[stylist] DBG 6-7 (was chapter 5 and the remaining half of chapter 4)

[helene ryles]

Chapter 5
The sad fate of Liza Bronze by Shania Krum (Liza’s deaf Nanny)
8/1993

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.
It was several years since I last saw Liza Bronze.
People in Nazdonia hate Dragons.  The dragons come here sometimes, and
sit perched 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 take a villager away with them in their claws.
They bring them back, but minus a leg or two.  Their stumps have been
sealed up as if done by a surgeon.    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 matter:
“But removing a human’s leg without their permission is already
illegal,” she objected,  “I can’t believe any dragon that I know of
would do a thing like that.   Most dragons care a lot about preserving
human-dragon relationships.”
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 carat
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 might be 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?"
Liza shrugged despondently.
I sighed.  Liza can be incredibly childish for a fully grown woman.


                   ***  ***  ****


 I can also 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 dragon and
a bunch of audist busy bodies.  Between that lot Liza got really
screwed up.
I could sense that Beria really didn't approve of the Dragon's choice
of Nannies.
It makes me wonder who's running whom.
Five years later Liza’s other aunt 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 did not visit often.
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.  I must admit some of the things she came out with
grossed me out too.   I think it was that kind of talk that persuaded
Arielle to bring Liza back to us eventually.
After the girl expressed her disgust, Liza 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.

Chapter 7
Keraina Cemetery by Nadia Murat

A month later, Aunt Liza woke me up in the early hours as usual.
However, there was only one dog with us today. A very fierce dog
called Stormy who had to be kept separate from the other dogs as she
was so aggressive.  I felt puzzled. My aunt did not normally take
Stormy out with us.
 Instead of going to the beach we walked along the cycle path to
Druzil railway station.
We had to move quickly since there was already a train in the station.
Liza helped me aboard but she didn’t climb on herself.
“Just hold on a minute, I’m going to double check that this train goes
to Keraina.” “Why are we going to Keraina?” I asked, but my aunt was
gone, Lugging Stormy behind her.
The next minute the doors slammed shut.  The train gave a jolt and
started to move forward.
Fearing that my aunt was yet to board the train, I gave a high pitched scream.
“It’s ok; I got on through another door.  It was a narrow thing
though.  They were about to shut the doors so I had to tell them that
you were on board,” my aunt explained as she and stormy got to me.
A dark skinned man in a blue uniform approached us with a machine
round his neck.  Before he had a chance to say anything; Stormy tried
to make a lunge for him.
The man jumped back in fright.
He was speaking angrily to my aunt. Due to the noise of the train we
could not hear what he said.  My aunt tried to focus on his lips with
her monocular.    She still struggled to understand him, so the man
pulled out a thick pen and some paper.
“Dangerous animals are not alowed on this train.  If you don’t leave
at the next station I’ll call the police.”
My aunt pulled out her police badge.  She also handed the man some
extra money which seemed to placate him, so we were alowed to stay on
the train until it terminated at Keraina.
"Why did we bring Stormy?" I asked Liza after the man went away.
"I’m beginning to wonder that myself.  If that vicious mutt makes a
lunge for anyone else, I swear I’m going to feed her to Talmon! She
nearly got us thrown off the train.”
“You would not really do that,” I objected.  Despite Stormy’s tendency
to get in people's faces, she did have her charm.
 “No, of course not; the reason I bought her was because if your
mother comes, the other dogs would be useless.  We stand more of a
chance at getting away if Stormy rips her to pieces first."

After the train pulled into Keraina station, we walked a few yards to
see a large barbed wire fence, with a few bored looking guards
patrolling it.   They wore light brown uniforms that blended in with
the environment.  This identified them as members of the Darthrilan
armed forces.  The soldier at the gate waved us through when she saw
Liza.
“I wanted to join them but they did not think I had what it took,”
Liza told me as we passed the gate.
Liza took me across the borders into Nazdonia.  We walked past several
spiky trees to a small burial ground on the edge of the Nazdonian
desert.
"This is the grave of your sisters Maya and Zakia.   Zakia was part of
a set of triplets.  You will see the other two girls later today.
They are called Zahira and Zaina.    They live with their foster
parents in Nassoli.  I wish you had been fostered with them too...
“This other grave belongs to my own sisters.   They died in mysterious
circumstances."
"What happened to them?"
"I'll explain more when you are older.   You just need to understand
why you have to keep hidden as much as you can, in case your mother
finds you.  I only want you to be safe.
“Now we are to wait for Beria and Shania to get here.   Shania will be
bringing your sisters who are a year younger then you are, but you
will all be in second grade together.  I’m afraid you missed a few
years of school because I was very anxious that your mother should
never find you.  I would have kept you at home longer but Beria
insists you attend school, so now I’ve had to find you a bodyguard.”

                      ***   ***  ***

We waited for a few hours.  My aunt sat biting her nails.  Her hand
tightly gripped Stormy’s collar.  She kept looking around ever so
often with the help of her monocular.
“She’s here now,” she said at last.  A few minutes later I saw an
older dark-skinned woman approached us.    She was leading a laden
camel and had several grey-skinned children, plus a couple of young
men about Liza’s age.   The men were large and muscular.  I could not
help but wonder if they would be acting as my bodyguard.
 The smallest children were identical girls, who were the same size as
me and looked remarkably similar in appearance.  So much so that it
was hard to believe they were a year younger then me.   They wore
embroidered cotton dresses with matching trousers underneath.  Their
hair was covered by scarves.
One of the girls glanced nervously at Stormy and kept her distance.
She wore thick glasses like mine.  Only her eyes were yellow whereas
mine were brown like my aunt Liza.
 The other twin had motionless glass eyes.   The twins were signing
together using tactile sign language.  The totally deafblind twin
seemed surprisingly cheerful to me.
I watched the rest of the group happily signing to each other.  I was
fascinated.  They all seemed so normal and content.   This was
something I wasn't use to.  Liza was often on edge. She would smile
brightly for me but the smile hardly ever reached her eyes.
 She was particularly stressed when she was talking with the people
who were there to look after me.  She would sometimes avoid having to
communicate with them altogether, preferring to leave their wages in a
sealed envelope that she pinned to the notice board.
Today she seemed more anxious then usual.  Something was definitely
bothering her.
"This is my old Nanny Shania Krum.  She takes care of the twins
sometimes when their foster parents are busy," Liza signed.  She
introduced me to the dark- skinned woman, “These boys are all her
children.”
"Hello Liza.  It's nice to see you again.  I've put a picnic together
which we can eat whilst we wait for Beria.  Are you sure we can trust
Beria?" the woman signed.
"Yes, she makes excuses for Madrella because she feels sorry for her,
but other then that, I think she can be trusted.   Where's Katrina?"
Liza asked.
"She's travelling down from north Nazdonia.  She should arrive at
Druzil later tonight.  Don't worry, my eldest sons are both armed,"
The woman explained.   The two men showed Liza their guns.
"I hope they know what they are up against.  I have to go now.  It's
time I paid my mother another visit," Liza abruptly announced.
"Why so soon?”
Liza bit her lip.  There was a wretched look on her face.    She
hugged me tightly and hurriedly left with Stormy.  Shania watched her
leave with a look of concern on her face.
We sat eating salad and hummus filled pita bread when one of the boys
pointed out something up in the air.  To my amazement it was a flying
pedal driven rickshaw.  It was gradually flying lower until it landed
near the graveyard where we were sitting.







This magical contraption was pedal-driven by an attractively plump
grey-skinned woman.   She looked very similar to Aunt Liza apart from
her orange flame- coloured eyes.
“I’m Beria Slyrake, Liza’s aunt. Now hurry up, I‘m late,” the woman
demanded.  She was talking to me using cued speech, even though Shania
was the adult.
“I think she wants us to climb aboard,” Shania signed.  So we all
piled into the back of the rickshaw along with the young men.  It was
all quite a squash.
"The boys can stay behind..." Beria snapped.
"Liza wants the child to be protected until Katrina arrives. She's
very concerned." Shania told her, using speech with a heavy deaf
accent.
"Nadia doesn't need a bodyguard.  It's all getting quite ridiculous.
I won't pander to Liza's paranoid delusions. The boys can get out."
"What about the nurse?"
"If you are referring to the wretched woman who let Liza kidnap
Madrella's child, she's nothing but a trouble maker.  The lies she
spread about Madrella, were her way of getting at Madrella for
shouting at her.   It's their own fault for not explaining things to
Madrella more clearly, about how the cochlear implants actually work.
 I don't believe that Nadia is in any danger at all.  Her mother is a
bit loopy but it runs in the family.  Now will you get your brats out
of my rickshaw, before I turn them into Lizards?"
Shania told the men to get out in sign language, referring to Beria in
very insulting terms.  Hesitantly the men left the rickshaw.  I
watched them go in consternation.
"Goodbye Zahira, Goodbye Zaina, I hope you have a good time this year.
Be good girls now.  I‘ll see you when you get back next summer.
 “Nadia, I believe it’s your first year at school.  I’m afraid you
will have to be very patient.  They use a system called signed
supported Drasp which is more long-winded than real sign language.
They want to talk and sign simultaneously.  Either that or you get
deprived of sign language altogether, if you are unfortunate enough to
be placed in their oral classes.  You will be able to sign properly
with your bodyguard though.  She is a fluent signer."
I only hoped my bodyguard got to me before Mother did.