13 Letters PART 3

“Hey Ally.” Clarisse came up, two large fresh ginger cookies on a plate came with her. She knows me too well. I couldn’t refuse. I took a cookie and we swung onto the lowest and largest branch of the little tree. “So.” She said.

‘So?’ I signed.

“I’m guessing you found it?”

‘Yeah.’

“Firstly, you have got to stop going through my stuff please and thank you. And secondly, I was going to tell you I promise. I’ve been working for ages and I can finally go to college. It’s no fancy college but it is college. I’ll come back on weekends and holidays. I can’t miss out on this, not even for you. You understand, right? I’m really sorry.” I ate my ginger cookie in silence for a minute. No amount of these would ever let me be okay with this. But I would have to be. Clarisse has done more. Clarisse looked after me and the boys. I was a toddler, they were babies! She was nine, and I’m about to be nine. I’ll be fine. Right?

‘How did you do it?’ I signed.

“Do what?”

‘Raise me and the boys?’

“I don’t deserve all the credit. And I know you’re ready. Today proved that.” She finished her cookie then we got off the branch, and went about our regular morning routine.

The two weeks passed far too quickly. Clarisse was taking as many shifts as she possibly could, which was good practice for me and extra money for her. She had told me she would bring me money when she visited from her shifts she would do between classes. She gave me $150 and a big hug when she left. It was very sad, seeing her there with her bags. The boys did understand, for once. They asked where Clarisse was, but I couldn’t tell them, even if I had wanted to. I played with them that day.

Clarisse never returned. She sent money. But to our parents. They wasted it. They didn’t feed us. We starved. For weeks we were in pain. The boys ran out one day and I chased after them, weakened by my hunger, I couldn’t go as fast as I would have liked to. They got into someone’s yard and started stealing from the huge picnic spread there. Someone came out.

“HEY!” The lady screamed. I tried to pull my brothers away, but the mix of screaming (from the lady, my brothers and myself), the very hot sun, Clarisse gone and the fact I could do nothing. I couldn’t tell this lady where we came from, who we were and that my brothers didn’t understand that this belonged to her. I collapsed. I fainted in a stranger’s backyard. I’m not proud of it. I dreamed that Clarisse came back, my parents went back to normal and my brothers never existed.

“Hello, can you say something?” Light flooded into my eyes as I blinked awake. I sat up slowly. I saw my brothers in chairs, nurses trying to calm and question them. “She’s up.” The voice said. The voice was a man, and the man was a doctor. I motioned to my throat and used hand movements to try to depict my situation.

“Is she mute?” A nurse asked, coming over, signing as she spoke.

‘Yes.’ I signed back.

“She’s mute guys, let me talk to her.” The nurse said to the other doctors and nurses. She definitely was able to see the panic in my face.

‘To start, what’s your name?’ She signed.

‘My name is Alianara McCarthon. You can call me Ally. I can hear, I just can’t speak.’ I signed back.