I WAS ALL SET UP IN my room to recover. Sound system within reach. A buzzer my dad rigged up to call him if I needed anything. All the junk food in the world.
Still, I had no voice. So my dad got a brand-new notebook for me, and a handful of pens.
The first night home, Silence was there with me. I don't mean some cheesy ghost went floating around the room. It was more like I'd brought her back from Mount Hope inside me. Thoughts drifted up, memories I was sure were hers. Names of people I'd never known. Old songs I guess she'd sung in church.
That was the weirdest part. I could hear melodies and words in my head. And I was positive they'd come from the olden days. They had the same stiff rhymes as the gravestone poems. In fact, I wrote this all out to Relly and he went looking in Mount Hope.
He came to visit the next day and said, "You were right. I found one." He handed the page back to me.
Then let the last loud trumpet sound
and bid our kindred rise;
awake ye nations under ground;
ye saints ascend the skies.
I read the words, moving my lips but making no sound. I tried to say them. All that came out was a rattling hiss. I tried again. Nothing.
Still, in my head, the melody was going powerful and sure. I heard a voice, the voice of Silence Loud, singing this creaky song from the olden days. She had a beautiful voice. Sadness and gladness mixed together. Strength and weakness, too. I wanted so bad for Relly to hear it.
That's what I wrote to him on the notepad. "You should hear what it sounds like. It's great. Totally great. When I get my voice back, I'll show you."