Can You See Me/Can You Hear Me

Count Me In

Connor and Evan stood in the doorway. Evan was frozen, his eyebrows furrowed. A woman with blonde hair ending just below her shoulders entered the hallway. She was speaking to Evan.

". . . Your friend?" Was all he caught. Evan stuttered out a response. He was talking to fast and repeating so many words Connor couldn't understand him.

The woman directed her speech towards Connor. He was about to sign that he couldn't hear, but Evan beat him to it. The woman gasped and covered her mouth. She spewed out an apology.

'I'm sorry,' the lady signed. Connor took a step back in surprise. He wasn't expecting her to know sign language. 'I'm Heidi Hansen.'

'Connor Murphy,' he responded. 'How do you know sign language?'

'My parents wanted me to be bilingual when I was younger, but I couldn't speak at the time so they taught me sign language. I ended up forgetting how to do it, but when an eight-year-old Evan came to me saying there was a deaf kid in his class and that he wanted to learn sign language, I ended up learning it too.'

Connor nodded and Heidi directed her attention towards Evan. She said something to him. He mumbled a reply.

Evan kneeled down to undo the dog's work vest and leash. Once free, the dog ran over to the grey couch and jumped on it, laying down on the arm. His paws hung over the edge and he rested his head on his paws.

The two continued speaking but Connor wasn't making a move to try to understand them. He was busy looking at the apartment. There was an old box television with a Wii hooked up to it next to the patio door. Confused, he decided to ask Evan about it when Heidi left the room.

'I don't use it often because I can't,' was Evan's reply, 'but whenever Jared comes over, he turns on Netflix and I just listen to it.'

Evan walked over to the couch and sat down. Connor followed and sat next to him. They sat in silence for awhile.

'I should probably go get my copy of the Raven so we can begin the project,' Evan said. He stood up and walked over to the hallway and disappeared. Connor dug out his phone so he could look up a copy online. Upon turning on the phone, texts filled the lock screen. They were from Zoe, asking where he was and that if he wasn't back in time for dinner, Larry was going to be mad.

Connor's reply was a simple: fuck off Zoe. He pocketed the phone right as Evan returned. He was holding a book of what Connor assumed was poems. He also had a sheet of paper and some other things. He had no idea what they were.

Evan sat back down, on the left side this time. Heidi came back into the room, saying that she was leaving for her next shift and would be back around six and if Connor needs a ride, she can drop him off.

When she left, the two boys got to work.

Heidi paced around in the living room, phone up to her ear. It was midnight and she was trying to be as quiet as she could. She had just gotten done with class when she got the phone call.

"Heidi," the man said, "I know I haven't been there but I care about-"

"You lost your chance, John," Heidi interrupted, "you lost that chance when you left us. If you truly cared about us you wouldn't have left."

"I have rights too, you know!" John exclaimed. "I want to be a decent father but you won't let me help, let alone be near him!"

"If you want to be a decent father, then why don't you try talking to him?" Heidi stood in front of the door to the porch. "And if he doesn't want to talk to you, then I guess that settles it."