Page 49 of Salvation

“Does everyone else here speak to you in sign language?” she asked. “I can imagine your dad is hopeless,” she signed, whispering the last words, earning herself a small smile from Bee. A small smile that was quickly replaced with a scowl. Bee turned away from her, looking back at her book on the desk.

“Okay, sweetheart. I just wanted to see how you were doing.” She pushed herself to her feet and raised her hand as though she was going to stroke Bee’s hair, but then thought better of it.

As she turned to walk away, Bee spun around in her chair and tapped Rachel’s arm.

“No,” she signed.

“No?” Rachel repeated.

Bee rolled her eyes. I wonder where she got that from? That look was Rachel all over—and then picked up her LCD writing tablet.

No one here knows how to sign, she wrote, using the wrong variation of “know”, putting “no” instead. But my heart leapt all the same.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Rachel signed back, sighing at the same time. “I’ll teach you, if you would like?”

Bee hesitated and then nodded.

“Good. And maybe together we can teach your brother. Would you like that?”

Bee pressed the button to clear her tablet and then wrote,does he talk?

Rachel paused as she read it and then smiled. “No,” she spoke and signed. “He tries with some words, but he’s not quite there yet. He can learn both, though, can’t he? I’m sure you would be the absolutebestteacher. Much better than me and your dad.”

Bee studied her for a moment, lips pressed tight, before the corners of her mouth twitched up into a cautious grin. Then she nodded.

“Why don’t you come down with us and meet your brother? I know he’s desperate to meet you.”

Bee pulled back slightly, and for a moment I thought she was going to say no, but she nodded once and jumped off her chair.

“You go down, sweetheart. He’s with Shark. Me and your dad will be right behind you, okay?”

Bee didn’t respond. She carried on walking, high-fiving me on her way out, and went straight down the stairs. The minute she was out of earshot, Rachel flew forward and started smacking my arm.

“You horrible fucking bastard!” She snapped, punctuating every word with another slap. “How could you not learn fucking sign language for her?!”

“I did!” I hissed back, trying to gather her arms up to restrain her. She came at me like a goddamn octopus on meth. Every time I blocked a swing, another arm came out of nowhere to smack the shit out of me. I was laughing, swearing, and flinching all at once.

“She fucking needed you, Dante, and you’ve let her down!” She hissed at me, her breathing heavy as she hit me over the back of the head. “I don’t give a fuck what you say. We’re havinga club meeting here first thing in the fucking morning and I am teaching the lot of you the basics. The poor girl deserves people to say hello to her in the morning in a way she can fucking understand and respond to!”

“Fine, fine!” I snapped back, finally managing to gather her wrists and pinned them against her side. “Are you calm?”

She broke out of my hold and stormed back over to Bee’s table, snatching up her tablet and marching out of the room. But not before she smacked me on the shoulder with the tablet.

I bit back a laugh at her anger and followed her down the stairs.

Chapter 20

Rachel

I was so angry at Dante, I could have easily continued slapping him. I don’t give a fuck what reasons he gave, there was absolutely no reason he couldn’t learn enough sign language to have a conversation with his daughter in over a year!

And yes, I know she can hear fine, but it’s not an excuse to not even try to learn her new language. It’s one thing to be able to talktoher, but how the fuck was she supposed to communicate back? That LCD tablet was a useful tool, but it simply wasn’t good enough. That tablet should be used for more complicated conversations. She should be able to communicate with her family in her language just as much as anyone with a verbal language, and I was so fucking pissed that it was glossed over.

He never said he didn’t know it…

Oh, fuck off. He clearly didn’t know enough—none of them did.

I took a deep breath at the bottom of the stairs and mentally counted to ten before I plastered a big smile on my face and walked into the front room.

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