[stylist] DBG (chapter 5)

helene ryles dreamavdb at googlemail.com
Thu Sep 10 01:45:09 UTC 2009


I wondered why nobody was commenting on the chapter.

Helene

On 10/09/2009, helene ryles <dreamavdb at googlemail.com> wrote:
> No I don't want this to be about sexual interaction at all. I just
> didn't realise it would be considered in that light. So I'll delete it
> now.
>
> Helene
>
> On 10/09/2009, helene ryles <dreamavdb at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> I'll delete that bit then.
>> Helene.
>>
>> On 10/09/2009, Judith Bron <jbron at optonline.net> wrote:
>>> Helene, If you want to make this a novel about sexual interaction, do it
>>> in
>>> a conventional manner.  A dragon licking her when she has her period?
>>> Yuck!
>>> This is not sexual, just gross.  Judith
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "helene ryles" <dreamavdb at googlemail.com>
>>> To: "A private list for authors" <DB-AUTHORS at tr.wou.edu>; "Writer's
>>> Division
>>> Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 6:56 PM
>>> Subject: [stylist] DBG (chapter 5)
>>>
>>>
>>> Chapter 5
>>> The sad fate of Liza Bronze by Shania Krum (Liza’s deaf Nanny)
>>>
>>> It was late when the lights started flickering on and off.    I went
>>> to the door to find Liza Bronze.  She was sitting on my doorstep with
>>> her head in her hands.
>>> I tapped her gently on the shoulder.
>>> "What’s the matter Liza?" I signed.   I wasn't sure she could see me
>>> through her tears so I repeated my request using tactile sign
>>> language.
>>> Liza just shook her head and carried on crying.
>>> Its several years since I last saw Liza Bronze.  The problem is that
>>> people in Nazdonia hate Dragons.  The dragons come here sometimes, and
>>> sit perch on our roofs, watching us closely.   Ever so often a Dragon
>>> will dive down and snatch one of our villagers.   Usually they just
>>> examine us closely before putting us down again, but some dragons have
>>> been known to remove a villager’s legs first.    As if to add insult
>>> to injury, the offending dragon stuffs the villager’s pockets with
>>> Darthrilan currency.  They seemed to think that would make it all
>>> okay.
>>> We tried telling Liza about this, but she won’t believe us.   On her
>>> last visit my son   expressed a desire to join a dragon slaying team.
>>> Liza got up and started swearing at him.  When I told her not to use
>>> such rude signs around the children she turned and left the house.
>>>
>>>
>>>                       ***  ***   ***
>>>
>>> I know a lot about Liza Bronze.  I was her wet nurse.   I can always
>>> remember her dragon Talmon Bronze's first meeting.  I had just put my
>>> own baby to bed and was taking down my laundry, when this dragon
>>> swooped down.  I was so shocked that I dropped my laundry basket.  I
>>> was about to flee for my cottage when the dragon 'spoke' to me.
>>> I suddenly visualized a tiny silver-skinned baby in my mind.  I
>>> visualised money and then a question mark.  Those images clearly
>>> didn't belong to me.  I know, god alone knows how, that the dragon was
>>> communicating with me.  He was offering me both the baby and the
>>> money. Such strangeness made me nervous.  What did the dragon want?
>>> The images came again, more persistently this time.  I visualized
>>> myself nursing this baby.  Then I visualised money again.  Surely the
>>> dragon wasn't offering me a job? Or was he? The notion was just too
>>> far fetched to take in.
>>> The dragon nodded.
>>> I kept visualising the money.  There was a question mark again.  Was
>>> he asking me how much I wanted?
>>> "A bag of gold every night on the full moon will do" I replied
>>> sarcastically.  I wondered why this big scaly brute was toying with me
>>> like this for.   Why didn't he just hurry up and eat me if that's what
>>> he wanted.
>>> I visualised some pure gold nuggets followed by the common nine carrot
>>> gold; Then a query.
>>> "I would prefer to be paid in goln.  That’s the name of our currency
>>> here in Nazdonia.  I'll do it for 500 goln a month, and no it doesn't
>>> really have to be handed in on the full moon.   Any other day will do
>>> just fine"
>>> Next I visualised the dragon swooping down with the baby.     I moved
>>> quickly out of the way.
>>> I looked round from behind a boulder.  The dragon swooped down just as
>>> he told me he would.  He deposited a basket on the ground.  Then he
>>> flew into the air and was gone.  I waited a while after that.  Partly
>>> because my legs were shaking so much, but also in case the Dragon was
>>> hanging about, waiting to pounce on me.
>>> In the end my curiosity overcame my fear.  I darted forward, grabbing
>>> the basket, and fled back to my cottage, my laundry basket forgotten
>>> about.  I suspected that the dragon maybe lurking, somewhere out of
>>> sight.
>>> The grey skinned infant was only a few weeks old.  She was wearing a
>>> pair of Aphakic glasses which were attached to her head with an
>>> elastic cord.  I could feel from her throat that she was screaming her
>>> little lungs out so I unbuttoned my dress and fed her with my own
>>> breast milk.  Fortunately I still had some milk left over from my
>>> first born son who had just been weaned.
>>>  This was my very first meeting with Liza Bronze.
>>>
>>>                             ***  ***  ***
>>>
>>> So now Liza was back again, in a lot of distress.
>>> "Come inside.  I will make you some tea," I signed.
>>> "She wants me to put Nadia in danger! She wants me to send her to
>>> school, where her mother can come and collect her," Liza signed.
>>> "Who's she?" I asked.  I had some idea who Liza meant, but I just
>>> wanted to be sure.
>>> "Beria.  She's been threatening me with the truancy officer.  She says
>>> that Nadia needed the company of other children.  I gave her a dog.
>>> That should be enough company for her.  Children are cruel you know.
>>> I never benefited from being with other children..."
>>> "That's not true.  You had lots of friends before Beria took you from
>>> us.  Yes, maybe your sight did get in the way sometimes. People needed
>>> to sign close to you, instead of at the usual range.   Why can't Nadia
>>> come here?"
>>> "Everyone is so anti-dragon round here.  Besides which, I don't want
>>> her so far away from me.  I'd worry too much"
>>> "So what do you want then?"
>>> "I want Beria and Madrella to drop dead!"
>>> I sighed.  Liza can be incredibly childish for a fully grown woman.
>>>
>>>
>>>                    ***  ***  ****
>>>
>>>
>>>  I can still remember the day that Beria and her bunch of female thugs
>>> blasted our door down and dragged Liza from our care.  She was only
>>> eight at the time.  I'd been teaching her how to read and write and
>>> she was ever such a bright little girl.   She got on really well with
>>> my sons too.  She should have stayed with us.  After all she really
>>> needs to be in the company of other Deaf humans.  Not some oversexed
>>> dragon and a bunch of audist busy bodies.  Between that lot Liza got
>>> really screwed up.
>>> Beria's one of those Audist types that look down on our language and
>>> all deaf that use it.  I could sense that from the beginning.  She
>>> really didn't approve of the Dragon's choice of Nannies.
>>> It makes me wonder who's running whom.
>>> Liza’s aunt’s Arielle and Beria came regularly at one stage.   We
>>> didn’t mind Arielle’s visits since she can sign and she often
>>> commented on how well Liza was doing.  Beria’s visits were another
>>> matter altogether.   She just came to ensure that Liza  Bronze used
>>> her hearing aids.  She also insisted that Liza get to meet her
>>> parents.
>>> I hated Liza's father even before I knew about the way he had sold his
>>> child to the dragons.  What kind of parent does a thing like that?
>>> He's even more of an Audist then Beria.   He has this poor deafblind
>>> wife whom he forces to lip-read by a method known as Tadoma.  I could
>>> tell she found communication a major struggle.  She was the saddest
>>> creature I ever met.
>>> I didn’t pity her because of her deafblindness.  We have blind and
>>> deafblind people here at Nassoli too.    They are sad at first, but
>>> they get used to it eventually.  I'm sure Liza's mother Mona would
>>> have adapted too but her husband wouldn't let her.  He resisted any
>>> attempts to send anyone round to teach her any blind skills, even when
>>> his own family tried to help.
>>>  Arielle and I decided the kindest thing anyone could do with Mona was
>>> to rescue her.  We didn't expect to keep her with us indefinitely, but
>>> she needed to learn how to adapt to her deafblindness.  It was
>>> especially important for Mona to learn how to communicate in sign
>>> language since Mona had another deafblind daughter called Monika.
>>> Snyder runs a business selling enchanted prosthetic legs. So we sent
>>> an amputee round to ask about the sale of prosthetic legs.  Of course
>>> he wasn't really interested.  Snyder's legs are well above his price
>>> range.  While he was busy talking to him, I slipped in with a fader
>>> that Liza’s aunt Arielle had hired for me.  They are useful little
>>> folks when you want to become invisible, even though a lot of them end
>>> up going mad.  After experiencing invisibility it's understandable.
>>> We kept Mona, Monika and Liza together for just over a week.  We were
>>> teaching them tactile sign language first.  That had to be a priority
>>> since Monika was severely delayed.  She was eleven years old without
>>> any language skills at all.   We were hoping to move on to braille and
>>> mobility skills after that.
>>> Snyder called the police on us.  Not only did they take Mona and
>>> Monika from us but they took Liza as well.
>>>
>>>                ***  ***  ***
>>>
>>> Five years later Arielle brought Liza back to us.
>>> We were overjoyed to see her again and Liza seemed really happy to be
>>> with us too.   I could tell she appreciated being signed to, instead
>>> of being spoken to and expected to lip read all the time.
>>> Unfortunately she had already fallen behind.  Her signed vocabulary
>>> was that of younger child since she had nobody to practice NSL with,
>>> except her aunt Arielle, who stopped seeing Liza regularly, after her
>>> eldest son Pyre was born.
>>> Liza had a social awkwardness about her, of a child that is used to
>>> being on their own for most of the time.   I would have made
>>> allowances, but you know what teenagers are like.  Her old friends had
>>> grown apart and they didn’t have much patience with her.  Hearing aids
>>> were still very bulky things in those days and the other children made
>>> fun of Liza for wearing them. (We don't bother with hearing aids round
>>> these parts.  Everyone here can sign, so we don't need them.)
>>> One girl tried to show her more tolerance, but she freaked out when
>>> Liza started talking about how much she loved her dragon, and what
>>> they did together.  Liza told the girl that she never bothered wearing
>>> any clothes when she and Talmon were alone together.  She liked it
>>> when Talmon licked her clean, especially when she was having a period.
>>>  (I think it was that kind of talk that persuaded Arielle to bring
>>> Liza back to us in the first place).
>>> After the girl expressed her disgust, Liza reacted by thumped her and
>>> storming off into the desert. We had to send a search party out after
>>> her to no avail.  Years later we were told that Beria had found her
>>> and taken her back to Talmon Bronze.  We would have appreciated it if
>>> someone had told us that Liza was okay, as we were all beside
>>> ourselves with concern.
>>>
>>> Since then we’ve only seen Liza a few times for very brief visits.
>>> She grows stranger by the day. Saying anything in the least bit
>>> negative about Talmon often resulted in Liza storming off in a Tizzy.
>>>  I can't stop the villagers from speaking their minds on this matter.
>>> Liza doesn't like this so she rarely ever comes.
>>>   I worry a lot about Liza, being in a foreign country with all those
>>> dragons.  She seems to have been shut out on the other side of the
>>> fence with nothing to replace us with, except some large scaly beast.
>>>
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>>
>




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