Page 40 of So Lethal

Michael nodded. “That’s what I see here too.”

“What was the fight about?” Faith asked.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. Now that she had decided to talk, some of her anxiety had receded, replaced with anger. “She and I disagreed on the necessity of cochlear implants for the hearing impaired.”

Faith raised her eyebrows and shared a look with Michael. Marcus Wolfe had caused trouble at the support group because of his frustration at being unable to procure those implants. “What was the disagreement? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Rebecca sighed. “She believed that the more advanced systems could eventually eliminate hearing impairment. The word she used was ‘cure.’”

Her lip curled slightly upward when she said that. “And you didn’t agree?” Faith prompted.

“I don’t agree that deaf people need to be cured,” Rebecca replied. “I don’t even like calling them impaired. An impairment is something that makes it difficult for you to function in your everyday life.”

“You don’t think being unable to hear well qualifies?”

“It shouldn’t. I mean, it’s so easy to make the world accessible to deaf people. You know those crosswalks that speak so that blind people can hear when to cross?”

“I’m familiar,” Faith said.

"Well, we can do the same for deaf people, and it would be even easier. Sight is already the most important of our senses. So, just make things visible. Require subtitles or closed captioning for all news broadcasts. Send emergency notifications by text. Use flashing lights and vibration for alarms instead of just sound."

“We already have all of those things, don’t we?” Michael reminded her.

“We do, but it’s not as ubiquitous as it should be,” Rebecca replied. Her anxiety was completely gone now, focused as she was on an issue she was passionate about and not the fact that two FBI agents were questioning her about multiple murders. “But even so, that supports my point. Deaf people can live perfectly ordinary lives. That was the whole point of the career fair. Hearing loss isn’t an impairment. It’s not a disability. It’s not a syndrome. It's like how some people can see without glasses, and some people need glasses. Do we call those people visually impaired?"

“Yes.”

Rebecca’s jaw tightened. She really did have trouble controlling her temper, especially when people disagreed with her. Faith could easily imagine another teacher pointing out a flaw in her argument and Rebecca losing control. She wondered what would be happening right now if they weren’t FBI agents.

"My point is that I think it's unhelpful to teach people with hearing loss as though they're less than. Instead of spending all of this money trying to make them like us, why don't we spend the money teaching society to accept them for who they are? It's not even about cochlear implants. It's about treating people like they're human even if they aren't exactly the same as we are."

“Bit of a stretch to call them a protected class, don’t you think?” Michael asked.

“Oh, are you deaf?” Rebecca asked sarcastically. “Do you know what they go through?”

“Are you deaf?” Faith replied coldly. “Do you know what it’s like to be able to hear one day, then not hear the next?”

Rebecca blinked. “Well… That’s… I mean, hearing loss is different from deafness.”

“We’re getting off track here,” Michael said. “Do you have an alibi for last night or no.”

Rebecca shook her head and looked up at the ceiling. She opened her mouth to respond, but just then, Faith’s ears began to whine. This one was far worse than the past events, powerful enough that Faith winced and brought a hand to her ear.

She noticed Rebecca and Michael both looking at her with concern. Michael said something, but the whine was still too powerful for Faith to hear through.

Then Turk barked. Faith knew he did because she saw his mouth open, but she didn’t hear the sound at all. Turk, like most German Shepherds, had a loud, powerful bark that carried for dozens of yards. Faith didn’t hear it at all.

Fear gripped her, twisting her spine and driving the air from her lungs. Before she was entirely aware of what she was doing, she was on her feet and rushing from the hotel room.

Her heart thumped, and the sensation of it pounding in her chest was close enough to sound that she clung to it as she reached the elevator. She pressed the button several times, but when she saw the floor indicator showing that the elevator was ten floors below her, she took the stairs instead.

The pounding of her feet as she descended was like sound too, but not really. Nothing was like sound. Sound was like sound. That was it.

Faith knew then that she had taken sound for granted her entire life. She had an idea now what Marcus Wolfe must have felt as he picked himself up from that gas explosion and realized that the ringing in his ears was the last thing he was ever going to hear.

She sobbed, the noise a gasp as much as a cry. When she realized that she had heard that sound and not just felt it, she sobbed again—this time with relief—and collapsed on a landing. She heard Turk barking, and a moment later, he pressed himself against her. She held him tightly, clinging to his warmth and the softness of his fur, breathing deeply until her own heart calmed.

Her phone was ringing. Michael.

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