Soft Silence | ✓ | unedited

Chapter Six ⌔ Teary Funeral

  (will be edited at a later date)
      
Chapter Six ⌔ Teary Funeral

                                                                      

        There was a gentle knock on the door, making me reluctantly look up from the history book opened in front of me. I turned my head to look at my bedroom door, wondering who on earth would be disturbing me at this time of the evening. I pushed my chair back and stood up, making my way over to the door and opening it.

             David stood there, a grin in place. I narrowed my eyes at him and waited for him to speak.

             He lifted his hands and there was a flurry of movement and my eyes widened.

             What?

             “I know American Sign Language,” he said, grinning at me as he paused in his hand movements. He spoke again and slowly moved his hands in time with what he was saying, “I just remembered that I could teach you if you want.”

             I stared at him, my mouth dropping open. How on earth did he know sign language? David must’ve seen the confused look on my face because he smiled again.

             “A few of my cousins and uncles are deaf-mute, so we all had to learn it.”

             So that meant Lisa and Eric knew sign-language as well? I stared at David and then frowned, shaking my head.

             “Really, you’re not even curious to learn even a little?” David asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. I winced and then shook my head again.

             His smile dropped and disappointment flickered over his face. I felt guilt rising up in me but I shrugged it off.

             “Okay, then,” he said, mournfully. His blue eyes flickered over my shoulder into my room and landed on my desk. “Hey, is that history you’re studying?”

             My mouth dropped open again in shock as he pushed past me to enter my bedroom. He walked over to my desk and peered down at the history book. His eyes scanned the page that I had marked earlier and he frowned.

             “Oh, hey, I don’t get the part where –” He started before he suddenly cut off. I followed his gaze to see what caught his attention, freezing up when I realized he was looking at a corner of a frame I’d dumped behind my desk. I started to lunge towards him as he reached over and plucked out the large cardboard chart from behind my desk and leaned it against the wall to get a good look at it.

             Wide blue eyes flickered over to me in shock. “You’re a photographer?”

             I swallowed as I stepped up beside him and let my eyes roam the white cardboard chart with the many photographs I’d taken. I pursed my lips as I reached over and gently ran my thumb over my favorite picture of Karen and my mother, Felicity.

             They were sitting together on the sofa, wearing their coziest pajamas with their hair let down. My mother was sitting cross legged on the sofa, holding a book in her hand and looking at the camera with her oversized reading glasses and a wide smile on her face. Karen lay across the sofa, her head resting in my mother’s lap as her legs dangled off the arm of the sofa. She was laughing, her hands clutching at her stomach.

             My eyes flickered to the many photos of Karen and her friends, mom and her friends and finally… Karen and Joey. I felt a small smile tugging on my lips as I reached forward and lightly ran my hand over the picture of a blushing Karen as Joey whispered something into her ear, a cheeky smile on his face.