Alicia’s eyes fluttered as she began to regain consciousness. She could feel a soft surface under her arms. A bed maybe? Her mind was still foggy. What had happened?
She tried to remember. Everything was such a blur. A date. She had a date. With Lucas. No, they went on the date. Then what? Two men. Yes, two men dragged her from her room. They tied her down and grabbed her breast. And then... and then...
Her eyes opened wide and she bolted upright. She gasped, taking in a deep breath and letting out a scream. The sound pierced her ears and she clapped her hands over them. She closed her mouth and lowered her hands. She could hear her breathing. Uneasy and erratic but she could hear it.
She could hear a faint tapping sound. An uneven pattern. She looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. She turned and put her feet on the hardwood floor, realizing that she was wearing a dress. A kind she had never seen before. With flower patterns and a matching ribbon that went around the back. She ran her finger around the patterns, tracing the flowers against the yellow backdrop.
Alicia stood and could hear the tapping sound just a little louder. She looked up and realized that it was coming from above her. She stared at the ceiling and tried to imagine what it was. People? Animals? Something else?
As she stared at the ceiling she wandered towards the window. She heard the off-beat pattern next to her. She looked at the window, listening to the sound coming from the other side of the curtain. Alicia put her hands on the curtains and froze. What if what was making the noise was something dangerous? She took a deep breath. Held it. Exhaled and threw open the curtains.
She opened her eyes, not realizing she had closed them, and let out a giggle. Rain. It was rain. She laughed and pressed her hand against the window. She could hear the rain.
Alicia pressed her ear against the window the way she used to do when it would rain. She could feel the tapping but now she could hear the matching sound. She jumped when a loud thumping came from across the room.
She looked and stared at the door. “Hel...hel..low?” She managed to get the awkward-sounding word out of her mouth. It sounded muffled. Dull. She wasn’t even sure what she said.
The door creaked open. She took a step back at the noise the hinges made. The heavy-looking wooden door swung slowly and a man wearing rough blue pants stepped in the room. He wore a t-shirt that said AC/DC on it, so he must be an electrician. She remembered that much at least.
“How are you today?” he asked as he stepped in the room.
She looked around for her device to answer but didn’t see it. She stared at him before mouthing “Fine, and you?”
“I don’t know much about lip reading, but I guess that means you're doing alright.” He smiled and pulled a small device from his pocket. “This should help you learn how to talk. Can you hear me okay?”
Alicia nodded emphatically, shaking her fist up and down in sign. She pointed to her ears and expanded her fingers, pointing to the ceiling, the window, the door, and him. The smile on her face lit the whole room.
The man chuckled. “Good.” He held the device out to her. “This is for you. A smaller version of your old one. It has a more natural-sounding voice, a young female like you. It will also record your voice so you can hear how you sound. There’s a lot for you to learn now so take it slow. The world has opened up to you.”
She took the device and typed in the words. She pressed play. “Where am I? How can I hear? Where’s Lucas? What about those men? Am I confined to my room? I’m hungry.”
She listened to her questions as the machine spoke them. It was a pleasant-sounding voice. She smiled as she tapped out more questions. “Is this another clinic? Are you an engineer? I’ve never seen pants like those. What’s your name? I’m Alicia.”
He held up his hands, “Easy now. That’s a lot of questions and I’m sure someone will be able to answer all of them for you. For now, my name is Anthony. I’m not an electrician but I understand why you’d think that. These are called blue jeans. And as for this being a clinic, that’s a bit more complicated.” He gestured toward the hall. “Do you want to have a look around?”
She took short slow steps toward the door and stopped at the threshold. The hall was shorter than the one she was used to at the clinic and had wood for walls instead of the bland white. She stepped out of her room and ran her hand along the wall. It was warm and felt like life. Her eyes traced the swirling patterns and expanding circles.
Her bare feet sank into the carpet, leaving a pattern of her footprints behind her. She wiggled her toes between the warm fibers, standing in place. She looked down at her feet, her toes barely visible against the thick blue. She followed the carpet down the hall, past a few other doors and decorations on the wall. She walked up to one of them and ran her finger along the fibers. It was coarse, brown, and white. A long muzzle and a black nose. The eyes were brown and stared off into the distance, beyond the wall in front of it. Horns protruded from the top, between ears that stood up and alert. She took a step back and stared at it for a moment, looking at it from several angles.
“That’s a deer,” Anthony said. “At least part of it anyway.”
She turned and looked at him then back at the deer. “What’s a deer?” She typed into her transpeaker.
“You don’t know what a deer is?”
She shook her head.
“You’ll have to learn a lot of things I guess.” Anthony gestured further down the hall. “It’s time you met a few people.” Alicia froze. “It’s alright. Everyone here is here to help. I imagine you haven’t been around a lot of people, so it too will be a new experience, but nothing to be afraid of.”
He opened a door and took a step in. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet Alicia.” He turned and gently ushered the young woman into the room. She smiled a nervous smile and looked at everyone with a quick glance before turning her gaze to the floor.
The four people in the room smiled and said hello before chatting amongst themselves again. One woman, a middle-aged brunette with dark skin, approached Alicia. “Hello Alicia, my name is Sylvia. I’ll be your speech therapist. Do you know what a speech therapist is?”
Alicia shook her head.
“A speech therapist is someone, like me, who will help you learn how to speak so that others can understand you. Does that make sense?”
Alicia nodded and typed into her device. “Does that mean I’ll be able to talk like you?”
“Well,” Sylvia chuckled, “maybe not exactly like me, but similar, yes.”
Alicia signed OK and smiled. She typed into her device and looked at Anthony. “I’m hungry.”
“Right, you said that.” Anthony chuckled. He looked at Sylvia and nodded. “I think I should get her to the kitchen before she bites me.” That made Alicia laugh. She closed her mouth at hearing it, then smiled.
***
Alicia sat at the high bar counter while Anthony stood across from her, the stove behind him. The plate in front of her had things on it she had never seen before. The first was a flat white substance with a yellow bubble in the middle. Next to that were several red and black wavy strips of something. In a small bowl was a white mush that looked like tiny pieces of rice. She looked at Anthony and tilted her head and furrowed her brows.
He looked at her, a little confused himself. “What’s wrong?”
She looked at him then at the plate and back to him again. “What is this?” She asked from her device.
“Eggs, Bacon and Grits.” He answered then nodded. “Right. You’re probably used to the synthetic stuff. You’d recognize scrambled eggs I’m sure.” He gestured to the plate. “Try it.”
She poked the yellow bubble and sat straight when the yolk ran out and over the egg white. She leaned forward and sniffed it then tried to scoop some up on the fork. The egg rose and slipped off the fork back onto the plate. She picked up the knife and cut into it and tried again, this time managing to get it to her mouth.
She tried each of the items on her plate with curious intent, her facial expressions showing odd interest. Neither good nor bad.
When she tried everything she ate the eggs and bacon but still wasn’t sure about the grits. She looked at Anthony as though asking permission not to eat it.
“That’s alright. It’ll take a few times to figure out how you like them.” He picked up the plate and rinsed it off in the sink. He took the bowl of grits, whistled, and set it on the floor. A medium-sized dog came bounding in from another room and went straight to the bowl. Alicia raised her feet as it came in and watched until it rounded the corner. “That’s Banshee.”
Chapter 19