Radiant Echoes

While I'm not deaf, I do have impaired hearing. My brother on the other hand, was born completely deaf. My parents are also deaf, so I went to a special Elementary School designed for the deaf and hearing impaired. "Radiant Echoes Academy." It was a place full of drudgery and boredom, I'm told that's normally what Elementary School is like, but our school hours were longer, and we lived on campus. So the scenery was constant and tedious to my brother and I.

There was the playground, which the older kids never played on. They'd long grown tired of the simple equipment, plus it was outdated. Off in the distance, there was a playground for the neighborhood children that was nice and new, but we only got to play on it Saturday if we were well behaved. There was a field with a little building we just called "The House" that we weren't allowed around. Then there was the Church. The campus itself was once a church as well, but the church moved next door, adopting similar architecture. Our steeple was torn down. From one of the back doors to the middle of the playground was a path leading to seats and shade were the teacher would sit while we played.

The teachers always had to have a close eye on us, we felt imprisoned and they knew we felt that way. There was a field, and on Friday evenings, we could wonder around it playing freeze tag, that was, if Miss Forester thought we did good that week in school. She was one of the few teachers there that was fully deaf as well. She was more devoted to the job than any other teacher by far. She'd also look after us during the summer sessions. It'd be July and we'd be playing tag in the field, just myself and the other kids that Miss Forester trusted to stay close by and not wonder off towards the house.

During a game of freeze tag once, Derrick, my younger brother and me were sitting taking a break. He asked me, "Do the fireflies make a noise?" I couldn't answers immediately, even thought I knew the answer was no. I plugged my ears and looked at the fireflies. They flashed there lights for a moment then turned off. I began to see why Derrick would ask. He knew lightbulbs had a buzzing sound, so it only made sense that fireflies would too. Derrick was a tad melodramatic as a younger and thought he had triggered some sort of ugly feeling in me from that question, due to my pause. I reassure him I was find, just caught off guard by the question. He believed me, but between my contemplation and his interruption, I never answered his question.

That night had got me thinking about whether or not they did make a sound, fireflies that is. I have always needed a hearing aid and always doubted my own ears.

It wasn't much further into July, the next time we were outside playing flashlight tag rather than freeze tag. Exhausted from running, we took another break. That's when I hear a very strange sound in the distance, coming from the house. I guess my face betrayed the fact I heard something odd, and Derrick asked if I heard the fireflies. I said I didn't.