Deaf Ears Ring

Chapter 3

A/N: IMPORTANT! Italics text with no quotation marks: narration from Chris. Italics text with quotation marks "": sign language.

Chris pulls up to Lindsey's house the next day. It was a pretty nice house, he'd admit. He felt nervous about this. Really nervous. Chris takes a breath, then gets out of the car.

Chris walks up to the house and rings the doorbell. A minute later, a woman that Chris doesn't recognize answers and smiles.

"Hi, you must be Chris. I'm Iris. I'm Lindsey and Kaitlin's caretaker. It's nice to meet you."

Chris nods and shakes her hand.

"Come on in." Iris continues, stepping aside.

Chris nods again and steps inside Lindsey sits on the couch, watching TV. She wore sweats and had a blanket wrapped around her. Chris notices she had almost no hair on her head and her eyes looked sunken in without makeup. Lindsey looks over to Chris and smiles.

"Hi, Chris. Sorry I didn't make myself look good today. I'm not feeling super well, so I thought I'd just take it easy."

"Oh, I'm sorry. If you want me to come back tomorrow instead of - "

"No. I already told Kaitlin you were coming over today. Come sit down. We have a lot to talk about."

Lindsey puts the TV on mute and Chris sits down next her.

"So, to continue on from yesterday when you asked if Kaitlin was born the way she is, the answer is no. She was about three and a half years old and she got this...infection in her ears, and...by the time she was five, she couldn't hear a thing."

Chris nods, "So then does she talk?"

"On occasion, but it's easier for her to sign. When she does speak, it's mostly short words; 'yes', 'no', 'okay'; she'll say your name to get your attention."

"Can she read lips?"

"Yeah, you're fine. Have you at all educated yourself though?"

"That depends. How accurate do you think YouTube 'How to...' videos on sign language are?"

Lindsey laughs, "You're gonna be around pretty often it looks like, so you'll catch on fast."

Chris sighs, "Okay."

"You don't sound very happy."

Chris doesn't say anything.

"Come on, Chris. I know these aren't the best circumstances, but this is your daughter. Aren't you at least kind of looking forward to getting to know her?"

"Of course I am, Linds. This is just all really...scary."

"Yeah, well, you know what, Chris? It's probably a Hell of a lot scarier for the thirteen year old girl whose mom is going to be dead within the year. I've been that girl, Chris, and I sure as Hell would have been happy if my dad were there for me when my mom was in the coma after the accident. I just...don't want her to end up going through what I went though."

"Well, Lindsey...I mean, if Kaitlin and I get along really well by some miracle, there's still no guarantee that she'll end up with me."

"I know, but she's more likely to."

"So, how's this all going to work?" Chris asks.

"Well, if you can, I'd prefer you come here for your visitations rather than Kailin going to you at any time. I don't want her to get attached to your house or your family when, like you said, there's no guarantee she'll end up with you."