Author Information
SOUND
It was my first day back at work…I was behind the counter in the store…when a woman pushing her baby in a stroller walked in through our front door.
I greeted them as I always do…Mom nodded when I caught her eye…and I waved to her baby…who waved back…as he went rolling by.
After shopping for a while…perusing every shelf…she was ready to buy three books for her baby…and one book for herself.
Children’s books during the month of July are all to be sold tax-free…and because of the system in our store they have to be rung up separately.
As I was explaining this to this woman she stared blankly and pointed to her ear.
If I was reading her body language correctly…she was telling me she could not hear.
So I looked at her and spoke more slowly and clearly…hoping she could read my lips…but she just shrugged her shoulders, still staring blankly, with her hands upon her hips.
And I realized the reason she couldn’t understand my words had nothing to do with clarity or speed…it’s because…with a beard and a mustache…I have no lips to read!
Thankfully she was patient with me even though she didn’t understand a word from our little chat…then she made a sign for writing…hey…given time I might have thought of that!
So I picked up pen and paper and began writing her a note……but I was a little nervous…I wrote too fast…even I couldn’t read what I wrote.
I help up the note an again she shrugged her shoulders…I looked to the baby who waved to me and then…I threw away my first note and began to write again.
This time she smiled and nodded…I think even her baby understood…perhaps he’s a bit precocious…I imagine Mom and baby both would have agreed my handwriting was atrocious.
But we muddled through and I held the door as they walked out into the crowd…
The mother walking in silence…while her baby was quite loud.
As I watched them walk away I was hit with a feeling so profound…wondering what it must be like to live in a world devoid of sound.
To miss the everyday sounds around you…the voices…the bird as they soar up to the sky…to never hear the melody of your baby when he sings or laughs…or cries.
How some of us are born lucky…we can hear and speak and see
while others have to overcome the capricious hands of destiny.
As I watched them fade into the crowd…two thoughts struck me as I slowly turned around…
how I need to work on my penmanship
and how I’ll never take for granted another sound.
