Piano Man

Chapter One - The Beginning of The End

Felix Eckrich was a very quiet, lonely person. He had never cried, shouted, laughed, or swore, but he could tell you in a million other ways besides speech how bad he wanted to.
It all started on a day that was supposed to be normal, calm, like any other day. Up at the top of the hill looking out over the cold river I sat, writing stupid little quips and poems.
"Felix! Jump!" Enter Ben, the school's, no, the world's biggest asshole.
"Yeah Felix! What are you? A little chicken boy?" Elias chimed in, looking for praise from Ben. That received a insult directed at both of them under my breath.
"When," I spoke, standing up and turning on my heels to face the two delinquents. "Are you guys going to grow u-"
"Charge him!" Yelled the older boy, pointing his short, fat little index finger right at me, the way that a child picks out candy at a candy store. Before I had the chance to blink, or laugh at Ben's small hands, I had fallen straight down, four stories into a river below.
A sickening crunch sounded as I lay helpless on my broken arm and ribs, a piece of wood the size of a small dagger logged in my upper chest and back, as I struggled on the ground.
"Help!" I screamed. Nothing came out. No gasp, not even a moan. Just the sound of water and blood in my ears and mud in my eyes. Grabbing onto whatever was next to me at that moment, I managed to throw it a couple feet away from myself, in a sad attempt to make any noise at all. The last thing I heard before loosing consciousness, was a soft melody that lulled me into a fever-like dream but perhaps I imagined it.
The melody fades into a memory of my mother, holding me in her arms and feeding me while my father sat at the piano. Or was he sitting at his desk? Did we have a piano? Her humming, or singing got louder and louder until the dream began to fade out and the beeping of a machine began.
"Your name is Felix Eckrich. You're 13 years old, your mother's name is Adelaide, your father is dead. You fell off a cliff and landed in a river. Is that right Mr. Eckrich?" Can't answer.
"Mr. Eckrich?" My eyes open to see a white cone around my neck, like the ones they use on dogs to prevent them from clawing at their wounds. I am not a dog. What's under it?
"Why am I here?" I try to ask. Not a sound.
"Where...Where Is here, anyway?" I ask myself. My attention was drawn suddenly to my own lips. They were moving. They were mouthing my words but, why couldn't I hear them?
"Felix..."
"Mama?" I gasped, hearing myself gasp and hearing my mom assured me that I hadn't gone deaf. I tried to move to look at her yet she held me back.
"No, no Felix," She grabbed my hand and sighed. A sigh of genuine heartbreak. "You can't move." "Not yet." I reached my hand to my neck and felt around. There, right at the base of my neck, were little threads that felt like cats' whiskers against my skin.
My hands gravitated towards my lips. "F-Felix." My lips moved. I felt my lips as I said, or tried to say, my own name. "
Doctor Fitz, I think you," My mom's breathed hitched. "You should tell him."
I nodded slowly, trying to communicate how badly confused I was. Why was my mom crying? Why do I have stitches? Shouldn't I be dead?
"Felix, this," He sighed. Enough with the sighing, I thought. "This was not an easy decision to make. We thought very hard about it and it was what needed to be done. When those boys pushed you, rest assured, they've been jailed, you fell off a cliff, which, by itself, is no easy feat to survive." He spoke carefully. "A piece of wood pierced through your back, just barely missing your spine, and instead crushed your voice box. We had to remove it. You will never speak again, but you will survive this with nothing but two scars that are expected to fade in a few years." He stopped. "I'm so sorry."
I knew how to sign very few things, but still I sat up and signed to Fitz, "Thank you."
I had seven words for my mother, but they were perfect.
"I'm still here, mom. I love you."