[stylist] DBG chapters 2-3 (used to be chapter 3 and 7) Does the new order help?

[Judith Bron]

This is better.  Judith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "helene ryles" <dreamavdb at googlemail.com>
To: "A private list for authors" <DB-AUTHORS at tr.wou.edu>; "bookel" 
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Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 6:45 PM
Subject: [stylist] DBG chapters 2-3 (used to be chapter 3 and 7) Does the 
new order help?


Chapter 2:
My life as an honorary Dragon by Liza Bronze
An essay written by Liza Bronze as part of her Q2 exam (Q2 is the
second highest school leaving qualification)
5/1983 (14 years earlier)

My beloved dragon, Talmon Bronze, bought me soon after birth.  He
bought me from some poor excuse of a man who didn't care whether
Talmon reared me or ate me.  Unfortunately the miserable wretch also
happens to be my father.
I am also a duman, which is a grey-skinned person who can’t work any
magic.   Our magic comes from the Daemons, who are immortal superhuman
beings with very powerful magic.  When humans mate with daemons they
usually inherit some of that magic, which is how witches are created.
My great grandmother is a Daemon called Parvi.  My father and both my
aunts are all powerful witches who have inherited their magic from
Parvi.  They are disappointed that my sister Monika and I have failed
to inherit any of that magic at all.
My mother gave birth to six girls.  Unfortunately three of them did
not survive past infancy.  My mother takes me to visit their grave
sometimes.  I remember visiting my parents soon after my sixth sister
died.  It was chilling how indifferent father was about her death.  He
was just angry with mother because he had wanted a son who could work
magic for him.  I felt it totally unfeeling that father should blame
mother for only producing girls, as if it was something within her
control.  It was especially heartless since she was so grief stricken
over the losses.
Father doesn’t like any of my surviving sisters.  My eldest sister
Madrella can work magic, but she came with mother as a step daughter.
Father has always resented bringing up another man’s daughter,
especially a man that he has had a grudge against.
As for Monika and I, he simply doesn’t thing will amount to much.   My
sister Monika was married to some thug who mistreats her, and I was
sold at birth. I am lucky to be alive today so I can prove my father
wrong.
When I leave school I plan to join either the police or the armed
forces so I have a better chance of rescuing my sister Monika from her
abusive husband.  After that I hope to have my father arrested and
thrown into jail.     I will liberate Mother, and we will all live
happily ever after with Talmon and a house full of dogs.

I first moved in with Talmon when I was eight years old.  I used to
live in a signing Deaf community called Nassoli in Nazdonia.  I lived
with Shania who was my Nanny.   Talmon placed me there.  He had the
good sense to realise that a deaf baby would need a signing deaf
nanny.
There are so many deaf people in Nassoli that everybody can converse
in sign language.  I had lots of friends and I was really happy.   I
could speak a little and write in Nazdonian, as well as communicating
fluently in Nazdonian sign language (NSL).
It was a normal healthy environment, but it wasn’t good enough for Aunt 
Beria.
She persuade Talmon to move me to his home in Druzil, so I could be
educated  orally in ‘the real world’ with lots of ‘real’ learning
experiences, like having to learn to lip-read in a completely
different language;  plus the racial attacks I endured for being duman
and of Nazdonian heritage.
I spent a lot of time wishing I was back in Nassoli.  If only they
weren’t so anti-dragon there.  My visits to Nassoli were regularly cut
short with me getting really annoyed and storming off.  I still miss
them, but I won’t tolerate anyone criticizing Talmon.


First I went to Druzil School for the Deaf and the Blind where they
taught me orally in Drasp.  My education would have suffered even more
than it did if it wasn’t for my aunt Arielle.  She can sign fluently
in NSL.  She taught me Drasp with the help of some really good large
print text books.  They were all written in Nazdonian on how to read
and write in Drasp.  Arielle was a great help while she was there. It
is thanks to her that I am fluent in both Drasp and Nazdonian.
I was just getting used to Druzil School for the deaf and the blind
when in sixth grade; I was transferred to a mainstream middle school.
I was very isolated there since Druzil is only a small seaside port.
I was supposed to be given a cued speech interpreter but he often
failed to show up.  The more sympathetic teachers used to write
everything down on the blackboard for me to read.  The other children
resented them doing that.  I used to get into a lot of fights over it.

                  ***  ***  ***

After a day of struggling to decipher lip patterns at school, it was
always a relief at the end of the day to go home to Talmon. The
wonderful language of Dramic with its telepathically transmitted
images is most ideal for the deaf.
As I got home I would visualise an empty bowl with a question mark.
"Fish and chips" I would sign.  I couldn’t see Talmon from where I was
standing at the bottom of a steep climb, but I knew he could see me.
I visualised a fat and unhealthy looking girl with a spotty face.
"All right then.  I'll have spicy bean pasties with Salad"
At that point a rope and harness would land at my feet.  I would slip
on my safety harness, and scramble up the side of the building, to get
to the door.   That climb keeps me really fit.  I think such
challenges are necessary in life.
When I first came to live here Talmon gave me fish and chips every
single day for a week.  When my aunts realised this they had a few
words with Talmon.  So now Talmon has a freezer full of healthy meals
for me.  He warms them up and serves them to me with plenty of salad.
At the time I thought my aunts were being really mean to interfere in
my dietary choices in this way.  As a health conscious vegetarian I
know better now.  As wonderful and considerate as Talmon is, he has no
idea what human hatchlings should be eating. I could have asked him
for all sorts of junk food if my aunts hadn’t put a stop to that.
Some people don’t share my love of the dragons.  They whine about the
lack of stairs in Darthrila, but climbing up the side of buildings, is
a good form of exercise.  People must be really fat and unhealthy in
other parts of the world that are run by humans.   Human leaders are
very corrupt.  They make a mess of everything, squandering a lot of
the world’s resources on unnecessary items such as cars.    Due to all
these cars the air in human-run countries is thick with smog.  This
makes people cough and splutter all the time.  I feel very privileged
to live in a country that is run by a dragon.

My beloved dragon, Talmon saved my life on numerous occasions.   The
first time was when I was supposed to go out with this boy from school
called SH (which isn't his real name).   I was really looking forward
to it, as it was the first time I had a boyfriend. Thick glasses and a
couple of large bodily-worn hearing aids don’t do too much to enhance
one's popularity with boys, nor does being a duman.
 I remember with a great deal of pain how I clutched excitedly at the
straps on Talmon's back as he took me to meet SH.  Then instead of
taking me to the desired venue, he turned round in mid air and took me
back home.
"Talmon, we are going the wrong way!” I shouted.
I saw SH with a group of boys.   I saw the evil sign next to his head.
This was Talmon's way of telling me that SH had evil intentions
towards me.
"I don't care if he wants to sleep with me, I‘m ready for that."
Next he made the confused sign.  I visualised an image of a girl and a
boy alone together, followed by a question mark.
"Yes, of course it's only the two of us together.”
Another image filled my head of a group of about 13 or 14 boys. The
evil sign again. The boys were waiting for me with eager anticipation
so they could all take it in turns to rape me.   SH did not intend to
stop them.
I spent that night weeping into my pillow.   Talmon came to comfort
me.  I am now very grateful for what Talmon did to protect me from SH.
 When I went back to school SH broke my heart by spreading vile
rumours about me sleeping around with all his friends.

The second time Talmon saved my life was when my evil half sister
Madrella and her first husband moved into the area. They moved to a
village, a few miles out of Druzil.
I had a dog at the time called Briar.  I met Briar on the beach, and
Talmon let me keep him as a pet.  Talmon got me a long foldable tunnel
made out of fabric for the dogs to use, to get them to climb up safely
from one floor to another.  It hooks up at the top of each trapdoor,
since dog’s can’t climb ladders.  Talmon even allowed me to make a dog
flap in the ground floor so I didn't have to keep carrying him up the
steep climb to the front door.    Talmon also gave me several maps of
the surrounding area and a magnifying glass to read them with.  With
the help of the maps, we would walk for miles around the surrounding
area.  Briar and I were best friends until Madrella caught him in
their garden.
Earlier that day, I took Briar for a long walk along the beach.  When
I caught sight of some holiday makers, I went to grab Briar, to put
him back on the lead.  That's when I realised he was missing.  So I
went around calling after him.  I looked everywhere.
"Hey Duman, do you want to know where your dog is?" a grey-skinned
girl asked me. She said something like that anyway.   I could not hear
what she said over the sound of crashing waves, so I only had her lip
movements to go by.   I recognised her as Madrella's sister-in-law,
Melissa Rickshaw.   She goes to the same high school as me but we
don‘t get on.  She’s the kind of witch who despises those that can’t
work magic.
"Yes, of course I do.  Why else do you think I've been calling for him?"
"You never know with Dumans what their motives are.  If you will just
follow me, I'll show you where your dog is," and she set off at top
speed.
"Hey, Come back" I yelled after her, "I can't follow you when you move
so quickly."
"Oh, I forgot, you’re blind as well as deaf and duman.  I would let
you grab my arm, but your hands are filthy.   I don't want you to soil
my nice clean dress."
I smelt smoke coming from Madrella's garden.  To my horror she had
some sort of carcass tied up over a fire.  He smelt of cooked meat. I
didn't realise it was Briar until Madrella threw his collar at me.  I
kept screaming profanities at her for a long time after that.  I would
have beaten the living day lights out of her too, if Melissa wasn't
holding me back.
"Your dog shat in our garden.  I'm not having that.  Dog dirt is very
unhygienic.  It might cause my baby to be born a freak like you. So
I've decided to teach you and Briar a lesson.   He's not quite dead
yet.  If you really care about him why not get him out of the fire...
You can let go of her Melissa.  I want to see what she does," Madrella
had been standing very close to me, holding my head up so I was forced
to stare into her face.  She moved away quickly after that.
As soon as Melissa released me, I rushed towards the fire, in order to
save Briar's life.  At that moment a pair of sharp claws dug into my
shoulders and I was lifted up into the air.  I had been so intent on
saving Briar that I hadn't noticed Talmon swoop down on top of me.
"Let go of me.  I need to get back to Briar," I told Talmon,
struggling franticly, but Talmon just tightened his grip.
I suddenly visualized a dead dog.  A clock face with moving hands
showed me that poor Briar had been dead for over an hour before I
came.  Madrella had been lying to me when she said he was still alive.
Talmon was not flying back home. We were flying above the sea.
We landed on an island.  Talmon licked the tears from my face.  I sat
clutching him for quite some time.
"Briar is gone.   I'm going to kill the she devil that did this to my
dog.   I'll make her sorry, just see if I don't."
Talmon made no reply to this.  He sat stroking my hair with his scaly
hands.  We spent a few days on the island.  Talmon caught a wild hare
for himself but I was too grief stricken over Briar's loss to eat
anything myself.
The smell of the meat nauseated me. It reminded me too much of Briar
after Madrella had set fire to him.  It was at that point in time that
I first decided to give up eating meat.

A few days later, Talmon sent me an image of myself with a group of
dragons.   They were all happy to see me.  I was obviously one of
them.  Talmon was offering me a chance to become an honorary dragon.
I nodded enthusiastically.  I was so grief stricken right then that I
hated other human beings.   I wanted to disengage myself from the
human race entirely.
So Talmon took me to meet the other Bronze dragons.  They all came
over to stroke me.  I was given something to drink which made me very
sleepy.  I wanted more of it to drown out the grief I felt over
Briar's loss.
About a week later, they performed the initiation ceromony.  I am
forbidden from saying what exactly happened, but it was a very
beautiful experience.     I am so proud to be accepted into the Bronze
family group as an honorary dragon.   They don't always accept humans
in their private quarters.   They even alowed me to use their family
name instead of Slyrake which is the witch clan I was born into.   I
never liked being a Slyrake.   Bronze is a much nicer name.

Chapter 3:
 Why I rescued Nadia, by Liza Bronze.
1986

I was leaving Druzil general infirmary, when I first met Nadia Murat
(my niece) 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.
I spent a lot of time at Druzil hospital at that time.  The year
before I had my cochlear implant inserted.  After much intense speech
therapy I found the cochlear implant provided me with more
environmental noises then my hearing aid, but I still needed to
lip-read.
Today I had just come back from having a lens implant for my left eye
inserted.  The eye was still covered by a bandage, but I was hoping
that it would be as successful as the implant on my right eye had been
several months previously.

I was looking about with my right eye when I saw a grey skinned man
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
before my latest operations.   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 maternity 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.”
My heart warmed to him after he said that.  I was remembering how
distressed mother had been when several of my sisters died in infancy.
 She had never fully recovered from all the losses.
 After that, one thing led to another.  I let them stay for as long as
they wanted.  I even volunteered to baby sit 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 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 next to the high
wire fence that surrounded our garden.
“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 by 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.”

                ***  ***  ***

I soon discovered to my shock and dismay that Nadia’s mother was my
dreaded half sister Madrella.  One morning she paid me an unpleasant
visit.  She came storming over on her flying carpet as soon as the
triplets were out and she had taken time to recuperate sufficiently.
“How dare you seduce my husband, as soon as my back is turned,”
Madrella screamed.
“You got to be kidding! Your husband is the last man I’d sleep with…” I 
said.
“Don’t lie to me, you miserable duman. The neighbours heard you
arguing and I sense his guilt. Now go and fetch my child,” She hissed.
“If your husband feels guilty, it’s probably because he put a spell on
me, causing me to lose my voice…” I said.
“You will lose it again permanently if you don’t fetch Nadir, right
now,” She threatened.
“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?” She yelled.
“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…”I said,
defensively.
“Why don’t you just mind your own business? A parent has a right to
use corporal punishment when their child misbehaves.” She snarled at
me.
“I suppose you extend that right to your husband too? How do you get
past his shielding charm?” I asked.
“Has he been whining to you then?” she sneered, “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?”
I replied, angrily.
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 a relative of my wife, called Arielle Parvesh.  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...”
"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 who lives near a
school for the Deaf in Nassoli.    She 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.
Now, I was due for appointment at the same hospital.  This one was
with the audiologist, for a check up with my cochlear implant.  The
two appointments would take all day. It was while I made my way to my
next appointment that I met Mr Murat.
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.  They don‘t even know how well it will work since cochlear
implants are still considered an experimental procedure as far as
children are concerned.  The doctor is hopeful though, 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
Madrella was concerned.  I only hoped Talmon Bronze would be able to
protect me when Madrella had discovered Nadia‘s absence.

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