Chapter 37

Shivering, I opened my eyes. It took a moment before realizing I was home, in my bed, in my room. Where it should have felt normal, instead it just seemed weird. I stayed on my back and stared at the ceiling. Moonlight from the window lit the room. In the beams cast above, I noticed a swarm of something floating around, like the shadow of bugs. Snowflakes. It was snowing.

I jumped out of bed and ran to the window. Fresh snow covered the ground in a thin layer. Though I could still see blades of grass poking up from the dusting of snow, I knew by morning everything would be buried under a white blanket.

I knelt by the window and peered out.

Snow was silent. Before becoming deaf, I hadn’t minded watching snow fall in silence. I stood up slowly and pressed my forehead against the glass.

Even though there was nothing to hear, and no one could hear it, that didn’t make things better. The silence still frustrated me.

I turned angrily away and jumped into bed. I pulled the covers over my head and shut my eyes. Then I snapped them open and hurriedly lowered the blanket. I glanced at the window again. The snowflakes had already changed and were falling past the glass like thick, giant raindrops in a thunderstorm.

I used to sit on the couch in the living room and stare out the window watching and listening to thunderstorms with my mom. We’d count how long it was between the boom of thunder and the flash of lightning that lit the sky. We’d watch the rain splatter against the window.

Sometimes the thunder was so loud, I’d jump. I wasn’t scared. Not really. Not with my mom there. Sometimes she’d jump, too. Then we’d look at each other and laugh.

Getting out of bed, I went back to the window. It was months until spring. I didn’t want to think about the thunderstorms that I would never hear again. Not now.

Falling snow was quiet. Peaceful.

I went back to the window and knelt again. There was nothing to hear. The snow that had fallen before I’d become deaf had also been silent. I smiled, rested my elbows on the sill and my chin in my palms, and watched the snow cover the ground.