I was amazed by my reviews! I love you guys!
Perhaps I'd better explain. All my other stories are about Robin Hood. My longest story has nine chapters and about 40 reviews...
sigh-
Anyway, all of your reviews gave me lots of motivation to write more! (I write on my bus ride from school so I get a lot done.)
But on Sunday I was so happy to see all the nice comments you gave me. I love feedback! See how happy you all have made me! Yay!
Without further ado,
The Sound of Her Voice,
Chapter 2: Appointments, Implants, and Naughty Little Brothers
I walk into the white examining room hesitantly, wondering why I had Myoga schedule an appointment. He and Kaede are sitting in the waiting room looking at magazines while I get to have a test to see what 'treatment' would do best for me. I'm beginning to doubt the decision to come here in the first place. Surely my condition is fine, annoying, but livable.
A lot more people would understand me if I could talk.
Who needs that anyway? I don't need people like Ayumi to talk to.
Well... it would improve my social situation...
Who needs friends!
They're better than Sesshomaru.
My musings areinterrupted by the door opening. I see a motherly looking woman in the stereotypical white coat of a doctor.
"So you are... Inuyasha." She signs, holding onto a clipboard with one hand.
"Dr. Hiragashi?" I ask.
She nods. "And how old are you?" she asks, a well-meaning smile on her face.
"Fifteen."
"Really? That's the same age as my two girls."
I raise my eyebrows in a question.
"They're twins, you see." She smiles again, "Kikyo and Kagome."
I nod, hoping she will stop talking about her family life and start talking about whether or not I will be able to hear.
But no... The gods are against me.
"Kikyo is the oldest, by fifty minutes. She likes school quite a bit. Do you like school? Do you even go to school?"
Does she ever shut up?
"Now Kagome has always been a little bit of a problem child..."
Will I be forced to hear about her silly daughters all afternoon?
"She has not spoken ever since this car accident where she was..."
"Dr. Hiragashi?" I butt in, hoping I'm not seeming rude, "what can you do about my... condition?"
"Oh!" Dr. Hiragashi says, "I'm sorry. You'll have to excuse me. I shall get right back on track." She examines me first. "Do you have any diseases?"
"No."
"Any liver conditions?"
"No."
"Heart conditions?"
"No."
"So you're perfectly normal, other than the fact that you're deaf?"
"Yes."
"Ok..."
She tests me for a while and I go along with it. While she pokes and prods, she tells me of her twins, Kagome and Kikyo, as well as her nine year old son, Souta.
I vow never to meet her children.
"Can you hear this, Inuyasha?" she asks, fiddling with a contraption.
"No."
"This?"
"No."
"This?"
"No."
"This? This? This?"
"No."
"This?"
A very faint, very high pitched noise fills my useless ears.
I nod excitedly.
She flips through her clipboard. "It seems you have..." she checks her notes, "About 2 percent normal hearing."
"Really?" That's worse than I though. I had always thought it was 3.
"Yes... now let's see..."
The door of the clinic bursts open, revealing two teenaged girls holding a struggling kid by the scruff of the neck.
One of the girls starts moving her mouth in speech, the other signs wildly. They both look extremely angry. Judging from what I can make out of the second girl's signing, the little boy had stolen their both diaries and posted them on the internet.
Dr. Hiragashi looks as though she is about to burst out laughing, but she attempts a frown and says something severe to the boy, who I assume to be Souta.
I stifle a snigger, and the girl who can sign gives me a severe look. I roll my eyes at her, and she looks insulted.
"Inuyasha," Dr. Hiragashi signs, "These are my children, Souta," she gestures to the boy "Kikyo," she points to the girl who can speak, "and Kagome." She places a hand on Kagome's shoulder.
The children who, I assume, can hear, sign 'hello' rather clumsily. Kagome signs expertly, and adds, "You wouldn't find it funny either if it was your diary."
"I don't have a diary." I grin, knowing it will be extremely annoying.
"Well, you're missing a lot."
"Whatever."
"Now, where was I?" signs Dr. Hiragashi.
"What you could do for me to fix my deafness." I remind her.
"Oh." She flips through her brochures.
"How deaf are you?" asks Kagome, with quite a bit of interest on her face.
"None of your business." I tell her.
"So let's see, Inuyasha, you have... 2 percent of normal hearing, which makes you... profoundly deaf." Dr. Hiragashi signs, informing Kagome of my situation, to my annoyance. "Have you ever worn hearing aids?" asks Kagome's mother.
"I think I might have when I was little, but they never worked."
"Well, it seems your best option would be a cochlear implant."
"A what?"
"It's a machine inserted into your head that goes directly into your inner ear cavity. There's a transmitter that's attached to your head that sends the machine the sound."
"So I will be able to hear?"
She nods.
"It won't be easy. You'll have to go through surgery, and then you'll actually have to learn the hearing language itself."
"Can I talk to my family about it? I was only coming here for a consultation."
"Of course." She smiles and hands me two business cards. "Here is my card. This one is of the doctor who will actually perform the operation."
I look at the second card. 'Houshi Miroku, auditory doctor.' "Thank you." I say to Dr. Hiragashi, ignoring her daughter, who is scowling at me.
"You're welcome. Have your parents call me if they have any questions."
"Actually, if you want to talk to my people, you might want to talk to Myoga and Kaede outside."
"Right," affirms the doctor, who promptly exits the examining room to talk to my nurse and tutor.
"Your people!" repeats Kagome as soon as her mother has left the room.
Her sister and brother look at her strangely then say something to her as they leave the room from a different door.
"They aren't my parents, what else am I supposed to call them?" I sign, ignoring them.
"Their names?"
"Hey, I employ them!"
She shakes her head in exasperation.
"Why are you lecturing me? You've only just met me!" I ask, annoyed.
"You just seem the annoying type, that's all." She flips her hair and leaves the room, rejoining her siblings.
'Girls,' I think as I get in the hired car my father sent to drive me about.
"So, how was the appointment, Inuyasha?" Myoga asks me, regarding my contemplative frame of mind.
"Alright." I sign, "Busy. I'm tired and hungry. Can we get some ramen or something?"
"Fine." Kaede signs back, "Your doctor told me about the cochlear implant, do you think you will do it?'
"Maybe," I reply, and spend the rest of the ride looking out the window, thinking.