CHAPTER TWO
Miss Farmer was surprised to see what a quick study Sutton had become.
She learned to work in the kitchens with the other children, helping to make meals, wash dishes and clothing.
She was slowly but surely catching up to the other children in her age group in the classroom and she’d found herself enjoying books more than she ever dreamed possible.
“But I don’t understand,” she said staring at Miss Farmer, “if he loved her, why did he leave?”
“Well,” she smiled, “sometimes love is complicated. He loved her so much, he thought it would be best if he left her.”
“That’s just dumb,” she said frowning. “I love Pip and I would never leave him.”
“Your love for Pip is different than the kind of love a man and woman share,” smiled Miss Farmer. She stared at Pip seated in the corner. He had a book open and was looking down at the page. The same page he’d been staring at for twenty minutes. He tried to pretend he could read but he couldn’t.
Miss Farmer had been trying to teach them both sign language but Pip struggled because he would get frustrated when he was unable to hear her instructions. He so desperately just wanted to hear but he couldn’t.
“I wish we could do something for him,” said Sutton.
“I have a surprise for you, honey. We have some friends at a hospital not too far from here, and they specialize in cases like your brother’s. They can usually correct the hearing or find a way to help the child. They’re coming tomorrow to see him.”
“Really? Can I be with him?”
“Of course,” she smiled.
Pip stood from his seat and walked toward the old piano. Miss Farmer had watched him touching the keys, his left hand on top of the piano, his right tapping each key as if he could hear the sound.
Today was different. He walked toward the piano and sat down on the bench. Then with both hands, he began to run them over the keys. Sutton smiled.
“Ain’t that pretty, Miss Farmer?”
“Isn’t that pretty,” she corrected her. Sutton just nodded.
“It sure is.”
Miss Farmer chuckled and slowly walked toward the boy. His fingers were moving casually over the keys to an unfamiliar melody, something she’d never heard in her life. But it was positively beautiful.
The boy sat at the piano for almost two hours before his sister took his hand and led him to dinner. When the doctors arrived the next day, Miss Farmer couldn’t wait to tell them what Pip had done.
At first they appeared doubtful and somewhat in disbelief. But when Sutton took her brother’s hand and led him to the piano, he played the same tune he’d played the day before.
The two men in white coats, presumably doctors, and the woman with them, stared in awe at the boy. His sister just kept encouraging him, smiling and nodding.
“This is extraordinary,” whispered one of the doctors. “You’re certain he’s deaf?”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll tell us for certain but that’s what their parents said,” she nodded.
“And the parents are dead?” asked the doctor. Miss Farmer stared at him and slowly nodded.
“Yes. They were tragically killed the same night they dropped the children off.”
Sutton didn’t understand why it took the doctors so long to tell them what they already knew.
“Your brother is completely deaf,” said the one doctor.
“I already knew that,” she said frowning at him. “I told you. He had lots of ear infections and one of the doctors at the clinic poked his ear drum or something. Mama said it was awful for him.”
“I’m sure that it was, Sutton but your brother was deaf before the infections. It’s a genetic thing. But your brother possesses a very special ability to feel music through vibration. What he does at the piano is remarkable and we believe he should come with us. We can help him.”
“Come with you? No,” she said adamantly shaking her head. “No. We stay together.”
But the doctors wouldn’t hear of it. A week later while Sutton was helping in the kitchen, the doctors arrived with some sort of legal authority and took Pip from the school.
The next morning, Sutton was gone. She’d run away and crept into her brother’s room. She was promptly returned to the orphanage. And she promptly ran away again.
Realizing that this would continue to be problematic they allowed the girl to stay but only if she would keep out of their way and not interfere with her brother’s treatments.
Except the treatments weren’t treatments at all. They would strap poor Pip to the table and poke and prod at his head, his ears and force him to go under a dark tube thing that lit up and made weird sounds.
Late one evening, after Pip had fallen asleep, Sutton decided to wander around the clinic and see who else was there. As it turned out, there were a number of children with hearing or speech issues. All were enduring the same torment day in and day out.
“I just know that if we can take a look at Pip’s brain, and the girl, Samantha, we’ll see what allows them to hear music in a different way,” said one of the doctors.
Sutton stood very still, careful not to even breathe.
“That requires opening their skulls and you know that his sister will scream bloody murder,” said the other man.
Sutton knew she couldn’t leave the children there. Especially not Pip. After bed checks were done and the lights were out, she woke Pip and four other children, holding up a sheet of paper.
We have to leave now. The doctors are bad people.
Without question the children trusted her and followed her, sneaking down the back stairwell and out into the night.
That was over a year ago. Since that time, Sutton had discovered that most of the children had unusual talents related to music. Samantha, although she couldn’t hear anything at all, could play the flute like Pan himself.
Melvin, who also couldn’t hear, picked up a guitar when he was three and just began playing everything from rock and roll to classical music.
Eden saw a harp inside a church when she was two.
Although she couldn’t hear a thing, her fingers danced along the huge strings and created music unlike anything they’d heard before.
But the most amazing was Charlie. Unable to speak a single word, somehow if you turned the music on, he could sing.
The doctors had said it was physically impossible.
His vocal chords had been damaged beyond repair due to a house fire that claimed the rest of his family. Yet here he was, singing like a bird.
And for sweet Pip, he’d not only become more passionate about the piano, but also the guitar with Melvin.
“Look, Pip,” whispered the young girl. “Look how beautiful it is. It’s perfect and the sound that comes from it is perfect.”
Her little brother stared at her not understanding what she was saying at first. He’d learned some sign language, but not enough to fully communicate with his sister.
Instead, he used a small tablet to write out what he was trying to say.
Everything was misspelled but Sutton could read it and understand it.
Older by almost four years, she was their leader. She stole the food, she found them dry places to sleep, and she made sure her big sad eyes sucked in all the right people for money.
The only solace for any of the now completely deaf or mute children? Music. The feeling of it against their fingers. The vibration in their souls, in their bones. It made them all calm and happy knowing that they could ‘hear’ something, even if it wasn’t sound.
She kissed her brother’s forehead as he held the guitar to his chest and closed his eyes.
Looking around the abandoned house, she noticed the others were all asleep now as well.
Covering them with the small beach towels she’d stolen from one of the shops, she opened the door, then secured it with the padlock behind her.
Hunting for food was her job. She did it at night, alone, and away from the others. In the morning, they would wake to food and never know how it got there. Eventually, she would search for someone that could truly help them feel the music.