Listen With Your Heart [May Continue in Future]

CH 22

I sat in the airline terminal with my family Facetiming Zander as we waited for our flight to England to finally meet our grandmother. I was sitting against a wall by myself in a corner, holding my phone an arm's length away. My brothers were off exploring or something, even though Tom wasn't hostile to Zander anymore, when Zander was around Tom usually wasn't. My parents were sitting in an airport restaurant, getting slightly drunk off of airport beer . It was a funny juxtaposition, to see the cheerful, carefree holiday/christmas decorations all around us while my parents were stressed to no end.

"So you're going to be gone all winter break?" Zander signed to me on the phone. I nodded "We're returning on the 3rd so we'll be there for two weeks. It'll be, like, the first time my family has ever been to England, my parents grew up there but my brothers and I have never been."

"Really? Why?" Zander asked. "Our parents have always said that it's a big world and we don't need to go back to where we've been...even though we've been to Hawaii like three times" I shrugged "But looking at them now" I said as I glanced over to them "I don't think they actually wanted to go back."

Zander changed the subject "So what am I supposed to do with your Christmas gift?" "The bj two days ago wasn't my gift? I thought that new tongue trick you tried out was my gift, it sure felt like one" I signed very small-ly so my parents couldn't see my fingers. Zander rolled his eyes and I saw my brothers waving me over so I signed "I'll text you when I'm in England I'll see you later."

I walked over to my brothers "'Sup?" I asked. "It's a long flight to England, almost as long as my dick; should I get sour candy, chocolate candy or sweet gummy candy?" Tom asked, pointing to the candy shelf we all stood in front of. "You realize we're triplets and have the same 'stuff' right? So saying 'my' like that doesn't really make sense" Henry pointed out. Tom rolled his eyes "You're just jealous that I have bigger balls than you. BUT ANYWAY" Tom sighed quickly, cutting off Henry "So Candy?" "Just get all three, I don't think Dad will care" I signed, looking at our parents.

"So I just thought of something" Henry signed as Tom payed for his armload of candy "How is Oliver going to communicate? He has issues reading lips when a person has an accent and he doesn't know British Sign Language. Our parents make an effort speak American with Oliver but sometimes he can't follow Uncle Liam's and his family's lips." "Well you've wanted to be an Interpreter when you got older right? In case your music didn't work out? So here a good practice" Tom signed.

Henry's and Tom's heads turned to the clerk as he said something and Tom scoffed before saying "You're not nearly good looking enough for us to be talking about you, you narcissistic caveman. Maybe if you shaved the pubic hair on your face that's your sad, pathetic excuse for a mustache and beard and washed your greasy hair then you'd be worth talking about. Oh look at me, I'm a middle aged guy working in an airport snack shop, I'm obviously important enough for these three strangers to talk about me" Tom said before he stomped out of the shop, throwing the money needed to pay for items at the guy's face.

"What was all that about?" Henry asked as we walked away from the snack shop. "It just pisses me off that people are so conceited and self-centered that when they see or hear someone speaking a different language in their general area; that they're being talked about" Tom replied "Maybe we're using sign language because our brother is deaf, does that ever occur to anyone? Maybe no one gives a shit about you and we're all just trying to live our own lives." "Henry I think you need to put Tom down for a nap" I joked and Tom's mood improved as he laughed "Oliver is right it's waaay past my nap time. I've already been awake for two hours, I need a nap."

"So what's the plan after we land?" I asked my slightly drunk parents as we approached them. "Zayn or Liam will pick us up from the airport and we'll spend the night in Wolverhampton. We'll be meeting your grandmother for dinner at a Nando's the next day" Pops said.

"Nando's? Isn't that the fast food place Uncle Niall really likes? The entire reason he opened the cafe was to bring Nando's over to here but it didn't work out and that's why we have it right?" Henry asked. "It'll be a neutral environment with witnesses so everyone will be tempted to behave...plus its one of the few things we miss about England" Dad explained. Suddenly everyone stood up and seeing my confused face Henry quickly signed "Our gate has been changed, there was an announcement over the loudspeaker, cmon it's almost time to board."

The plane was massive as it was nonstop from LAX to LHR, Los Angeles to London, nonstop. We were in 3rd class, or Premium Economy after First and Business Class but before Basic Economy. Our section of the plane was separated from the other sections by curtains for some reason, but we had our own set of bathrooms. Seats were clumped together in groups of three; there were three groups of three seats per row and there only four rows of seats in our section.

My brothers and I sat together while our parents sat next to a stranger in the group of seats next to ours. I got window seat, Henry got middle and Tom got aisle seat, to compromise however Henry claimed our shoulders as a pillows whenever he wanted and got the arm rests for both his arms since no one wanted to sit in the middle.

"We're going to arrive in London fairly late but you lads should get some sleep, try to get a jump on the jetlag" Dad warned as my brothers and I sat down in our seats after putting our luggage in the overhead bins. "But if you lads suddenly get bad jetlag, we'll be more than happy to postpone the meeting with your grandmother" Pops said with a smirk. "Louis" Dad said, some what sternly but followed up with "But of course we won't make you meet her if you're sick."

All of us turned to see a overly cheerful flight attendant who had a piece of paper in her hand. Seeing my brothers, myself and Pops, who was just an older version of all of us, she handed the paper to him. Pops scanned it before he handed it to me: "Hi my name is Clarine, you've informed us that you have a hearing impairment but it will be my mission to make this flight as enjoyable as possible for you. Please let me know if you need anything."

I looked up and saw her standing there excitedly with a pen and a pad of paper, like a stack of big sticky notes or something, which she held to me so I could see it. On the first paper square-thing it said "Just use this if you need anything :) "I gave a half smile and she peeled off the top sheet and wrote "So what does everyone want to drink while we wait for take off?"

I hated Customer Service people, I always felt so awkward being stared at. When I stole some of Henry's Sprite, because I got for Coke, she appeared out of nowhere and handed me another drink, with Sprite, even though I didn't ask for it or even really wanted it, I was just being a jerk to Henry and stole some of his. You know, brotherly love and all that. At the same time however there was a man trying to get her attention because he needed help with his bag and she totally ignored him while almost staring at me to make sure I didn't need anything. When we were served dinner, however, she even gave me an extra ice cream though; yay deaf perks.

I didn't sleep at all, because let's be real, shooting through the atmosphere isn't really a good environment to sleep in. Plus it was a fairly shaky flight which jolted me awake if I even tried to sleep. So the ten hour flight just became a movie marathon with my brothers and I; thankfully all the movies were closed caption so it wasn't too bad.

The flight attendant quickly developed a habit of standing at our row until I shook my head or handed her a piece of paper every half hour or so; even if my brothers or parents said anything, she'd still wait for me to give her a signal before she would walk away. About five hours in, or the mid way point, a guy replaced her and handed me another piece of paper that introduced himself. He was a little better, only keeping an eye me instead of hovering around. It still annoyed me though, because it felt like they assumed that I couldn't take care of myself or ask like a normal human being, it reminded me of how young children were usually treated.

The rest of the flight though was uneventful though and a few hours later, I elbowed Henry, pointing to the lights appearing on the horizon, we're arrived at London.