Mute Love ➡️ [Short Story]

#1 Love Inc.

13 December 2017

I never knew the perks of being mute until I met him that day. It was a winter afternoon of January and the benevolent sun had finally decided to work up its way through the clouds. My sister and I had taken her daughter to the park for a good warm exposure. Plus, ever since she'd been back from her in-laws' place, she'd only been bored and we decided that this might work a magic. As it turned out later, it did.

"I'll take her to the fountains, she'll like it," I waved, gesturing the words to Sikha – my sister, and since we'd already spent half of our lives together, she knew exactly how to read my hand signs.

We were sitting on the grass, entirely exposed to the sun, our skin finally realizing the feel of natural warmth after two or three days probably.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. You go, I'll wait here," she said. I fixed Molly's – Sikha's daughter's stroller and then put her in it as we went out on the pavements.

As we strolled down the pavement, I looked around; the intricacy of the park struck me. Not that I was visiting it for the first time, but for the umpteenth time now, its beauty was as if untouched. It was just wondering how it represented the entire ecosystem in just a few acres of land.

There was a slope downwards as we strolled down towards the fountain. There was a man walking right in the middle of the pavement. Of all the sides of pavement, he chose to walk in the middle of it. What an idiot!

If I tried to pass by him, by adjusting the stroller to a side of the road, it would trip as one wheel of it would be stuck in the lower region of land where the grasses grew. If I tried to avoid the end of the pavement—so as not to trip, it would hit the idiot walking. I had no idea how to alert him. I could have just stopped there. But I was just way beyond irritated at his stupidity.

Whatever happens, happens...I won't stop!

Next thing I know is that I had hit him with the stroller, right in his leg and he tripped on his knees. He instantly rose to his feet and looked back, bamboozled.

"What the hell?" he grimaced.

I waved at him, "What are you doing walking in the middle of the pavement?"

He flicked his head and raised a brow.

"Why are you waving?" he asked. That sentence just sent a spark down my spine. Like it wasn't obvious enough... Why would anyone wave if she could speak? What a mean thing to ask!

"...maybe because you're deaf," I spat, not exactly speaking-spat, more of a sign-language-spat.

There was this one thing though. He could read my signs perfectly. There were many possibilities swooning around me.

"Yeah well, I am. And I was walking in the middle of the pavement because...look around you. There's no one here, except maybe you and your child. What are the chances of getting hit by someone in an empty park?" He frowned at the end of his sentence.

Of all the things he just said, my mind just hung up on his first few words, "You're really deaf?" I waved.

"Are you nuts, girl? If you're not sure I'm deaf then why are you waving?"

"You're rude," he read my signs as I formed them.

"What... Am I rude? You just hit me," he said instantly after reading out my sentence.

"Sorry," he read my sign again.

"It's fine. And yes, I can't hear. Born this way. Nobody's fault," he twitched his lips. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I got this feeling that I have seen him somewhere before.