She Read Their Lips and Ruined Them

The line jumped up on the small monitor at the control desk.

【The second she opens her mouth, she sounds way too deaf.】

【Just seat her in the audience as filler. That's enough.】

The staffer panicked first. He reached out to kill the captions.

I caught his hand.

"Leave it."

His face went white.

"Miss Bishop, this is a minor glitch."

I looked at him.

"It's not a glitch."

"It's what she said."

Backstage, Sabina still hadn't noticed.

She was touching up her lipstick.

Her assistant asked quietly beside her:

"What are we going to do about the experience-sharing segment?"

Sabina's voice was soft.

"Just have her go up and stand there."

"She won't catch the host's questions anyway."

"I'll answer for her when the time comes."

The staffer glanced at me, and his face turned worse.

Onstage, the host had already moved into the next segment.

"Next, let's invite the daughter the Hensons just recovered, Miss Lottie Bishop, to the stage."

The lights swung toward me.

Ethan dropped his voice.

"Don't say anything out of line."

"Tonight is the Hensons' event."

I watched his mouth.

"So?"

He frowned.

"Sabina didn't mean it just now."

"Don't cling to one sentence."

I smiled.

"One?"

"How many did you hear?"

Edwin came over too.

He planted himself in front of me and kept his voice low.

"Lottie."

"Everyone here tonight is somebody."

"Do you really want to embarrass the Hensons?"

I opened the captions on my phone.

His words popped up on the screen.

【Do you really want to embarrass the Hensons?】

I held the phone up for him to see.

"Was it me who put the embarrassing part out there?"

"Or was it her, saying it?"

Edwin's face darkened.

"You're too sharp."

I nodded.

"Not as soft-edged as the rest of you."

"Cutting people open and calling it doing me a favor."

Onstage, the host had already called my name a second time.

Brendan sat in the front row, his face grim.

Valerie's eyes were red. She wanted to come pull me back.

Sabina finally emerged from backstage.

The moment she saw me still sitting, she put on a worried look.

"Sis, are you nervous?"

In front of everyone, she walked over to me.

Bent down, took my hand.

Her voice was soft enough to drip.

"It's okay."

"If you can't hear clearly, I'll go up with you."

"Whatever the host asks, I'll say it for you."

The camera was pointed right at her.

She really knew how to pick her angle.

I pulled my hand back.

"No need."

Sabina's eyes went red at once.

"Sis, don't push yourself."

"I'm just afraid you'll mess up."

I looked at her.

"Afraid I'll mess up."

"Or afraid I'll open my mouth?"

Her lips trembled.

People around us were already whispering.

"So this is the one they found?"

"Why is her temper so strange?"

"Sabina really has it hard."

"Hearing-impaired kids are sensitive, that's for sure."

I stood up.

There was still faint static in my hearing aid.

The light landed on my face, harsh.

All at once I thought of the little screen outside the soup shop.

Every time letters flashed across it, Grandma would tap the rim of a bowl.

"Lottie, see that?"

"The soup's ready."

She never once thought I was a bother. She only worried I'd let a hot meal go cold.

I walked up onto the stage.

The host passed me the microphone.

"Miss Bishop, we hear that Miss Sabina stood by you and pushed the community caption-screen project forward."

"Is there anything you'd like to say to her?"

Sabina stood at the side of the stage, tears held in her eyes.

As if waiting for me to thank her.

I held the microphone and looked toward the big screen.

"There is."

"First I'd like the staff to switch the backstage captions to the main screen."

The host's face changed.

The room went quiet too.

Brendan shot to his feet.

"Lottie!"

I didn't look at him.

"Isn't this a charity event for the hearing-impaired?"

"Then let everyone see the captions."

The staffer hesitated.

I walked straight up to the control desk and connected my own phone to the display.

The next second, the big screen blacked out.

When it came back on, it showed the backstage caption log from before.

【Don't let Lottie Bishop go up later.】

【The second she opens her mouth, she sounds way too deaf.】

【Just seat her in the audience as filler. That's enough.】

The whole room went dead silent.

The tears on Sabina's face hadn't fallen yet. She stood frozen under the lights.

Edwin was ashen.

Ethan couldn't get a word out either.

I picked up the microphone.

"Sorry."

"My ears don't work well."

"But I read captions just fine."

I opened the second file.

Photo after photo popped up.

The little screen at the Old Street soup shop, the number-call screen at the community clinic, the notice screen outside the shoe-repair shop, the handwritten schematics my adoptive father left behind.

Grandma stood by the pot, the screen behind her lit up:【Table three, your soup's ready.】

The last page was the project registration form.

Project name:【Old Street Can Hear】

Lead: Lottie Bishop.

Helper: Theresa Bishop.

Late technical maintenance: Andrew Dickerson.

I turned my head toward Sabina.

"You said just now that you didn't do much over these years."

"You really didn't."

"You only changed the name to yours."