The Color of Silence by Liane Shaw

Author:Liane Shaw
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Second Story Press
Published: 2013-02-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

“So, today is your first session with Shawna. Alexandra is going to take you down to her office and stay with you during the session. I think Shawna is going to teach her some of the practice exercises so she can work with you when she’s here.”

Patrick smiles at both of us. I smile back, but Alexandra doesn’t. She just looks at him with eyes that seem a little uncomfortable. Maybe she doesn’t know where the speech pathologist’s office is and is worried that she will get us both lost. I know she’s not going to ask, either.

Alexandra doesn’t seem that excited about today, but that’s OK because I’m excited enough for both of us! I’m also unbelievably curious. What will it look like, this magic machine that can use my eyes to give me a voice?

Patrick is still talking but I stopped listening for a moment so I don’t know what he is saying. Alexandra is nodding, so

I assume he is telling her how to get where we are going.

“All right, ladies. I’ll leave you to it. Oh, wait a minute.

I forgot. Shawna asked me to be sure you have this.” He goes over to the closet and pulls out a big plastic board.

“Here’s your tray, Joanie. I’ll stick it on for you.” Oh, right. My tray. I haven’t seen that in a while. I don’t really have much use for a tray. I think it was specially made for my chair so it always stays with me, but I honestly can’t remember the last time there was a reason to put it on. It’s rather big and bulky, and so no one really bothers with it. Is the machine going to sit on it, I wonder?

Patrick pulls out the two plastic knobs on either side of the tray and places it carefully across the arms of my chair, snapping it into place.

“All right. Now you’re good to go. Alexandra, you know where you’re going, right?”

Alexandra nods as she flips the locks off my wheels. She pushes me out of the room and down the hall to the elevator. Patrick waves to us from the nursing station across from the elevator doors. Alexandra hits the button with the down arrow on it, and we wait. After a few moments, the doors slide open and she wheels me inside.

Alexandra is standing behind me with her hands on the handles of my chair. She stands so still, her body as silent as her voice. The ride is short and smooth, and a small dinging noise announces our arrival on the ground floor. I like the ground floor. It bustles with energy. People are everywhere, talking and moving and laughing and sometimes crying.

Alexandra has her drum shoes on today, and I like the way it feels to be clicking down the hallway with her. We sound important, and I imagine that some of the people buzzing about look our way and wonder about us. We stop at a door at the end of a long hallway.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.