Listen to the Water | FULL SERIES | Wattys 2022 Shortlist | ✔

(44) The Singer

Talking with all of the kids takes its own kind of time, and nobody disturbs me while I do. Then there are narrations and explanations, and the abrupt return of a very different kind of anxiety as it hits me smack in the chest that Satomi is also a part of this tribe. My stomach dissolves into butterflies. I'm glad I've got the kids still crawling all over me like coconut crabs. Satomi catches my eye and gives me a secret little smile through the chaos, and just like that, it's up to Taiki to field the next question in any coherent manner. Luckily, he's risen to the task.

I startle as a hand lands on my shoulder. I turn to find Sachi behind me, watching Taiki with an expression that's half skeptical, half tinged with hope.

"Did you bring him to your village?" he signs, one-handed.

I nod, and swallow hard when I realize what he's really saying. Taiki's different now. Of course the people he's lived with for most of his life would notice.

"Thank you."

I have to take a moment to realize what he just signed. Sachi glances down when he sees me turn, my expression searching his.

"He's different," he signs. "Was it hard?"

My joy and contentment and fluttery nerves all dissipate like a burst bubble, more fragile than I realized. Or maybe it's just this particular topic that still gets me. It was hard, but not in any way I'm going to tell Taiki's tribe. At least I can answer the heart of the question.

"Yes," I sign. I intend to say more, but the words don't come. Maybe there's nothing more that needs to be said. That's just it. Yes.

"Nobody here has ever been able to break through to him," signs Sachi, his hands quiet. "We've all been hoping something like this would happen someday. We've just never known how to get there."

I don't deserve his accolades. Of all the people who could have come along and brought Taiki home with them, I was one of the worst choices. But circumstance still conspired against him on that front. Horrible or not, I was still the first—thus far only—islander to find his tribe, make it to the Sandsingers with him, and discover that their village was still alive. Makeba said there were two others before me who made it just as far, only to find they were the only survivors.

I was one of the worst choices, but I was the only one. At least I'm now determined to set that first part to rights. Taiki deserves better.

Sachi relieves me of two of the children before he leaves, gifting Ren to Itta with a cheeky grin. The smile that exchange drags from me both steadies and falters—at once—when Taiki struggles through the crowd. He's managed to escape questioning by his tribe members, or maybe he found a villager who can communicate with the tribe in his stead. I throw a look behind him to confirm what looks like the latter. Masae and Zuna, a broad-shouldered woman from my village, are talking without hand-signs. Our spoken languages are closer than our hand-languages after all.

Taiki smiles when he sees Seiko on my back, and gives them a quick tickle as he pulls up beside me. They squeal. The exchange promptly devolves into a tickle fight, with me dodging and charging on Seiko's behalf while they try to reach Taiki with their adorably small hands. I know it ought to be a losing battle—Taiki's way too nimble to be caught if he doesn't want to be—but he pretends to swim slowly so the child wins. Watching them mock and dash while Taiki fakes fear and Seiko giggles stuffs my chest with the warm feeling again. I suppose it can still coexist with the hollow chasm there after all.

Taiki pulls out of the game first, drifting up beside me while still dodging the occasional lunge from the child on my back. "They can talk," he signs, confirming what I saw. "And some of them understand the hand-language, too."