The Silence Between Us

Wanda the Walking Stick

Chapter 6:

"What are you doing here?"

My voice was the only thing that broke the silence, the boys unusually quiet for once in their lives. As for Alex, I heard him only shuffling his feet, feeling the tension in the atmosphere.

I could hear the rustle of the fabric of his clothes, and realized he probably was trying to sign something to me, forgetting for a brief moment that I couldn't see it or read what his hands said. He stopped abruptly, pausing for a moment before the twins on both of my sides gasped.

"Oh, he's talking to us!" Oliver exclaimed.

"What is he trying to tell us?" Dylan responded, trailing off as he tried to figure it.

"I don't know. Do it again!"

Alex's hands started moving. I could tell that the twins understood what he was saying when they practically jumped up and down.

"I get it! I get it! He wants a pencil and paper!"

I smiled at Dylan and patted him on the head. Motioning to Alex, I said, "Why don't you come on inside."

He took a few steps away from the door, his footsteps pounding the ground with his heavy tread. I temporarily let go of Dylan's hand to shut the door behind him, his small hand instantly replacing the empty space after I was done. They took me to the kitchen and one of them pulled out my chair while the other grabbed the paper and pencil like Alex had requested.

When we were all sitting down again at the square table, I looked at the twins, "Mind translating for us?" I said, gesturing to the paper that was sitting in front of us. Writing it out not in braille would be easier for Alex, so I hoped he didn't mind if the twins read whatever he said.

They nodded and I heard the pencil flying over the piece of paper, Alex quickly jotting down whatever he was meaning to say. After he was finished, the paper slid over to the twins and they gave an excited yelp at having received it. If they were confused about how Alex spoke, but now refused to they didn't show it. Instead they seemed super pumped that they got to meet someone from school. No one's ever just showed up like this.

The twins wrestled with the piece of paper for a little bit, fighting over which one would get to read before I had enough and told them that Oliver would start, and Dylan would get his turn after. And without any hesitation after that, Oliver started reading the piece of paper.

"Ahem," he said clearing his throat, "I came to convince you to stay at school. I heard that you weren't coming back on Monday and after what happened on Friday I wouldn't blame you." At this, Oliver turned to me, stopping his progress with the note, "What happened on Friday?"

The boys weren't dense for ten-year-old's, and even if they didn't know about my bullying, they were able to pick up on the subtle things. They were questioning my story of me accidently tripping and falling on my walking stick, breaking it. Saying that a small fall wouldn't break the plastic that easily, they kept bombarding me with questions, but I just shrugged them off. And I still wasn't going to tell them anything about that day.

"Nothing." I said as I ruffled his hair, thankfully not the greasy one, "Continue."

"I wanted to give you this." He said, which prompted Alex to place something on the table and slide it across to me. My hands ran over it, trying to figure out what it was. I smiled when I figured it out, setting it beside me like how I did with the other one.