself.
”Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken?
But you see, it's not me
It's not my family
In your head, in your head, they are fighting
With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head, they are crying
In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
What's in your head, in your head?
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie-ie, oh”
His hope, was that she could feel the guitar strums through the Amp and headphones, and she could feel the lyrics as he sang them, the reverberations from his chest bouncing off her as they sat back to back.
The words were lost, but Mandy could feel his chest rumble. The floor vibrated with the music and Hermes’ back muscles played against her own. This was music in a very different way than she had ever experienced. She had, in the past, put her hand on people’s throats as they sang or talked (that was part of speech therapy), but this was different. She loved it. And she knew what Hermes’ name was. She grabbed the paper and wrote, [color=BB33FF][i]”What is it called?”[/color]
”Zombie” He replied back with pen. Adding a question mark underneath it to ask why.
”My new favorite song.” She wrote back. Then she tapped him to draw his attention. She pointed to herself and with both hands in the H hand shape she tapped them together twice and showed him her sign name again. Then she pointed to him, did the H hand shape thing and keeping the H hand shape swung her right hand over her left forearm before pointing to him again. She wrote down
”Music”Hermes pointed to himself and fingerspelled ‘name’ using his pointer finger to draw a question mark in the air as if to ask the question. Before mimicking the same motion he had just done for the word music. It was fairly simple, and it made him wonder how signs were made.
Mandy leaned slightly to her left and with an open B handshape signed “MUSIC” then she pointed to Hermes and changed the handshape to H and shifted slightly right, signing “music” but with the modified handshape. She pointed to herself and did ‘smile’ while leaning left and then changed the handshape to an M, shifted right and signed her name sign again. Then with her index finger she flicked it near her temple, raising her eyebrows hoping he understood what she meant.
He watched her intently, but when he noticed the handshape change between the two signs, he sat there and stared at his own hands. Having to replay the alphabet on them until he reached the two letters on display. The first being a B while the latter was an H. She then signed her name again, and he remembered that she used an M for that one. So…was the B one music? And the H one his name? Or was he reading too much into it? His brows knitted in confusion as he tried to figure out before letting out a sigh of frustration.
Mandy tried again. This time pointing to the written word “MUSIC”, she signed it again. Then grabbed the paper with Hermes’ name on it. She pointed to that and changed the handshape so it was H, and pointed to him.
Hermes pointed to himself and signed the modified sign for music once more before pointing at himself again.
Mandy’s face lit up with her smile and she nodded. It was clear with that smile why her name sign was a modified version of smile.
He lit up, a big grin on his face as he did the sign over and over again. Excitement bubbling inside of him as he'd gotten his own name. He'd thought of ideas of his own that he would've liked, but this felt
right to him. He quickly scribbled down a thank you, the words barely legible in his excitement.
Mandy read the note and then touched her chin with her fingertips and pulled her hand forward, pointing to the word. Then she held a thumbs up and gave her cousin a bright smile. She had never really cared for music before, but she had a new appreciation for it. If he met other Deaf people he could explain how he got his name. It was always important to share that when you joined a new group, especially as a hearing person entering a Deaf space.
Hermes mimicked the sign back, mouthing the words ‘thank you’ as he did, as if the word was foreign to him. He wrote down once more,
”Want to get some food? I know where the good snacks are.”Mandy nodded her head. She was hungry. It was Halloween and she hadn’t had any candy yet. That had to be a crime. And despite her family warning her that her dad’s family didn’t know sign and she’d feel left out and alone and if she had wanted at any time to leave this had been a good time. She liked her cousin. She didn’t know about the others, but he would be worth any other awkwardness that came with family gatherings. Mandy was a little sad to learn that now. She was in college in Upstate New York. Rochester! She was pre-med. Would she have time for Thanksgiving and Christmas? She certainly wouldn’t be able to make birthday parties. But she’d learn when his birthday was and make sure she sent him a card and maybe a gift card for a music store.
