The Christmas wish

4

Amy's  pov

It's our first weekend here, so I took Riley to the park by our house. She is just like me and she is sitting under a tree, reading a book. I can see her so I am not too worried about her not being next to me.

"You are Riley's mom." A male said.

I looked up and saw Maddox's dad.

"I am, what did she break? I promise I will pay for it."

"Nothing." He laughed, "I am Maddox's dad, may I sit down?"

"Oh yes." I closed my book.

He sat down and said, "My name is Mark, I just wanted to thank you for having your daughter learn how to sign." He looked over at the signing for beginners book I was reading.

"Nice to meet you Mark, I am Amy. And Riley did that all on her own. Once I told her why she was not talking back to her, Riley said that she wanted to learn so they can be friends. That night, we watched a bunch of videos on line learning how to sign."

"Thank you. There have been so many people who will turn their backs to her. And your daughter wants to adapt for her."

"It's no problem, I got a few books from work that way I can learn as well. If they have any play dates, I need to be able to talk to her as well."

"You two are angels."

"Nope, just humans who understand that life is not fair. Is Maddox here?"

"No, she is at my mom's house, I am on break at work. I walk around here at lunch and I thought you looked like the lady who Maddox was waving at."

"That's us."

"Where is Riley?" He looked around.

"Reading a book under that tree." I pointed to her.

"So you both like to read." He laughed.
"Yeah, one of the things she got from me is being a bookworm."

"That is not a bad thing."

"Nope."

"Maddox was telling me that you are new here."

"Yep, I needed to start over, so we came from LA."

"Did you fly?"

"Nope, drove."

"You guys drove from LA to Ohio?"

"Yep."

He gave me a concerned look.

"So, Riley tells me that there is this Christmas event that happens here." I wanted to change the topic.

"Oh yes, we have a huge Christmas celebration here in the park. A huge tree gets put up and we sing Christmas songs and have hot coco. They even get an ice rink and we can ice skate."

"That sounds like so much fun, I bet Maddox loves to go there."

"She does, I didn't get to go with her last year. I got stuck at work."

"I'm sure she still had fun with her mom."

"My mom took her, her mom passed away when she was 3."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, there was a car accident. That is how Maddox lost her hearing. Her mom had one too many drinks and lost control of the car. She died within seconds, Maddox was knocked unconscious, when she came to she lost her hearing from brain damage."

"Oh my. Mark, I am so sorry."

"It's okay, Maddox is alive and she is doing the best she can."

"What about your wife?"