Page 36 of The Sign for Home

“Sure, I’ll go right ahead and do that,” I said sarcastically. “Hey, buddy, what turns you on? While you’re at it, tell me, what deep dark secret are you hiding? You secretly sleeping with Ariana Grande? My friend Hanne is really curious… Oh, and by the way, she wants to know if you’re a virgin?I’d be fired by the end of the day. Besides, he and I are rarely alone. I just wonder—”

Hanne’s eyes widened as she pointed toward Hudson Hall.

“Verdomme!” Hanne whispered. “There he is again. It’s like he’s following us.”

Sure enough, there was Arlo having just sat down on the bench at his Able-Ride pickup spot.

“That’s weird,” I said. “It’s almost four p.m. I wonder why he’s here so late.”

I looked around and saw no sign of Molly. Hanne sat up and started pushing in any loose hairs from her French twist, like she was ready to walk over to him.

“Could you introduce me?” she asked.

“I’m not sure that’s a great idea,” I said. “He seems pretty shy.”

“Oh, come on, just a quick introduction. What could it hurt?”

“Yeah, but…”

The truth was Hanne could be very unpredictable sometimes. There was also the confidentiality issue. And to be honest, I felt very protective ofthe relationship I had already built with Arlo, and I worried Hanne might say something about me that could put it at risk.

“If you don’t feel comfortable, then I won’t,” Hanne said, practically reading my mind. “I just really want to say hi to him, and I’m sure if he’s as lonely as you say, he probably would like to say hi to other people too, right?”

Hanne wasn’t wrong. Also, if I had run into a sighted Deaf consumer, while I wouldn’t reveal that we worked together, I would say hello and introduce them to whomever I was with. To not do the same for Arlo felt unfair. If Arlo had taught me anything, it was that DeafBlind people wanted to know all they could about what was happening around them.

“Okay,” I said. “We can say hi. But just don’t say anything controversial, okay?”

“Ach! Of course not,” she said, rolling her eyes.

We walked over to Arlo, but before I could even get his attention, Hanne made kissing sounds toward Snap, causing the obdurate old mutt to squirm out from under the bench, blinking her sleepy eyes and wagging her tail wildly. Hanne started scratching Snap on her withers, inciting the pooch to close her eyes and lift her snout to the sky in forbidden ecstasy.

“Oh, hey,” I warned Hanne, pointing to Snap’s orange vest. “See, it says ‘Do Not Pet.’ It distracts her from her duties.”

“Sorry, doggie,” Hanne said with a pouty face before pulling her hands from Snap’s neck.

I tapped Arlo on the shoulder and put my name into his hand.

“I’m here with my friend H-A-N-N-E,” I signed. “She’s a nursing student here at the community college, and also works at a café on Main Street. She wants to say hi.”

Arlo moved his head around, attempting to catch Hanne’s image in his field of vision. When he finally did, he introduced himself and then offered his hand. Hanne grabbed it in both of hers and held on.

“So his name is Arlo. Such a beautiful name. Does he want to feel my face?” Hanne whispered. “I don’t mind if he does.”

“Hanne. Chill. I don’t imagine DeafBlind people go around feeling the faces of every Tom, Dick, and Harry they meet on the street. Just shake his hand, say hi, and let’s be on our way. His ride should be here any minute.”

I tried to motivate Hanne’s exit by making a move to leave myself, but she stood there, her hand in his.

“He’s not letting go,” she said, happily trapped. “What can I do?”

Arlo was smiling and appeared to be curious about who Hanne was, so he slowly started feeling her wrist, squeezing it, then moving farther up her forearm and then back to her hand. He appeared to be checking her out. At that point I just wanted the uncomfortable collision of my two worlds to end.

“Okay, then,” I said, the anxiety showing in my voice. “He probably wants to focus on schoolwork or something, so…”

Hanne then gently released Arlo’s hand.

“Cyrilje, I’m curious about something. Suppose I ran into a DeafBlind person at the coffee shop and they wanted to talk with me. How would I do it without an interpreter?”

I interpreted Hanne’s comment to Arlo, and much to my chagrin, he enthusiastically started explaining to her about his notebook, magnifying glass, and the black Magic Marker he used so non-signing people could write back and forth with him. Then he explained how for longer conversations he had an old piece of equipment called a screen braille communicator.

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