Daniel Jones walked his date to his house. His parents had left for the weekend so he had the house all to himself. He grabbed Sarah’s hand as he stepped onto the porch. He was having a great time with Sarah but he didn’t know if she was enjoying a date with a deaf 17 year old.
“So you play an instrument?” Daniel read Sarah’s lips. He felt his neck to feel if he could pronounce the sentence correctly.
“Yes piano, guitar, and the violin,” He answered with a smile.
Sarah felt pity for Daniel. He was so sweet and caring and he didn’t deserve to have the loss of hearing. She nodded in amazement that he could play three instruments. She saw Daniel open the maroon colored door. Her stomach was full from the delicious meal they had at a restaurant close to his house.
She stepped in his house. It was a pretty house on the outside and beautiful on the inside. The floor was a Pre-finished Oak Hardware wood that shined in the light. The house room was designed as it was like a log-cabin. The walls were brick and the fireplace was huge right below the flat screen t.v. Sarah saw Daniel smiled.
Sarah walked over to the couch and sat in it’s very comfortable cushion. She saw him go over to the red velvet piano across the room. His crusted fingers touched the keys and played a beautiful sounding tune. She closed her eyes as she heard the melody. She wondered if he made it or what. So many questions she had about him but, she didn’t know if he would get offended or not.
“I was made fun of when I was little,” Daniel blurted out without even looking up at her, just playing the piano. Sarah didn’t know where Daniel was going with that. “They made fun of me because I stuttered. I had weird clothing. And I wasn’t Normal.”
Sarah frowned. Who would ever made fun of this guy? He never deserved this. She got off from the couch and sat on the bench with him. She turned his head which made him stop playing the piano, “You didn’t deserve it.”
Daniel smiled and continued to play the melody. “No one who gets made fun of deserves it. Kids are just mean that way. One day, they said they were sorry and invited me to come to their house and hang out. Or so i thought? We were outside in the front yard.....and they ganged up on me...and they threw firecrackers at me. One of them got my left ear and one of them got my shoulder that got to my right ear. I was scared that I fell on the sidewalk.....cracking my head.” Sarah saw a tear came down his face. She was about to cry because it was awful what they had done. “They just.......Left me there with blood flowing out of my head. Sooner or later.. I wake up in the hospital.” Daniel’s voice cracked. Sarah could see that he was getting emotional. Her throat felt numb because she was about to cry. She hugged Daniel tight. “ They told me.......... that i lost my hearing for good. My parents had went to billions of doctors to see if I could get my ear fixed, but no one could. We moved to a different state to start fresh but that’s not gonna change my hearing. I can just feel people talking about me and having a label for me like “the deaf kid” or “the disadvantaged kid”. No one would ever get near me or touch me because they thought I had some sort of disease when it was just deafness.” Daniel stopped playing the piano. “You were the first one to ever ask me out.”
Sarah’s mouth dropped. Were people that cruel. She felt so much pity for Daniel. She hugged him and rested her head on his shoulder never wanting to get up. She closed her eyes. She heard him play the beautiful melody.
She thought about bullying and she was going to make a habit not to let people bully others because you never know what could happen. The piano peacefully made sounds to make her fall asleep.