It has been almost close to a year since I updated, but please let me explain myself. I started writing this fic before One Family the Rise fic. This is the one I have dedicated more time to, but I don't want to post too much for this one before I have finished writing the other one. Everyone has been so unbelievably patient that I figured I could post this much. Hope it's not too much of a disappointment.
Also, if you are still one of the original readers from last year, thank you for coming back and sticking with me.
We had gotten to the point where I hardly needed my notebook at all which was nice. It was just nice having someone understand me and not be afraid of me because I couldn't hear. It began to feel like the old days where my mom and dad just understood me.
"Good day?" he asked me with a full mouth.
"You know I don't understand when your mouth is full."
He gave me a sly smile. "I know." I playfully punched his shoulder.
"Why you not speak?" he asked me as he chewed not moving his mouth. Sign was a great way to speak without getting yelled out for having a full mouth. It's also convenient for having a full conversation across rooms without ever uttering a word.
"Speaking hurts my throat. Also don't know how I sound. Might be ugly."
"Your voice could never be ugly."
"Yeah, it could."
"Speak, please," he begged me, holding his hands together.
Taking a deep breath I opened my mouth and attempted to speak. "No," I said hoarsely.
"See you can speak."
"Not well."
Alexander looked up at the doorway because his father must have just walked in. Turning, I saw he had.
"I like you kids. You can have fun but it's silent fun." We smiled at each other before laughing. "I hate to break up this happy moment, but I have some bad news."
"Bad news," Alex signed for me in case I didn't have time to read his father's lips which I didn't because I had turned back to my food.
"The fuel cells are two weeks from running out of fuel."
"Fuel almost gone."
"What doing?" I asked him.
"What are we gonna do for it, dad?"
Malcolm sat down at the table across from his son. "Well," he scratched his head. "There's this dam up in Muir Woods that we can use for power. We just have to get it unblocked and then maybe the city has a chance again for power."
"Muir Woods!" he signed excitedly.
"No way!"
"Dad says dam in woods. Dam give power."
"Charge phone again?"
"Maybe!" Alex exclaimed. It always made me smile to see him excited.
"Maybe what? You two sign too fast for me to understand."
I turned to face Malcolm and made the sigh for 'call me' and he understood that.
"It's been only ten years. Can't you live without your phone?"
"No," Alex answered for both of us. "We're coming right?" The nicest thing about Alex was that he signed everything he said whether or not I was in the room. It was his way of practicing when I was gone and his way of keeping me informed on all the goings on.
Malcolm sighed and scratched his head. "Well…no." He didn't need to sign because no was universal in any language. "Dangerous," he signed for me.
"Want things to disappear?" I asked him.
"What? Slow down."
"Want...things...disappear?"
"You're going to take my things?"
"Yes!"
"So you two are threatening me so you can come?"
"Yes." I said. My speaking made Alex smile.
"OK! You can come!"
Alex and I high fived each other. "Told you it would work," I signed to him.
"I know. You win."
"Get things ready for tomorrow," Malcolm signed to us both.
"You're better," I told him slowing my sign pace so he could understand. "Keep up good work."
He smiled before ruffling my hair.
.. .. ..
That night I couldn't sleep because I was so excited about going to the woods again for the first time in years. That's where I'd said good bye to my best friend. Maybe after all these years, he was still there. After two hours of tossing and turning, I walked over to Alex's room and knocked on his door. I felt bad knocking on his door because he could hear me and couldn't tell me to open the door so he had to get up and physically open the door. I always thought I was interrupting something but he said I never was. Knocking made me feel worse because he couldn't knock on my door.
The door opened and he waved me in.
"Couldn't sleep either?"
At least I didn't wake him. "No. What doing?"
"Drawing."
"Show." There was little to appreciate in todays world, but the people who had found Ellie and me and Alex's drawings were what I looked forward to the most. He was the artist I wished I could be, but he insisted that my style was more realistic compared to his anime style drawing and that's why they were so different.
I sat on the bed next to his open book and saw me. I was sitting in a dining room chair signing something to his father who was sitting across the table.
"This is me," I told him.
"Yeah. Didn't have model."
"You drew this for me? From memory?"
"Good?"
"Always! Color would be nice."
"I'll get color later, ok?"
Alex was too nice to me sometimes. By too nice I meant that he practically said he would brave going outside to get colored pencils or pastels just to color the picture for me. I could only imagine he'd do something like that for me because I was nice to him. He used to be bullied in school which made me glad I was homeschooled. It's not that I didn't want to go to public school, but the transition to no one knowing how to talk to me was worrisome for my parents, so they kept me at home.
"Alex. It is beautiful without color."
"But I want to color it so I remember."
"Something going to happen to me? Lily going to disappear?"
"No. Just in case…"
Even after all these years he still had some trouble in telling when I gave him a hard time. "Alex, I joke. You want draw, say so."
He nodded. "Now?"
I sat back on the bed and leaned against the wall. "Here ok?"
He nodded again picking up the sketchbook and began scratching on the page. I don't remember how long I sat there but I eventually fell asleep.