Title: Different
Author: Aine
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em. Promise, just had an idea.
Summary: One is deaf, One is blind. Can our two favorite girls make it?
HELP. Okay. So I'm not going to be a famous author, but I like to subject everyone to my ideas. I think this could be a fun storyline, but if it isn't then I wish for someone to tell me. I am open to any and all suggestions. Please don't be mean and tell me that it is horrible, but i do appreciate constructive criticism. please enjoy and let me know if i should continue or if i should just go hide in the corner. Happy Reading.
Okay…c’mon…I just have to count the steps and hold onto the wall. Not hard. Well it would be easier if I could see but hey. Mmmm, that’s it, I’ll just sniff my way to the kitchen. I can smell the muffins now.
“Wow, it really is noisy in here,” Willow says to herself as she unfolds her staff. Still getting used to walking around with it on her own she accidentally swings it too hard and trips a poor unknowing person.
“Oh, I am so sorry. Man I was a klutz before I was blind, I feel sorry for the world now, are you okay? Oh no! Did I kill you? Where are you? Oh please answer me I am so sorry, really, I’m just still trying to get used to this stupid thing,” Willow emphasizes by holding up her cane.
Tara, the girl Willow tripped, was just staring at Willow and was kind of startled when Willow raised her cane. Willow was not facing her directly so Tara could not really read her lips to make out what she was saying. She did recognize the cane and realized the Willow was blind, so Tara reached out for Willow’s hand and just brought it down calmly.
Slowly and very carefully Tara began to speak, she was still learning how to speak, and was having trouble with her ‘s’ sounds, but she tried anyway, since she obviously could not sign. “It is OK. I was not watching my walking. Can you look to my voice so I can read your lip?”
Willow heard kind of a low voice to her right and realized it was the person she tripped, so she tried to listen carefully. The words seemed almost slurred, then it dawned on her, the person was deaf.
Willows parents taught her sign language from birth, and were actually parents that kept teaching sign language to her even after Willow started speaking. They did it so they could talk to their child before she had the ability to speak, but it was also because Willow’s parents worked at a school for the deaf and the blind, and did not want to leave Willow out of their lives.
Willow began to sign to the person. “Hi, I’m Willow. I’m blind. You talk and I will sign.”
Tara is relatively shocked that the girl is signing to her. Tara, still not real confident in her speech pulls Willow’s hand and begins to fingerspell slowly on Willow’s palm, “N-A-M-E T-A-R-A.”
Willow feels guilty; she has not developed the talent to understand sign language by touch, so she signs back to the girl, “Sorry, I can’t understand you.”
Tara understands and begins to speak, being careful to annunciate, “ My name Tara. Let’s go sit, hold my arm.”
Willow reaches out and Tara guides her hand. Once Willow has her arm, Tara begins to walk towards an empty table. They walk at a fairly slow pace since Willow does not completely trust that Tara knows how to guide.
Tara has lived at the Sunnydale School for the Deaf and the Blind since she was 6 years old. Tara was born deaf and her parents just could not deal with the responsibility of raising a “mute.” Tara was from South Dakota, and was sent to Sunnydale because it was one of the nation’s leading schools for the Deaf.
As soon as Willow begins to relax, she feels Tara start to slow down and hears her say, “Table.” Tara then gently guides Willow to sit down. “You want food? I can get it. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Willow gives Tara a sheepish smile and signs her order to the nice girl. Thinking about how embarrassed she is, but also at how she has not felt this relaxed since before losing her sight.
Three weeks ago was Willow’s birthday, and also a diving competition. Willow loved to dive; it was her first competition diving from the high dive. She practiced so much, and she was so excited. She jumped up when her name was called on the loud speaker as the next to dive. Willow go to the edge of the diving board and looked down. It is so far down. She backed up to the back of the board and began to run, she jumped off the edge of the board and she did not close her eyes. Before she knew it, it was too late to close her eyes; she had hit the water and was in immense pain.
A soft shake of her shoulder and a voice, telling her that her eggs were at 6 o’clock and her toast was at 2 o’clock, brought Willow back to the present. And she felt that in some weird way she and Tara are going to be an interesting pair. How she knew they’d be friends, she did not know. But it was going to be a fun road.
