[stylist] Trials of an honorary Dragon. Chapter 19 (new chapter).

[helene ryles]

Chapter 19:
The Slyrake family by Nadia Murat
1997

As I lay weeping into my pillow a gentle hand touched me.
“Hello, I am your grandmother Mona.  Would you like to come and talk
with me?  I have been feeling so lonely since Monika got married
again” finger spelt a pair of wrinkled hands.   I nodded
enthusiastically.
“Yes,” I signed, remembering she was deafblind herself when she did
not respond to her nod.  It was dark for me, but fully sighted people
were able to see in the dark as far as I was aware.
I let her guide me along the dark passage way to her room.   She led
me to sit on a bed next to her.
"It’s wonderful to see you at last,” My grandmother finger spelt,  “It
was good to meet Liza too,” Mona told me, “I’m so proud of Liza, now
she works as a police officer.  If only she would visit us more
often.”
“Why are Beria and your husband so horrible to her?” I finger spelt
back before wiping my eyes.
“Could you repeat that please? Please sign more slowly next time,” my
grandmother asked.
I did that a few times.
“I don’t know what you are talking about;” My grandmother replied at
last, “Liza is very fond of her aunt Beria.  Beria’s my husband’s
younger sister.  She has been such a great help to us all.  She even
gave Liza a chance to work for the Darthrilan police force.  Even with
her limitations.  It came in very useful when Snyder kept trying to
marry Monika off to unsuitable men,”
“Who’s Monika?” I asked.
 “That’s my middle child.  My husband kept marrying her off to
unsuitable men.  Liza brought her back for me the first time.  I
thought we’d be together after that but Snyder did it again a few
months later.  That happened three or four years ago.   He won’t even
tell me or Liza where they live.  She was only supposed to visit the
boy to see if they got on, but then Snyder says they got married.  We
are not happy about this as none of us got to speak to Monika about
it.  None of us were even invited to the wedding…”
“That’s so cruel”, I angrily replied.
“I can only hope Monika is ok.  People often thought a deafblind child
would be hard to manage but Monika was a blessing.  Your mother was by
far my most difficult child.  We knew something was wrong after my
birds kept dying.     Madrella had a really violent temper.  She was
also very jealous of her sisters.”
“Mother killed your pet birds?” I asked.
 “That’s what Snyder thinks.  First the birds died, and then my
younger daughters kept dying too.  Only Madrella, Monika and Liza
survived past infancy.   Beria was there the day Liza was born.  She
took Liza away with her.  It broke my heart to be separated from Liza
at such a young age, but Beria told me she needed to be taken to the
hospital in Darthrila, so she wouldn‘t die like the others.”
“You mean your other children were ill?  I thought you said Madrella
killed them?” I asked in confusion.
“Oh no, Liza wasn’t sick.  She just needed to have her cataracts
removed, same as Monika, but my other girls kept dying in mysterious
circumstances.   Beria took Liza away from us, to keep her safe from
Madrella,” My mother explained.
“Why did no one stop her?” I demanded.
“Snyder was ever so angry about the birds…” my grandmother replied.
“He was angry about the birds!  What about your daughters?” I angrily retorted.
“Oh no, the birds were more important to him.   I loved all my
daughters so it broke my heart when they died and Snyder was so
indifferent about it all.  I had to beg him to dig them a grave…” my
grandmother told me sadly.  Her hands trembling as she spelt out the
awful words.
“Why did you never leave him?” I demanded.
“I love Snyder.  I know he’s got his faults but he does look after me.
 He also found Madrella a suitable husband, to get her off our hands,”
my grandmother claimed.
“But didn’t he tell father about the murdered children?” I asked in horror.
“Oh no, he would never have got her off his hands if he had done
that,” the old woman announced.
“What about me? What about my sisters? Father should have been warned”
I told her.  My temper rising.  Her compliancy really grated on my
nerves.
“You don’t come into it, dear.  I’m talking about your mother’s first
marriage.  Your father is your mother’s second husband.”
“Did she not have any children from that?” I asked.
“I don‘t know.  We were not on speaking terms with Madrella, or her
new in-laws.  They seemed angry with my husband for some reason,” my
grandmother explained.
    “Well I’m angry too.  Your husband should never have alowed my
father to marry Madrella.  Why couldn’t you have warned him?” I
demanded.
“We never met.  My husband had Madrella thrown out, long before your
parents got married.  Your father visited us once to buy a prosthetic
leg.  That was after you were born.  I never knew when he came or when
he left, so I couldn‘t have told him anything,” my grandmother
defensively stated.
I pulled my hand away at that point.  A flood of angry tears were
streaming down my face.   My grandmother tried to hug me but I pushed
her away.


                         **************









I woke up to smell something cooking in the kitchen.  When I turned on
my cochlear implant on I could hear Snyder shouting as he rushed down
the wooden staircase, causing the rickety steps to vibrate.
When I got down my grandmother was making her way out of the kitchen
with a plate of slightly over done cakes.  I saw her feeling her way
to the table, to put the food down.  There was a big smile on her
face.
"NO! No! You should never let her cook!  Just think what could have
happened to her!" cried Snyder.  He rushed up to his wife, forcefully
guiding her to a padded armchair.  He put one of her frail hand over
his mouth and throat.
“Don’t cook.  It’s not safe,” He ordered.  I recognised the Tadoma
method from when Aunt Liza had shown it to me.   My grandmother
frowned, struggling to understand what he was saying to her.
"She does feel so useless when you do everything for her.  I thought
I'd just show her a few kitchen skills.  I also think you should try
learning to communicate with your wife a little more efficiently,"
replied an unfamiliar voice.
"Arielle, I wish you and Beria would stop interfering.  I've told you
before that I don't mind doing everything for her," my grandfather
argued.
“You might not but mother does” said another voice.
I rushed into the room to see my aunt Liza again.  She hugged me
warmly.  She was with another woman that looked very similar to Beria.
“Help yourself to some of mother’s cakes.  You could do with fattening
up,” Liza signed.
"No! He doesn't sign.  We've been instructed to communicate via
speech.  Or however else will he benefit from his Cochlear implant,"
my grandfather stormed.
Liza ignored him.  She popped a cake in her mouth before handing a few
cakes to me.   I gulped them all down.
“This is my Aunt Arielle Parvesh.    She also happens to be Beria and
Snyder‘s sister.    She‘s just paying Snyder a family visit.  The
Parvesh family are holding a vegan BBQ next week.  You are all invited
to join us there.  I want you to go especially” Liza told me,
continuing to sign.  I was taken by surprised by how young looking the
woman was considering she was Snyder’s sister, so presumably Snyder‘s
age.  She looked much more like Snyder’s niece.
“Hello Nadia, You won’t know me.  I’m Arielle Parvesh.  I've heard
quite a bit about you though.  I was told about what happened at the
station," she said turning to me and addressing me in Nazdonian sign
language.
"Stop it, you pair!  Haven’t I told you not to sign with him?  Why
don‘t you ever listen to me Liza?" Snyder demanded.
"Why did you never sign to us father?  Don’t you know how cruel it is
to expect the deaf to speak all the time, and besides Nadia‘s a girl,"
countered my Aunt Liza.
"Sometimes Liza, you have to be cruel to be kind,” Snyder claimed.
"So you think it was kind to deprive Monika of language.  Then marry
her off to a couple of low-life thugs, without even explaining to her
what was going on first,” Liza retorted.
“I wish you women weren’t so emotional about everything! Your sister
needed a husband to take care of her.  It’s the way it’s done," Snyder
snapped.
“I suppose selling me off to Beria’s dragon is also the way it’s done.
 Beria says you even asked if he could return any organs for you to
capitalize on, when her dragon had finished eating my legs,” Aunt Liza
retorted back.
“I was only joking,” Snyder hedged.
“Ha cursing Ha! So the exchange of money was also part of the joke”,
my aunt countered.
“I’m going to have a word with Beria about this.  She took you without
paying us anything!  That’s just like a female police officer!  Your
mother and I felt so humiliated the day you joined that bunch of
thugs…” Snyder raged.
“We have to go now Liza.  Hopefully you will see Nadia and your mother
at the BBQ” Liza’s companion announced, urgently tugging at Aunt Liza
in a rather child like manner.  She kept looking at her watch.
“Just a minute, I need to speak to Nadia.  You can go ahead without me
if you must”, Liza told her.
The girl fled from the room.   Snyder pushed past Liza and went out after her.
“Don’t tell my mother about father selling me.  He fed mother lies to
explain my absence,” Liza begged.
“Why doesn’t Beria just put Madrella in jail?” I demanded.
“That’s something I’d really like to know,” my aunt replied with a sigh.
“I don‘t understand,” I confessed.  Feeling very confused on this matter.
“We can discuss this further at the BBQ.  I’m afraid I’ve got to go
now.  Please don’t tell mother about father selling me whatever you
do,” Liza begged.
“But she should know.  Then she can leave him,” I argued.
“She won’t leave.  She’s in love with the brute.   It will just make
her even unhappy then she already is.  When He beats her, she just
tries to cover up for him.  You will understand about that sort of
thing when you are older,” my mother told me.
“What have I said about you signing to him,” shouted Snyder coming back in.
He slapped my aunt round the head.  My aunt turned and hit him back.
 She hugged her mother briefly before grabbing me and attempting to
leave the house with me.   Unfortunately Snyder was too quick for her.
 He jerked me roughly out of my aunt’s grasp.  My aunt blew me a kiss
before she turned and fled.



                     ***   ***   ***

I spent the rest of the day teaching myself how to get from my room to
grandmother’s room.  I closed my eyes, feeling along the rough stone
wall, until I got to my grandmother’s bedroom.
I felt pain as a hard hand gave me a blow to the side of the head.
“How dare you make fun of my wife in this unfeeling manner,” Snyder stormed.
“I’m not!” I told him.
“Don’t answer back, you monkey featured little brat.  Do you have any
idea what it is like to be totally blind and deaf! It is not funny at
all.  You should be more grateful that your parents made such great
sacrifices, so you could hear and see,” he told me.


                 ***  ***  ***
When I saw the light in the landing go off, and stopped feeling the
floorboards creak in Snyder’s room, I counted to 300.  Then I crept to
my grandmother’s room.
"Oh, I'm so glad.  I've had news of my daughter Monika at last.
Unfortunately she's married another bad man who keeps her pregnant
with too many babies.  At least now Arielle and her granny-in-law have
helped her get away from him.  They are all powerful witches so it
seems she is in good hands at last.  I might even get to see my other
grandchildren when we go to the BBQ.  I'm really looking forward to
that," My grandmother told me, that night.  My grandmother was a lot
happier then she had been the previous night.

“No! You will not go to this BBQ,” Snyder declared the following
morning, “I don’t know who that woman was but she wasn’t Arielle
Parvesh. Beria’s just told me that our sister is away, working in
North Nazdonia.  If Liza thinks I‘m going to let you and my wife go
off with god alone knows whom, she’s got another thing coming.”
“Please Snyder! I really want to see my new grandchildren…” my
grandmother begged.  I wasn’t sure how much my grandmother understood
when he spoke to her using Tadoma, but she must have got the gist of
it somehow.
“No! After all I’ve done for you Mona; I would have thought you would
show more gratitude.  Besides I don‘t believe this nonsense about
Monika giving birth to lots of children.  She only produced
stillbirths with the last husband she married,” Snyder told her in a
domineering manner.
“I really want to go!” my grandmother argued, clutching his hand in his.
“How dare you talk back to me?” Snyder screamed, slapping his frail
wife across the face.

On the day of the BBQ, Snyder locked us in my grandmother’s bedroom
when the witch came to fetch us.  A few of Snyder’s magically able
friends came to help Snyder deal with the witch who had come for us.
When I turned my Cochlear implant on I could hear them arguing at the
front door.
 Meanwhile my grandmother and I were both very disappointed.    We
spent the day clinging to each other, sobbing uncontrollably in each
others arms.

                    ***  ***  ***

A few weeks later ‘Beria’ came to take me to an audiologist
appointment in Darthrila.  ‘Beria’ and a young man were dressed in the
dark red police uniform. The young man was also golden-skinned with
black shoulder length hair.  I found him very attractive.
“I’ve been asked to take you to your appointment.  So hop aboard my
rickshaw and we’re off.”  ‘Beria’ told me in Drasp.
“I didn’t realise he had an appointment…” my uncle asked suspiciously.
“Oh I thought you knew.  It is a very important appointment as well.
The great science demon will help him improve his hearing…” she told
him.
“Well he certainly needs that… I thought these cochlear implants were
supposed to cure deafness right away…” Snyder enquired.
“Unfortunately not, but they will improve Nadir’s hearing very
gradually…” the woman explained.
“Well he certainly needs that,” Snyder commented, letting me go at last.
I let them take me to the rickshaw that ‘Beria’ had parked outside the
building.
As she peddled, her Rickshaw rose into the air.   It was a highly
enjoyable trip on the flying rickshaw.  Somehow I was not too
surprised when ‘Beria’ stopped looking so much like the real Beria.
She began to get thinner and shrink.
“Wendy tells me that we are now travelling through some mountain
ranges.  She says the view here is quite spectacular,” the young man
finger spelt.  He seemed younger somehow.  The girl who had been
impersonating Beria had shrunk in size, she kept having to roll up the
sleeves and trouser legs of her uniform more and more,  as she was so
small.

  The rickshaw finally landed on top of the mountain beside a cave,
and we all dismounted.
“Quick; change into these,” my companion urged.   I was handed a sandy
coloured, long sleeved shirt, and matching trousers.
While I got changed my companions took off their police uniforms.
They now wore some casual sandy coloured garments like mine.   ‘Beria’
was now a girl no bigger then me.  The young man was a teenage boy, of
about sixteen.  Even the rickshaw was now a smaller child sized
bicycle.
“I’m Wendy Krum and this is Pluto Parvesh.  We are school friends.  We
are also both CODA,” the girl told me in Nazdonian sign language.
“What’s a CODA?” I asked.
“A Child of Deaf adult,   Only Pluto’s father is blind too. He has
married your aunt Liza…”
“My Aunt got married?” I asked, feeling a lump in my throat.  My
friend Mitch from NIRC had already warned me about what happened when
men came on the scene.
“Yes, his name is Vinny Parvesh.  Not to worry, Vinny is not the
jealous type.  He won’t mind sharing Liza’s affections with you.  He
already has to share her affection with that Dragon and all those dogs
she’s got.  Luckily Liza is just as good about sharing Vinny’s
affection with his children…”
I didn’t know how to respond to this.
“I’m not really going to take you to see an audiologist. It was just a
ruse to get you out of old Snyder’s clutches.  You are going into
hiding for a while.”
“Were you impersonating Arielle too?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m a transfigurator; A witch that can change shape.  That’s why
I’m so small.  Faders and Transfigurator’s never grow too big, unlike
witches that practice other forms of witchcraft.
“How old are you?” I asked.  The girl was about the same size as me.
“I’m fourteen.  Now we must go hide in the cave.   We are just waiting
for the Dragon Kan Darth to come along.  Your mother and the police
are going to be on the look out for you as soon as you fail to come
back, so you are going to have to stay hidden in this cave until Kan
Darth comes to collect you.  Hopefully she won‘t be   long.” The girl
stated.
“Look there she is,” the girl cried.  About ten minutes later I could
also see the dragon.  She had beautiful silver streaks in her green
scaly body.
“Here take this; I’ve put some books together for you.  Your aunt says
you like to read,” the girl cried, handing me her rucksack.
Hastily I climbed on the female dragons back and we were off.