Pipsqueak

Chapter|008

THE MUTE LANGUAGE

Glade|007

"All right Greenie, we need to establish some sort of communication between you and us." Alby sat across from Mouse, claiming the other medical bed. "The boys seem to get the gist of the hand signals so let's keep with that."

Mouse nodded her head in agreement.

"Basics. Uhh...anything for Glade? What's the first thing that comes to your mind?"

She pondered long and hard for a doable signal that the boys would learn. Something significant to the Glade. The field. The walls. They were both large aspects of the Glade.

Mouse waved her fingers at Alby to make sure his attention was on her. She pinched her thumb and index finger together of both hands, resting them together. She slowly raised her right hand — her fingers remaining pinched together — a few inches above her left. She spread her pinched fingers apart, forming forming L shaped corners as she widened the distance between her hands forming two corners of an imaginary box, "Glade."

"Glade." Alby repeated her movements. Slow at first then quicker to adjust to the motion. "Okay, and Glader can be just the pinching and rising part." Alby showed her what he meant.

Mouse grinned and held up a finger, "One Glader." She kept her left hand in its pinched formation but dangled her right hand above it, her hand horizontal rather than vertical with all her fingers clumped together. She then rose her right hand a few inches, "Many Gladers."

"Okay, see, now we got something to work with. How about Keepers?" Alby twiddled his thumbs in circles as he thought of possibilities. "Oh, how about..." Alby extended his hand in front of himself, his palm faced opened almost towards the sky. He brought his arm back, closing his hand into a fist and tucked it close to his chest, "Keeper."

Mouse mimicked his motion, extended her arm with her palm open then brought it to her chest with a closed fist, "Keeper."

"Not bad. I think the boys can learn these in a day. And in a week, understanding you will be easy." Alby smiled at Mouse, his dark eyes beaming at the success.

Mouse raised her left hand, showing it to Alby for his attention. She lightly pressed her fingers against her lips, then her hand fell from her face, "Hand Speak."

Alby grinned, "Hand Speak it is."

~~~

"You want to stop the bleeding before cleaning the wound. Trust me, it's much easier and quicker to clean a wound that's done bleeding compared to one that won't stop." Clint, one of two Med-jacks, told her as he applied pressure to the Slicer's wound. "Right, Wes?"

"Yeah." Wes chuckled, his sight flickered over Mouse, "I've seen the shank patch me up several times."

"Patient of the month." Clint joked.

Mouse watched as Clint lifted the cloth from Wes' wound. The bleeding stopped. "What's the damage Clint?"

Clint grabbed Wes' hand and examined the slice on his palm, "Greenie, grab the stitches behind you."