Hear me now

Part 6

One week later.

Indra had sent over the schematic proposal. Now, it's up to Dr. Erka and her team to device a suitable medical procedure for the implant. Once the procedure has been decided, then it is time to pick out the test subjects. Since this is a new procedure, the risk would be high, and they can't afford to do a test on a mass scale. The university allowed them to have three volunteers. They must pick the volunteers carefully, Indra already had three types of volunteers in mind.

The first volunteers would be someone who was born dead, the second would be someone who has partial hearing, and the last volunteers would be someone who had developed deafness. He knew exactly who to pick for the last volunteer.

The days moves quickly. The research progress is not going as smoothly as Indra had hoped but he soldiers on. His team schematics was rejected as it was too complicated, and they had submitted another to Dr. Erka team. Dr. Erka team reviews it and send feedback to Indra. This goes on back and forth until they found a solution.

While all of that is happening, Indra still manages to stay connected with Luthfe. They are beginning to form a kinship towards one another. In the weekend, he would occasionally go to Luthfe's and hang out with him. During that time, he knew what an amazing life Luthfe had lived. He heard many interesting stories about him. Indra grows to admire Luthfe even more.

It starts as any other day but today is different. He goes to his office and start skimming through each report until he comes across Dr. Erka proposal to him. The last proposal they had sent was doable and they had proposed a procedure to implant the device. Indra jumps with joy.

Finally, after years of toiling and failure was worth it. He couldn't contain his excitement. He runs to his team and announce to them.

"Lunch is on me today!"

Everyone in the room switch attention to him.

"We're finally going into the testing stage of our device! We're finally able to see the fruits of our labour. "The room claps with excitement. Everyone is congratulating each other.

It's after work and the high from today still has not come down in him. One of the hardest hurdles is behind him and time to prepare how his device will perform in the real world.

He reaches into his pocket and takes out a phone. He texts Luthfe

"Dinner tonight? Same Tom Yam place that we went to for the first time."

"Sure." Luthfe replies.

___________

Luthfe meets Indra at the restaurant. The variety of smell coming from the kitchen permeates the air. He greets him and sits down. The waiter comes and takes his order. Luthfe points to the items on the menu. The waiter shuffles away.

In sign language

Luthfe asks "What's up?"

"A lot, but what's going on with you?" Indra speaks

Luthfe gestures dismissively "Not much, same ol' life."

Indra sensing Luthfe being hesitant. "Well, I got good news at work." Luthfe nods, He continues "I'm finally at the last stages of my research. My dream of developing a cochlear implant is finally coming true."

Luthfe claps "Congratulations! This is a momentous moment."

Then, the waiter comes and serves their food. Luthfe orders shrimp fried rice and Indra, beef soup vermicelli.

"Excuse me waiter, does the shrimp fried this rice?" Indra joke with a stupid grin knowing that the joke has been said to death a million times. The waiter awkwardly laughs, smiles, and walks away. They ate the food. They are both quick eaters, the foods gone in a span of fifteen minutes.

"So, about my research now, we're at the clinical test stage. We're finding and assessing volunteers" Indra paused, wipes his mouth. "I am going to ask something from you."

Luthfe interest pique. He raises his eyebrows.

"I'm going to ask you to take part in my research." Indra eyes stare intensely at Luthfe. There's a glimmer of hope in his eyes, part of him is expecting Luthfe to accept it.

Luthfe eyes stares back, his hands are silent. He tilts his head slightly in acknowledgement.

Indra clarifies further. "Okay, this device is going to be implanted under the skin so it's not visible unlike cochlear implants today. No one will know you can't hear." He nods. Indra wants to continue the explanation, Luthfe put his hands out and stops him. He stares.

Luthfe signals the waiter for the cheque. They pay and leave the restaurant. While walking.

In sign language

"I have to think about it." Luthfe says.

Indra agrees with the request and they part way.

Luthfe takes a long drive home. Meanwhile, he mulls over Indra proposal. "Should he accept it? But what if it doesn't work, then he would get his hopes up for nothing. Indra request is what he's been wanting all this time but why is he so hesitant?" He thinks.

The lights streak through the windshield. The view in front of him blurs into the background, what in focus is only the way forward. This has always been his favourite way of gathering his thoughts. He could let his thoughts organise itself like how the road and the car keeps moving forming a line and hopefully a conclusion.

The door creaks as he enters his home. His body thumps on the bed. He tosses and turn as he try to sleep, afterwards drags his body to the living room. Luthfe looks nostalgically at his instruments. It's a memento of his past, which would be the present if his hearing wasn't taken away from him. He grabs a saxophone, an instrument which he made his name with. Luthfe lungs, they used to call him as he could belt out a saxophone solo that reverberates loudly, every patron of the club turned their head.

He cups the body, lips the mouthpiece, and blows the saxophone. He could feel the vibration through his fingers. He blows again. How he wishes he could hear the sweet bright sounds that its making. It's all he wanted since he lost his hearing. He lost one element of his world that makes it complete.

His eyes steeled. He knows what he must do. He wants to be whole again.

The morning after he texts Indra

I'm in.