I was awoken, by a sharp jabbing in the ribs. I coughed, being roused from my excellent sleep was not how I wanted to start today. Or any day, for that matter. If it was Scarlet, he was gonna die. A very horrible, painful death as I squeezed the very life from his bones, one drop of blood at a time. Hemoglobin couldn't save you this time, my friend. Although, it didn't really feel like Scarlet's hands doing the jabbing. The fingers were too small and too pointy. Like David's delicate lady fingers.

Well, I guess I'd have to kill him instead. I didn't mind that one bit. Meant I could probably sleep in longer, which suited me quite a lot. I growled and rolled over.

"David, I swear to god I'm going to skin you alive."

No response came. Or at least, no verbal response came. Instead, only the sound and feeling of my sleeping bag being unzipped.

"Wait, David-"

Before I could react, the frigid air of the clearly very, very early morning grabbed me like a bear in it's teeth and bit down with lethal force.

"Aaa-AAHH!" I yelled, as the warm sweet embrace of my sleeping bag was suddenly opened up on me. I bolted upright, my arms coiling up around me to try and salvage some amount of heat that was being quickly lost through my naked upper half. "It's so cold!"

My tentmate awoke at this time.

"Dude, why are you so loud, man?" he asked, from over my shoulder.

"Somebody's in the tent!" I yelled.

"Yeah, we are, you moron."

"SOMEONE ELSE, SCARLET!" I gestured to the corner. "OVER THERE I THINK!"

I could hear him fumbling around for the lantern. So apparently it was before dawn so there was no light. Not that I needed it. There was a click.

"What are you- OH, woah!" he exclaimed, falling backwards.

"Scarlet?"

"Yeah there's someone in here. It's a girl!"

"What does she look like?"

"What does that matter to you?"

"Screw you, who is it?!" I demanded.

"Uh, the d-deaf girl. What's her name."

I perked up, turning back to where I thought she was. "Neo?"

"I don't know, maybe. I don't know her name."

"Is she really short?"

"How would you know?!"

"Answer the question, Scarlet."

"How many deaf girls do we have here?"

"Uh..."

I became acutely aware that I didn't have a shirt on in the presence of a lady. My hands came up to cover my shameful skinny upper body. I was suddenly envious of the sighted. Knowing Neo, she wasn't making even the slightest effort to not look at me.

"I dunno, probably just the one. And maybe her friend, Monika." I turned myself towards Scarlet's side of the tent. "But I don't think she's deaf. Hand me my shirt, please."

"Oh is that her name?" a lump of cloth hit me in the stomach. I unfolded it and pulled it on. "Wait, she's got something in her hand."

The sounds of paper being handed from one to another crinkled through the tent. Evidently she'd had something to say but couldn't. For obvious reasons.

"Uh, it's a note for you, dude."

"Right, because I can read suddenly."

He sighed.

"It says 'Fox, it's time to go listen to the weather report, get dressed.' Sounds like you and her have stuff to do."

"Tell her I said no."

"I don't know sign language, you tell her."

"Write it down!"

"I don't have a pen! Do you have one?"

"What use would I have for a pen?!"

"TO WRITE STUFF DOWN!"

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT LETTERS ARE!"

I heard him slap his hand over his face and groan. Not my fault he keeps forgetting that I can't write. Or draw. Or hold a pen. I guess he found one since the next sounds were of scribbling on the paper. There was a short exchange as the paper was passed back and forth.

More scribbling.

"She says you don't have a choice."

"I always have a choice. And I choose to go back to sleep."

Scribbling.

"You'd deny me when I'm so cute?"

"Yes. I don't know what cute looks like. So that one's ineffective on me."

Scribbling again.

"Why don't you touch me and find out?"

"Jesus Christ, Scarlet. No! I'm not into you!"

"Hey, I'm just reading what's on the page. Don't shoot the messenger."

"Jesus Christ, Neo. Alright fine. I'll get out of bed. Tell her to give me a minute to change."

More scribbling.

"You have one minute. Strip."

"Both of you get the hell out."

Scarlet laughed as he got up and slid past me, unzipping the tent flap and climbing out. I listened for his footsteps, hearing what sounded like a second set following him back into the morning air. The tent flap was zipped shut again, leaving me hopefully alone. Since I wasn't fully convinced, I grabbed my cane from above my pillow, unfolded it, and did a once-over of the room, touching the ground in a circle.

"Okay, I think I'm safe."

Or at least I hoped. I dunno, maybe girls can float or something and she was still in the tent. Well that was just too bad for me, then. I was paranoid, but for good reason of course. When you can't see you start to develop the thought that everyone is watching you, even if no one is immediately in your vicinity. Neo seemed like the kind of person who'd take any opportunity to loom around and be mysterious just for the laughs.

I quickly changed, grabbing some underwear and denim pants and pulling them on quickly. Even without sight I could still operate in confined spaces if I knew where my stuff was. I threw on a cotton shirt and the camp's branded 'yellow' hoodie. Didn't matter what colour it was to me, but everyone else complained that it 'clashed' with their outfits and didn't match anything they owned. Tally came to me early on and tried to make the joke that we'd look good in them anyways, but this was when I was still salty about being here. So the joke hadn't worked. I appreciate her effort in hindsight, though.

Heh. Hindsight.

"Arright, I'm up." I groaned, weaseling my way forward to the tent flap. My knees dragged over Scarlet's backpack and knocked it over, spilling his clothes and his water bottle onto the canvas floor. Hey, I told him not to put his stuff in front of the door the last time. His fault now.

I pulled the zipper up to let myself out of of the tent, feeling the harsh chill of the pre-morning air force its way into the openings of my sweater. My shoes were waiting for me just over the lip, and I stepped into them and stood all the way up, my back crackling and popping as I now had the space to stretch properly. I can bet you that I didn't look so good doing it, but I didn't care what people thought of how I looked. Everyone looked the same to me, so.

Scarlet approached. "She's waiting for you up there."

"Up where?" I yawned, using my cane to support a little of my weight.

"By the picnic tables. You need me to walk you up?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I got it. Thanks, though."

"Right, I'm going back to bed."

"Sorry you had to wake up to that."

"Pfft, doesn't matter to me, dude. She's all yours."

I swung my hand, smacking him in the stomach. "Don't be like that."

"Hey, I'm just teasing." he laughed, climbing back in the tent. "Maybe she likes you or something."

"Doubt it. This is clearly for research purposes. Go back inside, dummy."

The zipper closed with a muffled chuckle. Asshat. What did he know about women. Granted, what did I know about women. I didn't even know what this one looked like. Or sounded like. Or felt like. Or tas- you know what, forget that one. Not appropriate.

I flipped my cane into a more comfortable grip and started off, wrapping my left arm around my stomach to try and keep some of the warmth in. Like, goddamn, it was freezing. It was July! How was this even possible! I suspect we were supposed to still be in bed at this hour and not even realize that it was anything but excellent outside, so this was only going to be a minor inconvenience for anyone unfortunate enough to have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. And also, evidently, anyone woken up by a deaf sociopath who wanted attention.

I sighed.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to judge. There was no indication given that Neo was anything but a lovely person, except for her nonsensical use of sarcasm considering she couldn't speak. She was polite, she was nice to the counselors, two things I can admit I wasn't quite so strong at just yet, but most importantly she had this sense of wonderment for being at the camp.

Even on yesterday's nature hike she kept running off to follow birds and Gwen kept having to flag her down and bring her back to the group so she wouldn't fall off of Eagle's Landing lookout. By the way, apparently a beautiful vista, but I didn't really see the appeal. Like, at all. Tally and I had sat on a rock off to the side and tried to enjoy the breeze while everyone else was looking for fossils and doing charcoal etchings and whatever, but I'd been hit in the face one too many times for my liking, so I'd just moped.

My cane hit something, making me stop dead. Something soft. Someone soft.

"Oh, excuse me." I said to whoever it was sitting on the ground.

"Привет, Fox." came the soft, deeply accented voice from about my stomach-level.

"Oh, good morning, Tally. Didn't mean to bump into you." Speak of the devil and she shall appear. Not that I quite understood what she'd said, I understood that it was some kind of friendly greeting in Russian, probably a 'hello' or a 'good morning' as she always greeted myself and the others this way.

"Is no problem." she said, chuckling softly. "I not see you coming."

Fair.

"Are you sitting on the ground?" I asked, righting my back and trying to pop out a knot in my spine.

"Da. I found good rock for sitting."

"How do you determine good from bad rocks?"

"Is flat."

I chuckled, leaning on my cane for support. "Can I sit down with you?"

"Don't you have place to be?"

"After the stunt she just pulled in my tent? She can wait."

It was Tally's turn to laugh. "Here, take hand."

"I don't know where your hand is."

"I don't know where your hand is. We are at impasse."

I fumbled for a moment before I found the gloved and surprisingly large hand of the other person, right about where I assumed it would be in front of me. She didn't jump at my touch, clearly used to it, unlike me who would very often jump at sudden contact with others, whether I knew they were there or not. I let her guide me down onto the rock, which was as frozen as the morning air around me. I gasped as the chill slapped me in the butt. At least the kink in my back was gone.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

The way her R's rolled was distinct. Very Eastern-bloc.

"Why are you up so early?"

"Why are you up early?"

"I have to listen to radio broadcasts with Neo, says David."

"Oh."

"And yourself?" I asked, pushing for an answer to my question, seeing as I had asked first.

"I meditating. Keeps mind at ease for day."

"What do you think about?"

"Past."

"Alright." I finished with. My school's therapist told me I should meditate to try and relax whenever I would feel down. I tried it a few times, usually to no avail. It would always just make whatever I was currently sour about push itself into the forefront of my thoughts and make me even more sour. Like a double-sour live-action reminder of the things I hated. They told me 'find somewhere comfortable to sit' and 'think about the things that make you happy' and 'try not to dwell on the past' and the usual textbook bullshit they push on the depressed kids before signing useless prescriptions that just made us feel worse. I kicked all that years ago.

"Actually, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

I pondered for a moment and let the unasked question hang in the air, collecting meaning. I sniffled a few times. The cold was starting to get to me. Neo better have had coffee waiting for me. Hot coffee.

"Do you... remember being able to see?"

There was a long pause. I felt immediate shame for asking. I wanted to apologize and take back my question, but she answered before I could take the chance.

"I do." she cleared her throat. "It was long time ago, so it gets hazy."

"Really?"

"Most of memories are seeing memories. I remember faces and sights. But they are now permanent. Memory stuck in two thousand five."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Every memory I have is from Russia, when I was little girl," she started, her tone reminiscent and softened. "All buildings are grey concrete, little sister is two years, mama and papa are much younger… sky is constant clouds. Is very dull. Everyone wear tracksuit to me."

"Hmm."

"Is not that this is bad, it's all I know, so is real world for me. There not many meadows or flowers in Russia be like Sound Of Music lady in. So for me, sight memory is not best representation of real life."

She stumbled of the word 'representation', being far more syllables than she seemed comfortable with, but I was impressed by her determination.

"So, like, how do your current thoughts form? As visual facsimiles in your head?"

"Heh, not really." she sniffled, the cold clearly getting to her as well. "Is more like… I leave memory as memory. I become like you, make new memory with other senses. How feels, how smells. For me, colour is past. Shape, feeling, experience, that is present."

I think this was probably the best representation of how I felt at all times I had ever heard from someone else. Yeah, I didn't see the world around me, but to me that was always the case, so life is an experience with every other sense I have. And Tally was living that too. She'd had her share of vision, and she felt just as happy without it as she did with it. Maybe I needed to learn this zen ability. Maybe I was just bitter.

"I see."

"No, you don't."

I chuckled, leaning my head down and pressing the end of my cane to my forehead.

"Thanks, Tally."

"You have place to be, you go. I have memory to reflect on."

"I'll see you around."

I could feel her smirking at me and my lame attempt at humour. "До свидания, Little Fox."

"Yeah, yeah, das vidanya to you to."

I stood up again with a pained groan, as my knees had locked in place for the five minutes I'd been seated. To have a body part that deliberately doesn't work as intended seems like bad design to me. Though it's something I am acutely versed in. I trudged away, the chilly air having not let up since I'd woken up. This sweater was not good enough for this weather, I needed my jacket. But that was all the way back at my tent and I wasn't in any mood to go back.

Speaking of, I'd realized once again the circumstances of my rude awakening, and turned sour. Neo and her attitude. I swear, that woman was going to be the death of me. It's one thing to wake someone up by shaking their tent and rolling them around in their sleeping bag, like my irritating 'friend' Scarlet is a fan of, but another to expose my delicate, frail skin to the morning air by unzipping the goddamn thing and letting me freeze. I mean honestly, what ever happened to the camp's 'Girls with Girls and Boys with Boys' tent rule? Did that mean nothing to her? I suppose she'd probably have used the excuse of 'I never heard you say that' if confronted by a counselor anyways.

I found myself grinning under my facade as I approached the table where she was sitting. I wish I'd have known that, since I probably looked fairly stupid, walking silently up to someone in the early morning with a dumb smile on my face. I had to physically wipe it off my face, concealing it behind a 'runny nose' to not raise suspicion. Although even without sight I could feel Neo pointing her smug bemusement at me as I sat down across from her.

"Good morning, Neo."

HELLO the machine beeped back.

I was a little startled by the volume to which she'd cranked it up to.

"Starting early, I see." I mumbled, folding up my cane and placing it on the bench next to me. She hadn't heard my comment, but I still felt a little self-conscious just in case she did. She was crafty, and I wouldn't put it past her to be able to read lips and just lie about it. I fumbled around on the table until I found my handheld. But before I had a chance to type out a message, she was on me like a gnat.

WHOS THE GIRL

"What?"

I didn't even have my handheld in the right position, but I managed to type out WHAT with fair haste.

ON THE ROCK

I 'blinked' at her to show my confusion.

YOU MEAN TALLY

YEAH IS SHE YOUR GIRLFRIEND

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."

NO

WHY NOT SHES PRETTY

She was almost typing faster then I could interpret without my conversion sheet. Almost. I was surprised by my ability to translate Morse in my head so fast, and equally impressed by her grasp of it as well, given we'd only been doing it a day. Lucky me then, that my plastic Braille-to-Morse page was sitting on top of the old radio box. I quickly grabbed it and set it down next to my handheld.

WHATEVER YOU SAY

YOU DONT THINK SO

Her questions were almost lost on me due to the lack of punctuation, but I persisted.

I DONT KNOW WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE

SHES REALLY PRETTY

I shrugged to emphasize my point.

IF YOU SAY SO

EVERYONE SAY SO

Suddenly, and without warning, something solid slid into my hand, making me jump. She'd thrown something at me. How rude. I reached forward to grab it, finding at my fingertips a bowl. Filled with what felt like leaves. I frowned.

WHATS THIS

I MADE YOU BREAKFAST

"You did what?" I pondered, reaching into the bowl and pulling out one of the small, crunchy things. My heart flipped. "Is this cornflakes?"

YES

"Oh, so you can understand me."

I fondled the edge of the bowl until I found the spoon she'd provided me with. Real silverware. I was impressed. I turned my attention back to the handheld.

YOU WOULDNT HAPPEN TO HAVE MILK

She responded with two solid thunks as she knocked on something on her side of the table, which slid over to my side next to the bowl. I reached for it. The bottle was unfamiliarly cold and damp, covered in condensation and clearly fresh from a refrigerator. Funny, I didn't think we were allowed personal electronics at this camp, and even if we were, who brings a fridge? I opened the top, which was to my surprise a metal twist-off lid. I chuckled to myself as I poured the milk into my cereal. It was like the bottle David had brought me the previous morning.

"I can't remember the last time I had bottled milk like this." I mumbled to myself, using one finger hooked over the edge of the bowl to determine how much was enough. I set the bottle down and put the cap back on.

THANK YOU

YOURE VERY WELCOME

I took a bite, trying not to seem as apprehensive as I really was. I still wasn't fully sure if what was in the bowl was cornflakes, having not actually tested one. Who knows, I could have just doused a bowl of guitar picks with coffee creamer and was about to suffer the consequences.

To my surprise, unfairly to Neo, the bowl was indeed filled with milk and cornflakes. Frosted cornflakes, no less. Deliciously unhealthy.

"Oh, where were these yesterday, David?"

I basically dove face-first into my breakfast, both famished and thirsty from the night, and genuinely appreciative of Neo's memory of my favourite breakfast cereal. I suppose I should give her credit, since she watched me berate David the day before about it. Kinda hard to forget a miserable blind kid angry about his breakfast.

THANK YOU I repeated. I could feel her grin across the table

AGAIN NO PROBLEM YOU WANNA START

SURE

OK TURN ON THE RADIO

"Uh…"

It dawned on me that I didn't actually know how. I heard an almost silent tsk as she reached across the table and grabbed me by the wrist. Her small, delicate hands were extremely soft, but vice-like in their grip as she yanked my hand forward, mostly slamming it into the front of the radio box and into a large metal dial.

"Ow."

THIS DIAL CHANGES RADIO FROM LOCAL TO RECEIVING

She slammed it into another dial.

THIS IS FOR VOLUME

And another.

AND THIS IS FOR CHANNEL FINDING

She let go of my hand, which dropped to the table before I could react. Man, her hands were soft. That was pretty much all I got from that exchange, barely putting to memory the function of each dial.

OK WHEN DO WE START

BROADCAST BEGINS AT SIX

WHAT TIME IS IT NOW

FIVE FIFTY SEVEN

"Okay, I've got time to finish my breakfast."

I forced the rest of the bowl of cereal into my face as quickly as I could, not really minding what I looked like to Neo. She probably thought I was weird anyways, this wouldn't hinder that. I finished off the milk at the bottom of the bowl as well, because why would I waste perfectly good, sugary milk that was still chilled from the fridge. Seriously, still fascinated by the glass bottle milk at camp.

"Right, guess we should start."

I slid the empty bowl away and got comfortable, handheld under my left middle finger and braille sheet under my right. I reached over and flipped the first dial one heavy metallic click over to the transmitting and receiving setting. The static white noise from the speaker was piercing, making us both wince as I scrambled for the volume knob.

"Ow."

I gestured to the radio for her to find the station we were listening for. I remember David telling me the frequency to listen to, but without being able to see the readout, I was more than useless at finding it. If I remember right, we were looking for 162.425 megahertz, which was somewhere on the dial, but I didn't know if it was high, low, or in the middle. The dial clicked as Neo cycled through frequencies and power ranges, the hateful squeaking of the transceiver getting higher and higher as she dialed in on the correct frequency. Then, for a brief moment, she landed on it, and a flash of rapid code came through.

..LLOWSTONE NATIONAL PA…

"That's it!" I blurted, reaching out for her hand on the dial. She clearly understood as she carefully rolled the static back. As she did, the radio static became the familiar rapid beats of Morse Code you'd commonly hear in old war movies, flickering so fast it was almost impossible to determine what was a dash and what was a dot. If you were an amateur. Which we were.

...ORTH TOWER NO 8 STOP DATE IS JULY 7 2013 TIME 0600 STOP FORECAST HIGH 62 LOW 40 STOP SUNRISE AT 0618 PEAK AT 1408 STOP...

I had to take a moment to breathe from reading and interpreting so fast. It was making my head spin. The sound of Neo's pencil on her notebook was equally frantic, meaning at least we were in the same boat. I didn't have the luxury of writing down the translation, I just had to memorize it on the fly, but oh well. That's why there was two of us. I missed the part where the weather report told us about clouds and stuff, but we caught the tail end of it.

...WIND CURR 18 MPH NW STOP END OF BROADCAST FULL STOP

The radio went silent. Eerily silent. I felt like I'd been hit by a bus. Not even my Braille assignments were done at that speed, and we were meant to interpret it quickly. The heavy metal dial was flipped back into the Local position very slowly, as my bench mate set her pencil down with two solid clicks.

WELL THAT WAS AN EXPERIENCE

See, I assumed Neo typed quickly. But compared to what we'd just heard, she typed like a lethargic snail. And that made me look like I was in a coma.

NO KIDDING

SHOULD WE KEEP LISTENING

ID GET LOST

ME TOO

"GOOOOD morning, campers!"

The two of us gasped, nearly leaving our spots on the bench. I hadn't heard David approach, and neither had Neo, as he'd appeared right behind her for his enthusiastic greeting. I don't know if Neo had ever been snuck up on like this before, as her gasp had actual sound this time. Breathy, silent sound, but sound nonetheless. Her voice was airy and trapped in her throat, on account of not having a vocal tract that had ever been used or exercised, but it was distinctly feminine and very shallow, like that of someone with small lung capacity.

"What the hell, David!?" I demanded, 'glaring' over Neo's head to a spot I imagined him to be. "Don't sneak up on people like that! Especially not us!"

"My apologies, guys, I'm just excited to see you up and socializing at this hour of the day! This is new for you!"

"B-but you gave me this job to do. You literally assigned me this so I'd have to get up and socialize."

"But you're having fun with Neo, aren't you?"

I tried not to smile or flush. I failed.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, that's a drastic improvement over yesterday, I think."

"Shut up, David."

I could smell his joy. Not a pleasant smell at six in the morning.

"So, were you two able to decode today's weather broadcast?"

"Uh, yeah, it's gonna be like sixy-two and kinda windy."

"Is it gonna rain? Be cloudy?"

"It was going too fast, I missed that part."

"Eh, that's okay. You'll get it tomorrow I bet."

"I'll certainly tr-"

"Wait a second, what do you have here?" he cut me off, mid-word. Rude.

"Excuse me?"

"Where did you get this bottle of milk?"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

The milk bottle was picked up. The sudden change in his voice was an indication that maybe we weren't supposed to have it.

"This is Gwen's, from the counselor's cabin. How did you get this?"

Uh oh. I turned my face back across the table to Neo and grabbed my handheld again.

DID YOU STEAL THE MILK

There was a pause from her end of the table. A lip was being bitten.

NO

DID YOU BREAK INTO THE COUNSELORS CABIN

Another fairly long pause. My tablemate was sweating.

NO

Now, do I snitch or do I protect? Well, the obvious choice is to snitch and tell David the truth, because honesty is the best virtue a person can have. But this is David we're talking about, of course I'm gonna play dumb.

"It was on the picnic table when we got here, Gwen must have left it out all night. It was almost frozen when we got to it. I saw her eating a whole box of cookies last night as I was leaving the campfire."

"Ah, you're right, she does that. Sorry I accused, I mean nothing by it."

"Hey, don't worry about it."

He sighed that pleased-camp-counselor sigh, his hips most certainly occupied by his hands at this moment.

"Well, at the very least, I'm glad the two of you are getting along. It's so nice to see you making new friends, Fox."

"Kiss my ass, David."

"Ah, there's my favourite camper." he reached over the table and ruffled my hair. Normally I'd be upset, but I was certain I had legendary bedhead going on so it wasn't exactly gonna make it any worse. "Knew I'd find you in there somewhere. Keep at it, sport."

He turned and wandered off, probably back to the tents to wake the rest of us up for the day's activities. I was glad he was gone, as it meant I turn my attention back to Neo and the radio. I gingerly grabbed my handheld again.

YOURE A THIEF

Her response was both instant and unexpected.

YEAH BUT A CUTE THIEF

"Heh."

DISAGREE

Neo proceeded to gasp again and make the most obvious and offended 'how dare you' face I'd ever heard.

RUDE

I had to focus between laughs.

IM KIDDING SORRY

TELL ME IM CUTE

You don't understand just how audible a silent pout is until you experience it like I had to.

FINE YOURE CUTE

Her smug smile was just as audible, and it permeated the air around me.

THATS WHAT I THOUGHT

"This is ridiculous." I couldn't not flush at her. I wasn't exactly up on my visual aptitude when it came to involuntary bodily actions, so I didn't know just how obvious my blush was. I hoped not too bad.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO NOW

She seemed to pause for effect most of the time. I'm not sure she realized just how annoying that was. Or maybe she did realize. This was Neo we're talking about.

I UNNO SKIP ROCKS

The way that she could convey emotion and attitude through Morse Code was irritating. I didn't understand this woman. I mean, I don't understand most people, but this seemed a special case. Didn't mean I didn't like her company, though.

SOUNDS GOOD TO ME

And off we went.