The Fighting Spirit: Nakisha's Story

When Bryce tapped me, I jumped, then turned and shot an angry glare at him. He loved to sneak up on me, especially because one, it was easy since I was deaf and all, and two, I hated it when he did that. He smiled at me, an apologetic grin that I knew he didn't mean, and I rolled my eyes. I couldn't stay mad at him for long. He was my best friend and more than occasionally, my ears.

"You scared me!" I signed to him, making my movements as sharp as I could. It wasn't actually so clear cut as "you scared me-" different people sign different ways, with their own unique dialects and unspoken words. In fact, there's a huge difference between the ease of ASL, American Sign Language, which was my language, and the rigid rules of SEE... Signed Exact English, which most people who aren't deaf use. For the ease of people who don't know me well, I normally do sign everything out in SEE, but when it's just my family or my translator, Victori Pennisor, I use ASL.

He shrugged. "It's fun," he responded in sign, confirming what I already knew.

"So you've been saying for sixteen years. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be hanging out with Brandon?"

"He got sick, so I thought maybe we could catch a movie."

I snorted. "Where I have to concentrate either on the action or on Victori telling me what the dialogue is? No thanks."

"We could rent something with subtitles. Or head to the park."

I signed back, frustrated, "You're not going to let this go until I say I'll do something, are you?" He shook his head. I rolled my eyes. "Fine, let's go on a walk."

I loved walking around my hometown of Iqaluit. It was always so interesting... a blend of your normal 2012 city and a bunch of really old stuff. For a capital city, it was small, which I learned when Bryce and I took a school trip out to Toronto, Ontario. It was almost peaceful, really.

We were heading out the door when Victori caught my arm. "Nakisha, you aren't going out there without me and a coat, are you?" she signed as soon as she had my attention.

For a women of twenty-seven who had only been my translator for about a month, Victori was extremely motherly... but my mom, Bryce, and I were all growing to love it. "I'm only going out with Bryce. He signs. He can translate for me if I meet anyone." I ignored the part about the coat. I was sixteen, I could choose what I wanted to wear, right?

"Like he did last time?"

Okay, okay... Victori had a point. Back last month, between my old translator, Lisette, getting sick and Victori coming in, Bryce had tried to fill in. But while I knew him well enough to get what he was saying, he didn't know a lot of the words he needed to translate in sign language. Some things... maybe even a possible relationship... ended in disaster.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Come on."

Victori smiled. "Your coat?" she signed.

I turned and got it, shooting a glare at her for good measure.

"Let's stop in the park," I signed to Bryce. "It looks like a nice day for it, and we can swing."

He shot me a thumbs up, not bothering to respond in sign.

We climbed onto the swings and started to go. I could get pretty high up. Obviously, I couldn't talk when I was swinging, but I was able to watch other people talk, even use my lip reading skills to make out a few words. Yes, it was spying. But what was I going to say? "I overheard a bit of your conversation?" I was deaf, nobody considered that I might understand what they were saying!

I looked at a group of six girls, one about Victori's age, and the rest closer to mine. I tried to pick out a couple words. Building... wolf... fairy.

Oh! That was interesting. They were probably talking about the recent fairy reemergence. I was interested in it, based on the little we learned in history class. I wondered why they were talking about it. Here in Iqaluit, there wasn't a single fairy, nor much interest in them. Some people even believed fairies were evil spirits, though I thought that was ridiculous. I mean, there were people I've met who thought I was cursed because I couldn't hear. More likely because of an illness I caught when I was little...

Victori must have called out to Bryce, because he signaled me down from the swing. "It's getting late," he explained. "We're gonna have to start heading back."

"Hold on!" I signed. "Give me five minutes."

Victori shook her head. "We need to go now."

But I wanted to see what the girls I had noticed were talking about! "Just hold on," I said, and I began racing towards them.

I had a sense that Victori and Bryce were following me, so I ran a little faster. Eventually, I burst out of the trees in the park, and into the small benched area where the six girls stood. Bryce crashed into me, coming up from behind. Victori managed to stop gracefully, her black hair coming to a graceful whirlwind around her shoulders.

The six girls looked at us. The older one, with slightly wavy blonde hair and dark eyes, looked shocked. "Victoria?" I read on her lips.

I looked at Victori. "Lysis, is that you?" I saw her say.

I nudged my translator. She looked at me. "Translate, please," I motioned, not wanting to bother picking the words off of people's lips.

Through Victori and Bryce, I found out a lot.

First of all, Victori, or, as Lysis called her, Victoria, was a fairy... the fairy of education. She and Lysis, the fairy of science, had been best friends when the fairies had been imprisoned, mainly due to similar powers and similar ages. Second of all, when the fairies were released from their jail in Tir Nan Og, both girls had similar plans- without telling the other. Victori began to teach, going to different towns and villages looking for fairies, keeping an eye out. Lysis and the five girls who were with her were on a road trip that was now about nine months long- they were looking for fairies too, but much more intensely.

And third, Avalon- a sixteen year old girl with a boyish hair cut and sparkling eyes- had picked up a lot of signs, but wasn't very good at the grammar, so it came out more as SEE. Made evident when I asked about the bad guys that the fairies were after, and Avalon asked Victori, "Why is she saying 'Fairies, chase bad men?'"

Which brings me to fourth: there were four really mean wizards who wouldn't rest until Earth's magic population was wingless and powerless. Again.

Lysis and Victori must have talked for half-an-hour, and ended with mutual invitations- Lysis inviting Victori to come with them, and my translator asking the girls to stay a while and rest up before they searched for more fairies. "I'll think about it," the two friends said at the exact same time, then burst into laughter.

Bryce, Victori, and I walked back to our house, where my mom was waiting. "Hello, everyone," she signed and said simultaneously.

"Hi, mom," I signed as Bryce said "Hi, Aunt Emilie."

"How was your walk?"

We looked at each other. "Walky,"Bryce said.

"Okay, then," she laughed. "I've got pot roast in the oven. It'll be ready in an hour."

"Sounds good," Victori said. Then she looked at me. "Sorry, Nakisha," she signed.

I shrugged. It happened.

I went up to the room Victori and I shared, and looked out the window. Fairies were out there, out in the world, out in my town. Wow.

That's the moment I felt it. It was like my ears popped. And then, someone said "Excuse me, miss?"

And I heard it.

And... wait... I understood it. Which was the truly incredible thing. I could read English, and read lips, but I still didn't think if I miraculously got my hearing back... as I had seemed to... I could understand spoken English. But here it was, clear as day, and I could hear it!

I turned, only to see a young man standing in my room. I held my breath so I wouldn't scream, and reached out to hit him, to try to make him get out of my room!

My hand went right through him.

"Who are you? What are you? Are you a ghost? What are you doing in my room!" I signed, sure I must look visably rattled.

The man huffed at me. "Will you stop motioning in all those obscene, odd gestures with your hands and just talk?"

"I don't know how!" I signed.

"Now I asked you to stop that, young lady!"

I ran out of my room, ran downstairs, almost ran into Victori. "Victori! Victori!" I signed.

"What?" she replied in ASL.

"Say something!"

"What do you want me to say?" She was still signing. "I'm a purple alien from outer space."

"No," I told her. "Say something in English. Use your mouth!"

"I'm a purple alien," I read on her lips.

Bryce looked at her from across the room. "Weird," I saw him say. "I wouldn't have guessed."

I was disappointed. "I can't hear you," I said.

Victori raised one eyebrow. "Nakisha... you're deaf," she signed to me.

"I know! But I heard... I understood... this man, I think he's a ghost, and I heard him!"

Victori looked at me, then raced up to our room. I followed. When we got up there, she raised her hands, and said something that I couldn't make out. Slowly, the man appeared again. He looked at me. "Oh. It's the rude girl."

I copied his tone. "Rude... girl."

I paused in wonder. My voice was... kind of rough, but pretty. It was high and reluctant, and the sound of it made me want to say more.

"Who are you?" questioned a softer, lower voice.

I turned and was not surprised when I realized that the voice belonged to Victori. I didn't know how to say what I wanted to tell her out loud, so I tugged on her shirt. She glanced down, and I signed, "Your voice is so pretty."

"You heard me?" she said out loud. I nodded.

"If she hears you," the ghost grumbled, "tell her to stop making those demonic motions with her hands!"

"She hears you!" I said, with a bit more confidence. I was unsure if my grammar was right... but I thought I must have gotten the point across.

Victori looked at me, then at the ghost. "You can hear communications from the spirit world. When I talk on the spirit channel, you hear it. You hear the ghost. What does that mean?" I shrugged, and she continued. "I've heard of humans hearing ghosts, seeing ghosts. But never the deaf ones. Nakisha... I think you might be a fairy."

I didn't know how to respond. I was kind of busy being in wonder over the sound of my name.

She grabbed my hands. "Do you know what this means?"

I shook my head.

"I cast a spell to talk to the spirit."

"The spirit can hear you," the ghost grumbled. "The spirit has a name."

She waved him off. "Whatever. What I'm saying, Nakisha, is that if fairies cast that spell, you should be able to hear them and talk to them."

"But the only fairy who lives around here is you!" I signed.

"That's why we're leaving, you and I. We're going to go with Lysis and her friends. We'll be able to talk to you, and you to us!"

"Will Mom go for it?" I asked.

"I'll convince her!" Victori exclaimed. "It's the best thing for you! She won't be able to disagree!"

"Hey, what about me? What's the best thing for me?" the ghost complained.

"Nobody cares," Victori said. She grabbed my arm and dragged me downstairs. "Come on. We'll explain over pot roast."

I smiled. Just at the sound of her voice.

Author's Note: Aaaannnd, that was Nakisha. Another character develoupment chapter, as we'll get more of her later.

Next up is Lynn, that character my friend Maydy submitted (remember? From the bonus chapter?). Though she may be a while because I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo. My username for that is OohJuice, just in case you wanna check me out. Who else is doing that?

I hope you're enjoying Fly or Fall!