A World of Her Own

Chapter 1

Liora sat quietly at her desk, pencil dangling loosely from her hand, and her eyes held a dreamy expression. Her teacher, Ms. Roberts, was still talking but had turned her back to the class in order to write on the board. She was discussing the intricacies of the Spanish- American War but she might as well have been speaking Greek as far as Liora was concerned. Or better yet, some remote tribal language that no one outside of the tribe was able to master. Since Liora no longer had the ability to read her teacher's lips, her words sounded like the proverbial alphabet soup. Liora could make out certain letters but everything was garbled and incomprehensible.

"Coydhi an lodnf pani American War engkd slghug, " intoned Ms. Roberts. Liora couldn't make sense of anything she was saying. She took a quick peek at her other classmates. Some of them seemed bored while others were intently taking notes. All of them had a look of comprehension on their faces. Liora was sure her own face looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. She wondered if there was some mysterious key, some code that all her classmates knew that she wasn't privy to. Was Ms. Roberts really that easy to understand? Liora tried adjusting her hearing aids. They picked up the murmurs of students behind her, the rustling of pages being turned, the irritating squeak of chalk on the blackboard. But did nothing to help the words pouring out of Ms. Robert's mouth seem more intelligible. 

As she often did in these situations, Liora quickly slipped into daydreaming. She was a prisoner of a remote tribe who spoke in code. Each letter stood for something else. She was doomed to stay trapped on this distant island until she mastered their complicated language and broke the secret code. The Queen of the tribe jeered at her, speaking rapidly in her own language, followed by a series of high pitched clicks that Liora strained to hear. 

"Smgbsigh meiyg Pani American ghglshe hfgbis?" she asked, a sneer on her face. One of the tribal warriors jabbed his spear at her. 

Liora looked blankly at the Queen. She tried to piece the words together. The other tribal warriors began laughing.

Words poured out of the Warrior Queen's mouth. Liora tried desperately to follow along but she couldn't.  Words crashed over her, surrounded her. Like a riptide, they dragged her down into a pit of confusion.

Liora felt herself at sea, swept out by a tide of incomprehensible words. She tried to swim back to shore but the water felt heavy. The words became chains, trapping her legs and dragging her down. Her head slipped under the surface..... 

Ms. Roberts turned around. Just then, the bell rang. In her mind, Liora felt the chains burst. She bobbed to the surface, gasping for air. Swimming as hard as she could, she headed far away from the island and the cruel matriarch. She saw another island in the distance and paddled there quickly, arms flailing, lungs burning.

Liora shook off her daydream and gathered up her things. The hallway was a cacophony of noise coming at her from all directions. Students shouted and laughed in the hall but she could understand none of it. The high pitched jangling of the bell had triggered her tinnitus and she was now contending with the noise inside of her as well as around her. Her chest tightened and her breathing became shallow. The noise inside her head grew louder, drowning out everything around it. She looked for a place to escape but there was none. She swallowed the scream building in the back of her throat. She felt trapped. 

"Breathe," she whispered to herself. "It will pass. It always does."

She lifted her head and practiced her breathing. Slow, deep breaths. She filled her belly and then her chest with air. Breathing out slowly, she let her chest relax and then watched her stomach deflate. She repeated the process a second time and then a third. Her heart rate slowed. The tinnitus lessened slightly, allowing her to focus on where she was. She slipped into her classroom and lowered her head, waiting for class to start while trying to avoid eye contact with anyone around her.