Listen! Read Free Page B

group.
    After the four women had eaten and talked for a while, Liz served dessert. Each of the women had a photo propped next to her plate. They planned to share their stories while having dessert and coffee.
    “Who would like to go first?” Liz asked the others. She looked around the table.
    Roma held up her photo. “I’ll go first,” she said. “My story is about something that took place long ago, but I remember it well.”
    “Am I in the story?” Liz wanted to know.
    “You’ll have to wait and see,” Roma told her sister. “I’ll tell the story exactly the way I remember it.”
    Roma passed her photo around the table.
    “As you can see, there are two adult figures in my photo. Two adults outside, and a child’s small round face inside, looking through a window. Hollyhocks reach up from a narrow garden belowthe window. The tips of their flowers can be seen from inside the kitchen. I remember the colours, all pinks and whites.
    “I am the child at the window. My mother is one of the adults, and she is standing by the side of our old house. The Manor River is just out of sight.
    “I should explain that Liz and I always called our mother Mam. I’m not sure how that happened. We called her Mam from the time we were babies. Maybe that’s the way our deaf mother said the word Mom. But however this happened, everyone knew her as Mam. Even our father called her Mam.
    “In the photo, Mam is wearing white shorts and white sandals. Her back is to the camera, and her head is tilted. She has just washed her long, black hair. She is holding a hairbrush and trying to dry her hair in the sun. From outside, she is using the window as a mirror. You can see in the reflection that she has a huge smile on her face. I like to think she’s smiling at me. Because I am in the kitchen, sitting on a stool and looking out.
    “I don’t know who is behind the camera. Maybe a friend of Mam’s. Maybe a neighbour who lives in a house along the river. Anyway, someone took the picture on a weekday, when my father was awayat work. I know this because, in the picture, I am doing my job.”
    *
    Roma’s story:
    My job was to wait for my baby sister to wake. When I heard Liz wake up, I had to let Mam know. I would do this by making the sign for “baby” through the window. Mam would see me signing, and she would come and lift Liz out of her crib. After that, I would be allowed to go out to play.
    I was four years old when the photo was taken. I know this because Mam wrote my name and the date on the back. If I was four, then Liz was two. Liz still had naps during the daytime, but I did not. Liz had her baby naps in the downstairs bedroom, where Mam had put a crib. This was a small room next to the kitchen. Every day at nap time, Mam gave Liz a baby bottle filled with milk. Liz drank the milk and went to sleep.
    When Liz woke from her nap, she stood in her crib. She picked up her empty baby bottle and threw it at the door frame. In her two-year-old way, shesomehow knew that Mam was deaf. She threw the bottle to get Mam’s attention. She aimed it to hit the frame and land outside the bedroom door. That way, Mam would see it bounce. Liz was very smart.
    Mam was smart, too. In those days, baby bottles were made of glass. So the first time Liz threw one, it broke. Mam placed a thick mat on the kitchen floor. After that, when Liz threw a bottle, it bounced off the door frame and landed on the mat. There were no more broken baby bottles after that.
    But the day of this photo, Mam was outside, drying her hair. Inside, I had to sit on a stool by the window and listen for Liz. I’d become tired of waiting for her to throw her baby bottle.
    Through the screen door, I heard someone’s footsteps coming up the front walk. Step, drag. Step, drag . Only one person I knew dragged his foot to make that sound. The thimble man!
    Part of the thimble man can be seen here. He is the second adult in the photo. He looks as if he’s walking into the side of