Insight Chapter I: Communication

As she slowly opened her eyes, she paused the rapidly vibrating clock that read 7:15 with eyes half open, she crawled out into the bathroom, and wet her face to rid herself of the remaining morning laziness. She then returned and took the jade green notebook from her night stand, sat cross legged on her bed, got her pencil out, and grumbled at the thought of writing stories, so instead decided to write a poem.

As I wake to see the morning sun, I give my stretch to life.

The light was bright and disturbed my eyes as I still lay drowsy.

Despite it all, I enjoyed the sun and felt warm with my sight.

I loved the smells of the plants nearby, making it less lousy.

I also love to feel the sand of Florida’s beach between my fingers.

In this home where I live, life is dominated by a peaceful silence.

She then felt a sudden tap on her shoulder to see that it was Mr. Corrigan and his wife.

“Sorry to disturb you Cyrene, my husband and I just need to ask you a question,”

Cyrene rolled her hand in a circle, motioning her to continue, “Well, seeing as how we have an extra room, we wanted to ask if you do not mind having a roommate. ”

Cyrene shook her head, “I don’t really mind, in fact I would like for someone to talk to. It does get pretty lonely here in this other house.”

Mrs. Corrigan hesitated before responding, “Well, allow me to introduce you to her. Come on in!”

Cyrene saw as the girl entered the room, and was left with her mouth open. The girl had a heart-shaped face with translucent skin, almond-shaped eyes that mesmerized many due to the emerald green color of her eyes which seemed a bit cloudy.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you, my name is Almira Valcourt,” Cyrene continued staring blankly at her, her nose now scrunched.

“I apologize, did you not hear me? Did I not speak loud enough? I apologize, I know I often have to repeat myself, I do not speak very loudly.”

Mrs. Corrigan placed her hand on Almira’s shoulders, instantly making her turn toward her and tap her knee with her cane, “Mrs. Corrigan, is something the matter?”

Cyrene began knocking on the nightstand, drawing the attention to her again and looked at Mrs. Corrigan. Cyrene tapped her ears with her brow raised as Mrs. Corrigan looked at her and Almira, “Excuse me Almira, I’ll have my husband explain to you who your roommate is” she said to her, then looked at Cyrene and began to sign the messsage.

“We’re sorry to say, but your roommate is blind, I know it’ll be difficult for the two of you to communicate, but the other rooms are full and this the only real room we have left.” Cyrene covered her face with both palms, while Almira simply bowed her head.

Cyrene and Almira are polar opposites of each other in terms of disabilities; Almira is blind while Cyrene is deaf. Cyrene herself is a girl with sensuous lips that let out an impish smile. Her healthy, alluring figure fit perfectly with the rest of her body.

They sat in silence, Cyrene watched as Almira shifted around in her bed. She sighed, I can’t believe this, how am I supposed to talk to her? Is there any sort of device or technique that deaf and blind people use to communicate? She put a pillow over her head as Almira was reading a book. She then took a look at Almira’s book, observing her as her gentle fingers went over lines of dots. Cyrene got a headache attempting to understand braille. Cyrene groaned, causing Almira to look up, who was about to open her mouth until she shook her head and went back to reading.

This silence I used to love, now the eternal thorn in my spine. This silence, once peaceful, now converted into that of awkwardness. Although it can never be broken, I will break it for her ears to hear, I want to get to know her.

“Hey Almira, I’ll say at least this much. I may not be able to hear you, I can’t even hear myself, but I’ll promise you one thing. I will find a way to talk to you.”

Almira then looked toward where she heard her voice, and began to mouth words but didn’t actually say anything, enunciating so that Cyrene could read her lips, which she could always do but never really liked doing it for she knew there could misinterpretation and found it too complicated at times, “Thank you, I will promise to do my best as well.”

Cyrene began to look online any methods to be able to talk to Almira, but could not find any simple way of doing so, for some involved some weird devices or interpreters. She shook her head, Is there no good method out there? One that's at least a bit simple? She looked over at Almira, who was messing around with a smartphone in her hand. Wait, I may not have a phone like hers, but could that maybe help us, heck if we think like that even this computer can help us talk. 

"Hey Almira, do you have things on your phone that could help us talk?"

Cyrene read an "aah" as Almira's brow raised at the comment made; she raised the phone close to her mouth and began to speak, Cyrene not being to read her lips that were covered by the phone.

Almira then showed her the text that was on the screen, "My most sincere apologies, the idea had not come to me at the time. Also I have a setting where if you select all the text you have a speak option"

Cyrene then took the phone and began to write, she then selected all the text and pressed the option that read "speak" as Almira had said.

"Same here, but at the very least we have some way to talk right?"

"Indeed. If it isn't too much of a bother, I would like to ask a favor from you."

"What is it?" Cyrene's message said aloud through the phone.

"Well, this particular area and house is new to me, so if you don't mind I would like you to be my eyes and help me become accustomed to this area, perhaps even go outside."

Cyrene smiled, "It would be a pleasure, and no bother at all. I would love to show you around. Isn't it weird though? I mean you're trusting me, someone you barely know, to lead you around."

"Well, I assume good in most people, and your voice was pleasant sounding to me. Besides, we will be living here together. You can see what I can't while I can hear what you can't, we could depend on each other to complete the senses."

"I'm not the only one here though, there is quite a lot of people in this boarding house. Why me?"

"I think you may already know the answer to that question. As big as it may be, this place is a duplex, and where we are in particular isn't nearly as vast. There's only two bedrooms after all."

Cyrene looked around, Almira was right, the boarding house was in reality a duplex, with the main house being way bigger than this other house for two.

"I guess you're right."

"May I ask you a similar question? Why did you not have a roommate before? I heard from Ms. Corrigan you have been waiting for one to feel less lonely. You could have anyone else be here."

"Well, Ms. Corrigan is understanding of me, I know some people in the main house, and although a few are like us too, I just can't connect with those people, they make me feel uncomfortable just because I'm the girl with a house all to herself."

"Well, were the other rooms full?"

"No, but just because I can't hear them doesn't mean I don't notice their demeanor around me. It's just weird, I mean I feel like they do talk about me from time to time, but I won't ever be able to know if that's true or not."

"I don't find it weird at all. I feel the same way, I almost expect that someone will be staring at me whenever I use my cane out in public. I'm not offended by their act of staring however, I understand someone like me does not come around often, I could even be the first blind person they see."

Cyrene paused before writing, "I guess you have a point. You know, I enjoy talking with you Almira, but I'm pretty sure that like me, you must be hungry. How about I make some breakfast?"

"Oh, you don't have to bother really, I'm fine."

"It's getting close to noon, you can't tell me you're not hungry."

"Well, I can't deny that some breakfast doesn't sound bad, but I still need to bring my bags and well, if you don't mind, I would like a little tour of this house of yours."

"Don't worry Almira, we'll get to those after we're  finished. Let's go to the kitchen, I making eggs today."

Almira nodded, and talked into the phone again,"Would you mind if you can lend me your shoulder or arm? I have yet to become accustomed to this house."

Cyrene spoke up, "No problem at all, here," she grabbed Almira's hand and placed it on her shoulder, "Lucky for you there are no steps here like there would have been in the main house, some people trip there even when they see it all the time."

Cyrene looked as Almira covered her mouth smiling,"Is that a giggle I see?"

Almira nodded, and they walked out into the living room.