“Nice to meet you,”Somee signed, did a double take, then tried not to stare at Omiri but seeing his eyes was wild as hell for most people. What made it even crazier was both of his kids had them same mismatched eyes.
“She said nice to meet you and what the fuck is wrong with your eyes,”I relayed, speaking the words and signing them for Somee.
Somee tensed and punched me in the arm, making me laugh before I made a correction.“I’m just playing. She didn’t say shit about them weird ass eyes.”
“You’re an ass.” Makari glared at me while I signed what she said to Somee. “Tell her if she decides that being with you was due to a temporary lapse of judgment, we have plenty of rooms at our house.”
After I relayed the message to Somee, she grinned and signed thank you to Makari, who moved on after shooting me a smug grin.
“Where is Rylee?” Makari asked and I signed the question when I responded so Somee was aware.
“She’s asleep. Long day with the flight and getting settled.”
“Can I see her?” Makari asked and I posed the question to Somee.
“Do you mind taking M-A-K-A-R-I to see Rylee?”
“No, I don’t mind,”she signed back.
I spoke aloud to Makari and signed as well.“Somee can take you up.”
I then signed to Somee.“Would you like her to know you read lips?”
She nodded and I relayed that to Makari.
“Somee reads lips. Make sure you’re facing her and speak normally. Don’t slow down, speak loud, or overenunciate your words. That makes it harder to understand.”
Taking ASL in college wasn’t just about learning the language. We were expected to learn the culture as well as the particulars on how to make communication work best between hearing, Deaf, and hard of hearing people.
Somee glanced at me and offered a grin before signing,“Thank you for explaining.”
“You’re welcome.”
The two of them left with Makari removing a phone, holding it up for Somee. I assumed to exchange numbers so they could communicate. As ambitious as Makari was, there was only so much she could have learned in a week of self-taught ASL tutorials.
Most people could learn the basics in three to six months, but it would take up to a year or more to be somewhat fluent in conversation.
“Kari is all in with this shit. She’s been teaching Avi and MJ simple signs and asked Janice would she be opposed to learning sign language just in case she had to babysit your sister.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“Yeah, shit is wild, because Kari has taken on a whole mission but Janice knows ASL. She said she’s not great but had a job for two years with a Deaf couple. The kid wasn’t Deaf but she learned ASL to communicate with the parents.”
I nodded. “Yeah, the more I’m in this, the more I learn it’s more common than people think. We just don’t pay attention because that’s not our life or our world.” I frowned and Omiri smirked.
“You’re figuring this shit out.”
“Yeah…” I brushed a hand over my head. “I have to, this is what my life looks like now.”
“So how is all that? You cool with keeping Rylee with you?”
“For now, yeah. The temporary judgement has to be revisited before they allow me full custody. I was required to put in a valid effort to find Felicia and our sperm donor. Either way, I’m not letting either of them get close to Rylee again, which is why this trade talk has me fucked up.”
“That’s not happening, Land. No fucking way.”
“Sovoya’s working on it, but you know like I do, when it comes to the owners; it’s fuck my feelings and the time I’ve put in with the team. Especially when shit gets personal and this is personal.”
“What you mean personal?” I yanked a hand down my face and motioned for Omiri to follow me. We moved through the house to the dining room where I had a cart set up with a display of several bottles. I grabbed the Black Ops and held it up. “You drinking?”
