Talking Loudly

Chapter 1

The man strolls into August's office. August immediately sat straight in his chair when his door opened and revealed his boss.

"Come on my boy," the old man says. The thing that August didn't understand was the old man. Why he was so caring? He treated August like a son and obviously loved him like one.

"I need to get a case," August says shaking his head at the old man.

The old man shook his head, "You will not. I banned it. You won't get another in the next two weeks."

August froze, "What?" August was now angry. What the heck? Now what he was supposed to do? Everyone was going to see him as a sore loser now.

The old man knew what August was thinking. He remembered reading the boy's resume. The nervous freshly graduated twenty four year old. The old man grabbed August's jacket and held it up for August.

"Come with me," the old man says with a old wise smile.

"Mr. Santorini, I really am fine. I really do need to focus on a new client," August says shaking his head at the old man.

"They can wait. Come on," Mr. Santorini says. August looks at his computer and sighs. Then he got up and put on his jacket and followed Mr. Santorini.

The old man never married. And often felt lonely. He loved reading books and one day found himself at the book store across the street. He knew the owner who was deaf and worked very hard with the store. She pulled impressive numbers.

"Why are we at the bookstore?" August asks the man.

"We are looking for a book. Your teachers wrote how you loved to read. Do you still read just to enjoy? Other than just case information and the news?" Mr. Santorini asks. August finally starts reading the book labels.

The old man smiled and left August to read all the books spines until he came across something interesting. August found that they were in the language section when he saw that he was reading books about American Sign Language.

He frowns thinking about his older brother and two twin little sisters. Who all were deaf. His mom was also deaf, while his dad and him were hearing. One of the twins is hard of hearing, but didn't want any hearing aids. She found them annoying. The twins who came as a surprise when his mom was thirty-seven. August was fifteen when they were born. They were half his age and loved them too much. He should go see them soon. He pulls out his phone and sent them both a text asking what they have been up to.

Mr. Santorini smiled to himself as he watched August look at some of the American Sign Language books. He remembered checking a few out that way he could communicate with the bookstore owner. Speaking of, he wondered if she was here today.

Mr. Santorini didn't understand August sometimes. August didn't like to talk about his family and he didn't know why.

"I'm going to go look for someone, be right back," Mr. Santorini says wandering off. The old man takes his time going through the shelves until he finds the small red head standing on a ladder shelving books. He waits patiently for her to step down and notice him. He was patient which was something that he learned as he got older.

August felt confused after the old man had walked away. Did he finally get a girlfriend? August himself was curious. He was going to follow the old man to see who he was looking for. But his phone stopped him. One of his sisters texted back. He stops walking and answers. Her text consisted with how much she misses him and wished that he was there to hang out with her.

He replies saying that he would come see her sometime this week and then starts looking for Mr. Santorini. After looking through the awfully large bookstore he finally finds him by looking through the book shelves. He moves a book carefully being silent and watches as Mr. Santorini slowly moves his hands.