Page 35 of Give Me a Sign
Isaac climbs out of the pool and walks over to me. I offer him back his towel, and my heart skips a beat as he dries his face and sits beside me on the same lawn chair. “It’s weird having people watch us.”
“That’s what I was saying,” I sign back. “He thinks the same,” I tell Simone.
“We still have that luncheon coming up soon,” she says.
“This feels old-school. Couldn’t there be a different way to raise money?” I say, then signing for Isaac, “Maybe a different way to raise money?”
“Yeah, so we don’t have to————on people coming here.” He sees my head tilt and spells out, “D-e-p-e-n-d, depend.”
“Right.” I smile, grateful that he could tell exactly which word I needed clarification for. “Thank you.”
Chapter Twelve
I satout of swimming all day today, since I’m still without proper attire after yesterday’s pool debacle. In the staff cabins after hours, I search for someone to go to the store with.
“Hey, Simone, do you still want to go to the store tonight?”
“Right, Lilah needs a new swimsuit,” Simone says, nudging Bobby, who’s sitting beside her. “Let’s go.”
“Um, we’re on duty tonight,” Bobby says.
“It’snotMonday again already.” She checks her phone. “Wait, how is that possible?”
“It pains me that you dread our time together that much,” Bobby jokes, but he genuinely smiles when Simone reaches out for his hand. “Is there someone else you can go with, Lilah?”
Natasha and Jaden are standing by the door, and Isaac walks over to me. “Did you need to go shopping? Come with us?”
“Yes, please,” I say and sign before turning back to Simone and Bobby. “Don’t worry, I’m tagging along with the others. Enjoy your evening. Remember to watch the campers.”
On the way to the parking lot, we run into Ethan, who needs to pick up some supplies for tomorrow’s activities. So all five of us pile into Natasha’s little car. Jaden claims the passenger seat. Isaac hops into the back, and Ethan tells me to take the middle, motioning for me to slide all the way over until I’m practically in Isaac’s lap.
Natasha turns to sign. “Food first?”
Everyone agrees, and she hits the ignition, music immediately blaring from the speakers. The car shakes the entire way to the Mackie’s across the street from the Super Mart.
Jaden opens the Notes app on his phone and types in his order, passing it around for the rest of us to enter ours. We pull up to the drive-through. Instead of stopping at the speakers, Natasha heads straight for the window. When she parks, she adds her order to the note as well.
We’re waiting, but no one is there. Natasha waves until an employee finally comes, but they don’t open the window.
“We’re Deaf,” Natasha signs, pointing to her ear and cochlear implant. She holds out the phone with the orders on it.
But the worker ignores her and points back to the speakers. I can read part of what he’s saying—“don’t order here.”
Natasha points to her ear again and holds out the phone. He just shakes his head. Ethan types “We’re Deaf, here’s our order” on a large-text app on his phone and gives it to Natasha. But after Natasha shows the message, the employee just walks away.
“W-t-f,” Natasha signs. “He left?”
A car arrives behind us, flashing its headlights. The employee comes back, this time with their manager, who opens the window.
“We’re Deaf, here’s what we want,” Natasha signs one-handed, holding out the orders on her phone.
The manager mumbles something back. Natasha makes the gesture asking him to write it down. The manager squints to look at all of us in the car and shakes his head.
Ethan catches what the man says next, and signs up to Natasha, “He thinks we’re faking...”
“We’re far from the city right now,” Jaden signs. “Maybe not a lot of deaf people————.”
The car behind us honks. The manager shouts and gestures for us to move our car. Natasha is braver than me—she holds out her phone again. With her strong Deaf accent she says, “This is what we want.”
