[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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>>
>
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