[stylist] DBG 7 (completely new chapter)

[helene ryles]

Chapter 7:
Why I rescued Nadia, by Liza Bronze.
1986

I was leaving Druzil general infirmary, when I first met Nadia and her
father.   Not that I realised who he was at the time.  I just noticed
a small timid man with a tiny malnourished infant on his lap.
 The man was grey-skinned with the same brown eyes as his baby.  The
infant’s eyes were magnified with a pair of Aphakic glasses that were
attached to her head with elastic.  They were the sort of glasses that
I used to wear as a child.  That alone drew my interest.  I was also
curious because it is not too often that you see men taking care of
their own children.
I could tell by their long tunics and matching trousers that they were
of Nazdonian heritage.   They both looked quite battered and their
clothes were in much need of repair.    They were sitting just outside
the hospital on a rough camel haired blanket, and were surrounded by
their luggage.
I mistook them for homeless people so I reached out for some change to
give them.
“No thank you.  We’re just here while my wife gives birth to the
triplets.  I meant to book a hotel but there was no room.  I have to
stay here tonight.  I’ll try again tomorrow.”
“I wouldn’t bother with that.  We’re in the middle of the tourist
season so you have to book well in advance if you hope to get
accommodation here.”
“Oh dear, we didn’t think of that. This was just meant to be a holiday
before my wife was due, but the triplets have decided to come very
early.  We hadn’t even booked into a hotel when my wife’s contractions
started.  We’ve been spending most of today locating the nearest
materiality ward.”
“I don’t live far.  You can come and stay at mine,” I offered.  I was
very curious to find out more about this pair.
“God bless you! That would be much appreciated.  I was very worried
about my son Nadir staying out doors tonight, as I’ve heard nights out
here are quite chilly. I don’t want Nadir to catch anything. We’ve
already lost one child.  I would hate to lose another.”
After that, one thing led to another.  I let them stay for as long as
they wanted.  I even volunteered to baby sit Nadia for him.  Mr Murat
was very grateful for that offer, as he wanted to spend as much time
as he could with his wife.
It was while I was changing Nadia’s diaper that I discovered Nadia to
be female.

“Why do you call her Nadir?  That‘s a male name,” I asked when Mr
Murat next came round to check on his daughter.
“Well, it’s a male child,” he blandly replied.
“No she is not male.   You can check her bits if you don’t believe me.”
“I will do nothing of the sort.   What kind of man do you take me for?”
“An idiot, all you need to do is…”
“Shut up!” he interrupted.
I tried to finish my sentence but found I could not speak a word.   I
hadn’t realised Mr Murat was also a witch.
I asked him for my voice back using sign language, but he obviously
didn‘t understand how to communicate that way, despite the fact that
his child was profoundly deaf.
Mr Murat left while I was getting pen and paper out, so I could repeat
my request that way.
In the end I had to send Talmon to find him.  Talmon came back in the
early hours of the morning, without Mr Murat.
“Where is he?” I signed.
I visualized the image of a drunken Mr Murat, asleep at the front gate.
“Could you fetch him for me?”
I visualized Talmon attempting to pick Mr Murat up in his claws, but
being blocked by a shielding charm.

At dawn I abseiled down the side of the house.  I was feeling
particularly irritable since I’d not been able to sleep at all that
night.  I’d been agitated by the spell, and my agitation rubbed off on
Nadia.  I couldn’t stop her crying.
I soon found Mr Murat asleep near the gate, where Talmon had found him
last night. I roughly shook him awake.
“I want my voice back!” I wrote.
“What has this got to do with me?” he asked when I finally got him up.
“You put a spell on me.  I want my voice back,” I wrote with shaking
hands.  I was incensed with rage by his response.  I hadn’t spent all
that time in speech therapy, just to have some witch deprive me of
speech altogether.
“I couldn’t have, I’m a duman.”
“Yesterday you put a curse on me, to deprive me of my voice, and then
you prevented Talmon from picking you up by means of a shielding
charm.  If that’s not magic, what is?  So could you kindly give me
back my voice?”
“I’m not a witch!”
I had enough of this.  I’m not normally a violent person, but I was
incensed with rage at this point.  I rushed at Mr Murat meaning to
whack him with the note pad I was carrying, but I found my way barred
by a shielding charm.  It was like trying to throw myself at a rubbery
mass; I simply bounced off and landed a few feet away.
“Are you alright?” Mr Murat asked me in some concern.
I pointed to my throat.
“You should be able to speak now.  I’m sorry about that.  If only you
would understand.  I never wanted to be born a witch.  Mother used to
get so upset whenever I worked magic, so I vowed never to do it
again…”
“You disgust me, you repellent creep! If only I could work magic, I
would be delighted.  What kind of man are you?  You were born with
this wonderful gift, and now you don‘t even want it.   Get lost!  I
never want to see you again!” I shouted.
“What about Nadir?”
“I’ll take care of your daughter for you, as she is only a baby and
can’t help having such lousy parents, but you can find accommodations
elsewhere.”

                ***  ***  ***


“How dare you seduce my husband, as soon as my back is turned”
Madrella screamed.  She came storming over on her flying carpet as
soon as the triplets were out and she had taken time to recuperate
sufficiently.
“You got to be kidding! Your husband is the last man I‘d sleep with…”
“Don’t lie to me, you miserable duman.  The neighbours heard you
arguing and I sense his guilt.  Now go and fetch my child.”
“If your husband feels guilty,   it’s probably because he put a spell
on me, causing me to lose my voice…”
“You will lose it again permanently if you don’t fetch Nadir, right now.”
“Why did you give a female child a male name and lie to your husband
about it,” I demanded.
“There, I knew you were up to something.  How dare you stir things up
in this way?  You’ve slept with my husband haven‘t you. Why else would
you invite him to stay?”
“No, I only invited them as they had nowhere else to go, and I was
curious as to why they were both covered in bruises…”
“Why don’t you just mind your own business?  A parent has a right to
use corporal punishment when their child misbehaves.”
“I suppose you extend that right to your husband too? How do you get
past his shielding charm?”
“Has he been whining to you then? As to his paltry little shielding
charms, I have a little spell of my own to prevent him from putting
that up. My magic is a lot stronger then his. Now you better fetch
Nadir or I‘ll…”
“Do you really think I’d return a child to an evil murderer like you?”
It was after I said that, that she punched me in the face.
While I lay clutching my eye she pushed roughly past me.  I can only
assume that she went into fetch Nadia, since she was nowhere to be
found when I recovered sufficiently from the blow.
Madrella had punched me so hard that my left retina got detached.  I
had only just had that eye operated on, so it was extremely delicate
at the time.  Madrella should have noticed that since the eye was
still covered with a bandage.  I lost the sight in that eye.
Madrella was not even prosecuted for doing that to me.
To add insult to injury Madrella made false claims that she had caught
me and her husband in bed together, and for some reason Mr Murat never
contradicted her story.  So whenever I did complain about what
Madrella did to me, I was just told I was ‘asking for it’.

               ***  ***  ***


Four months later, Mr Murat came to see me again.  Talmon asked me if
he should allow him to come up, but I didn’t want to see him again so
we just left him there.
He was still hanging round when I went out with my dogs, the following morning.
“I’m sorry!” He cried wringing his hands in a truly dejected manner.
“So you should be.  After all the trouble you got me into, when we last met.”
“Please Liza, I’ve made a big mistake, but I’m really sorry about
that.    I want to know if you will agree to take Nadir in.  My wife
doesn‘t understand his needs.”
“Oh really, and you‘ve only just noticed!”
“Please! My wife gets so angry you see.  I had to rush my daughter
Zakia to the hospital today, but she died before we got there…” Mr
Murat told me, wiping away a tear.
“Oh… I see… What happened to the other two triplets?” I asked, my
voice softening. Despite all that had happened I couldn’t stay mad at
the wretch at a time like this.
“They are with your aunt Arielle.  She offered to take care of all
three triplets because my wife wasn’t interested in them.  She was
told they were going to be boys, but the doctor obviously made a
mistake.”
“Why didn’t you let Arielle look after all of them for you?”
“They are my daughters.  I was hoping if I introduced them to Madrella
one at a time, she would feel as much warmth for them as I do…  I made
a terrible mistake, and now one of them has died,” and with that Mr
Murat put his head in his hands and burst into tears.
In the end I invited him in.  When he calmed down he told me what had
happened two days before.

It was during an argument over how the money for Nadia’s cochlear
implant was to be raised, that little Zakia died.
Mr Murat sat bottle feeding Zakia.  Ever so often he glanced anxiously
at his wife Madrella, who sat painting her toenails.  She dressed in
gaudy see-through clothes that Mr Murat never approved of, but his
wife obviously had the upper hand in their relationship.
Just then little Nadia tottered towards them.  She mimicked being fed.
 Madrella sprang to her feet, boxing Nadia’s ears.  Mr Murat put Zakia
into her cot and picked little Nadia up, so he could comfort her.
“He’s supposed to say food.  Not make those dreadful signs.  The
sooner the money is raised to make the dratted brat hear again the
better,” Madrella hissed.
“He is asking for food in his own way.  You should accept the way he is.”
 “Definitely not,   I must say I’m really disappointed that you wasted
good money on all those eye operations for the triplets, when they are
only girls.  We are already in dept for that and we haven’t even
started raising money for Nadir’s cochlear implant yet. Don‘t you dare
pull out, because if you do I‘ll wring Nadir‘s neck.”
"Don’t worry dear; we will get the money together for Nadir's cochlear
implant.  Your aunt Beria's offered to help me get the money together
in exchange for one of my legs. She wants it for her dragon to eat.”
"No, you foolish man, I'm not having you sacrifice your leg.  The triplets..."
"I've thought of the triplets too.  I have an aunt called Nora.   She
lives near a school for the Deaf in Nassoli.    Nora is happy to take
care of the triplets while they are at school, in exchange for some
gold jewellery and electronic goods.  The school fees will be low as
the school is funded by a charitable organisation for the Deaf
overseas..."
"Ah, but will they get an oral education there? I want them to get
lots of speech therapy. None of that signing that I see the deaf in
Nassoli make."
"Dearest Madrella, we must not interfere in the will of god. If god
wants them to sign, we have to accept that.”
"God doesn't come into this, you religious idiot.  I don't want
anything to do with Deafblind triplets.  My sisters Monika and Liza
were bad enough.  I had mother all to me before Monika came along and
spoilt it all."
"But Madrella, the triplets are gods gift to us," Mr Murat exclaimed in horror.
"Well god can have them back then.  Why don't you let me sell the
little freaks instead of selling your leg?”
“No, I would rather lose a leg or two then sell any of my precious
children.  Besides there is no way a set of deafblind triplets will
make much money…”
“They might fetch a good price at a freak show.  They would have done
even better if you hadn't removed the cataracts.”
"No!"
"Well in that case we could just kill them all and sell their organs abroad."
 “Oh Lord! What kind of monster have I married?”
Before Mr Murat could stop it happening, Madrella grabbed hold of
Zakia and began to shake her.
Mr Murat snatched the unconscious baby out of Madrella's hands.  He
tucked her in a baby sling, before hurriedly saddling and mounting his
camel.
The air outside was thick with sand that was blowing everywhere.  He
struggled through the lethal weather conditions, to get to the nearest
hospital in Keraina, which is half a day’s ride by camel.   Due to the
shaking,  the long journey and unfortunate weather conditions, Zakia
died several hours before getting anywhere near the hospital.
Mr Murat took Zakia’s body to my father’s house in Keraina, and then
crossed the borders into Darthrila.   He waited at Keraina railway
station, so as to catch the first morning train into Druzil.

Of course I just had to take Nadia after he told me all this.   We
hatched plans as to how to smuggle Nadia out.  Only he never went
through with the plans.  I waited for days to no avail.   He simply
never brought her to me.

The next time we met, it was by chance at the local hospital again. I
had just had another appointment at my eye specialist.  The doctors
had not been able to reattach my retina.  Now my sight in the other
eye was giving me problems too.  This was very concerning.   As a deaf
person I depend heavily on my sight.
I nearly didn't recognise Mr Murat as he only had one leg and was
struggling down the corridor on a pair of crutches.
"What happened?" I asked in concern.
"It's all right; everything has been sorted out now.  I've had my leg
amputated and Nadia's just had her cochlear implant put in."
I had to ask him to repeat himself several times since I was having
problems taking all this in.  I peered in his face in order to
Lip-read and turned up my speech processor as far as it would go.
"I don’t understand. We arranged for me to take care of Nadia.  I
already told you that I won't implant her yet..." I replied, after a
stunned silence.
"That was rather silly of me.  My wife is so sorry about Zakia's
death. It was all a tragic accident.  She didn't mean to hurt
Zakia..."
"That's not what you told me before."
"I was upset, and may have exaggerated things a little in my grief.
Everything is as it should be.  My wife would never dream of hurting
Nadir.  She is desperately keen to keep him with her.    Now I must
dash, I'm on my way to see Madrella at the local police station."
"So she's been arrested.  Thank goodness for that."
"Only for the night, Beria assured me that she should be out today..."
"What happened?"
"My wife was a little put out when the cochlear implant failed to
work, so she started being a little silly with the staff that works
here.  They called the police and they took her away in one of their
electro-pedal driven vans.  Now a nice doctor has explained to me that
the cochlear implant doesn't work immediately after it‘s put in.  You
have to wait until it's been activated before Nadir can hear anything
at all.  Unfortunately little Nadir will never be able to hear
normally, but the doctor is hopeful that he should manage speech after
we've sorted all the speech therapy out.  Now I must dash.  Come
tomorrow.  I'll discuss things with you then."
And with that he was gone.  He left me quite speechless by his idiotic
behaviour.
 I felt too disgusted with Mr Murat to meet him the following day.   I
made other plans to rescue Nadia with the hospital staff.  I found
them very accommodating since they had their own grievances as far as
Mrs Murat was concerned.  She had put the painful curse on a few of
the nurses, and she hadn’t even been prosecuted for it.