Hear no Evil

"If you had a chance to work, would you?" She nodded. "If you had somewhere safe to sleep indoors would you?" She nodded. "If I offered you work and showed you what I need done would you be willing to work for me at minimum wage to start and then increase the more you know?"

She stared at my face at least a minute before she nodded yes.

I wrote, "My name is Lee, what is yours?"

Her answer, "Caroline Marie, everyone knew her as Mary."

I signed, "Nice to meet you Mary."

She signed, "Likewise Lee."

She quickly went back to the notepad, "You said something about a place to sleep."

"I did, I have an apartment where I used to live, before I moved into my parents old place, you're welcome to stay there if you want to. There is a bathroom, small kitchen, a dining/living room and a bedroom. The doors lock from the inside, you would be perfectly safe and warm."

Her hands shook as she answered, "What do you want from me in return?"

"I want nothing more than you show up on time every morning and work hard every day. You can eat with me if you like, or not, your choice, I will make sure you have what you need to take care of yourself, you can pay me back a little each week from your paycheck."

She pointed toward the bathroom and made a gesture of five minutes with her fingers. Sitting across from me when she returned she grabbed the notepad.

"The clothes I have would not be good for your store, I am a mess and people will not want to deal with a deaf woman. I appreciate the offer, but I don't think it will help your business."

Wanting to put her at ease I responded quickly, "Those are things we can easily change Mary, we can go and get you some clothes and toiletries after work tonight, you can shower and shampoo once we're back here, I won't have you working directly with customers until you're comfortable with it. As a bonus I'll begin using ASL again, you can correct and teach me while we work."

"What about my belongings by the tracks?"

"I'll go with you to get them on the way to the store for clothes, after you're settled in you can decide what you want to keep or throw out."

For the second time she spoke to me using her voice, "When do I start?"

My reply was in crude, very crude ASL, although she laughed at me and corrected me a few times she understood what I had conveyed, "You can start right now, you've watched me wash the sidewalk, you can start there. I'll show you where things are."

With our day finished we drove to retrieve her meager belongings, stopped at a fast food burger joint where she wanted to go through the drive-thru so no one would see her, at Target she balked at coming in with me for the same reason, I assured her that I would be right with her and all would be well. She wasn't going in and that was final, on a piece of paper she wrote sizes and handed it to me. 30x30 pants or jeans, she preferred jeans, medium cotton blouse, 32C bra, medium hip hugger or bikini cotton panties, any shampoo and conditioner, a hairbrush, toothbrush and size eight sneakers.

I grabbed two nicer looking cotton bras, a six pack of cotton underwear in assorted colors, two pair of jeans along with blouses, a six pack of medium size women's ankle socks and a pair of sneakers. Checking out the woman gave me several odd looks, I wanted to tell her to piss off but knew better. In the car she told me she had toothpaste and enough lady items even though she hadn't had a cycle in some time.

I could sense fear in her demeanor as we climbed the stairs to her apartment, I purposely blocked the door open as I took the bags of clothes and her junk into the room. I looked around and asked if she needed anything else, I'd already put water in the fridge. When she shook her head no, I told her I'd see her at six thirty the next morning, there was an alarm clock next to the bed, to make sure she locked the door and sleep well. I wasn't three feet away when I heard the door close and the deadbolt click in place.

Lying in bed I chastised myself for not remembering more ASL than I had, I determined I would dig out my books and try to enhance my speaking skills with her. I was anxious to see what she looked like cleaned up, and I wasn't disappointed when she walked into the break room the next morning at six. I had gotten up early to make Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, they had cooled enough to put the glaze on as she entered all cleaned up. I was surprised to see nearly blond hair, reaching the conclusion that her hair must have been filthy to look brown the evening before.

Her hair was pulled into a ponytail that ended several inches below her shoulders, she had a nice figure, awfully thin but then that was understandable having lived on the streets, her breasts looked almost out of place considering the thinness of her torso, even with all the grime washed away she wasn't what one would call a pretty girl. To be honest she was a bit homely at first glance, my mother's words rang in my ears, *never judge someone by how they look* with that thought in mind I offered her some coffee and cinnamon rolls.

The morning went well, Mary was with me every step of the way watching and learning, if she didn't understand something she would ask, I was amazed how quickly my ASL skills were returning now that I was using them constantly. There were only a few times one or the other of us had to stop and grab a notepad. As regulars would come into the store I would introduce Mary letting them know she was deaf and they would need to face her when they spoke so she could read their lips, all smiled, shook her hand and told her it was their pleasure to meet her.

When I paid her for Thursday through Saturday at $8.25 per hour twelve hours a day, she did nothing but sob, it was less than three hundred dollars but it was more than she'd held in her hands at one time in years. She wanted to use the entire amount to pay me back, I stopped her.

Me in sign: "I can't let you do that, pay me $50 a week, that will be plenty, on Monday we'll open a bank account for you."

She was moving her hands so fast I was lost, telling her to slow down she did.

Mary: "I still have my driver's license, it doesn't expire for another year, I can use that to open an account. Can I use the store address as my home of reference?"

Sunday afternoon I called Pak asking if he could cover the store alone after the morning rush so I could take Mary to the bank and get her squared away. My thinking was if I took her to the same place I banked it would be much easier to do direct deposit instead of her having to deposit or cash a check, with me translating through sign she was finished in an hour walking out the door with her new debit card and forty dollars cash.

With Mary helping and learning daily we had the store looking ship shape within two weeks, it had gotten to the point that I told Pak three days a week would work well if he wanted more time off, he took that deal immediately. She got to where she could go through the product on her own removing what wouldn't sell and then re-stocking, with an eye for detail and an imagination her displays were often stunning not to mention inviting. I already had infra-red beams at each door that would sound a buzzer when the beam was broken, I had a flashing light added to the circuitry so Mary would know if someone had entered when her back was turned to the door.

As the regulars got to know her, she was becoming a happy person, with her check going directly into the bank she was pleasantly surprised when she checked her account two weeks later to see it had increased considerably. She was working full days with me Monday through Saturdays, profits were up over twenty percent and it had to do with her, not me. I noticed that she was extremely self-conscious about her teeth which were in horrible condition, on a morning when Pak was working, I got her into my dentist for a checkup. The dentist took care of two teeth that needed fillings immediately and set up three more appointments over the next three weeks.

As more and more of my local clientele got to know Mary word soon got around that I had hired a deaf person, which brought in even more business, mainly from the deaf community, they would travel to the store knowing the staff knew ASL. As per our agreement I was using ASL more each day, I added to the deal by encouraging her to use her voice more often, little by little our ability to converse was becoming easier. On a Saturday morning a deaf couple spent a fair amount of time in the store hanging around talking to Mary, after they'd left, I asked what all the sign was about. Business picked up quickly at that point which meant we had no time to talk, our first chance to talk uninterrupted was at supper that night.

She conveyed to me that they were bakers, had been through the culinary courses at the tech and had focused on baking, they were presently employed at Fresh Bread Bakeries which were closing their doors in five weeks and selling everything at auction. They wondered if we might consider opening the empty side of the store with a bakery, they felt that if we went to see the owner's they might sell us the equipment at a discount. The young couples' names were Sean and Sarah, both from Ireland, had been in the states just over four years and married eight months ago, they lived seven blocks away and wouldn't need transportation for work. I told Mary to contact them and invite them to lunch the next day.

We had been doing dishes when I signed that I thought a bakery would work well, she spun, put her soapy hands on my cheeks and kissed me before realizing what she had done. Quickly putting her hands back in the water she spoke *sorry*, I touched her to look at me and signed *I'm not* which only made her cheeks turn a deeper red with embarrassment. At lunch the next day we discussed different scenarios with Sean and Sarah, it was quite interesting, they had brought along an I-pad along which worked great as each side could simply ask and answer questions more quickly.

Following our conversation we went into the unused portion of the store where they walked around making notes and talking continually with Mary, what I didn't understand I knew Mary would tell me later. When it came time to talk money things were better than I anticipated, both had inheritances equaling just over one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, which they thought would be enough to buy the equipment they wanted from Fresh Bread and purchase a used newer more efficient oven than the older one at Fresh Bread which took up so much room and cost a small fortune to operate.

If they purchased those items they wouldn't have money to rent a space or have operating capital for startup, the question to me was this, would I be willing to rent the space at a reduced rate until they were well on their feet and would I be willing to cover startup costs until things were rolling. I'm not wealthy by any means, in the same token I'm not poor or do I go without, I had money in the bank I could risk and thought it was worth a shot.

Seven weeks later Dough Re Mi Bakery opened on a Saturday morning with a free donut and a cup of coffee or milk, the response was overwhelming, when word got out a new bakery had opened and was being run by a deaf couple the local newspaper did a short story about it. The bakery was a huge success with a large portion of their and my customers now being those with hearing disabilities, going somewhere that ASL was common turned out to be monumental. The majority of baked goods focused on breads, rolls, buns, baquet's and specialty breads, things of that nature, they planned to add sweet breads and cookies once it was solidly in the black.

Mary had been at the store a little over five months and was comfortable enough to go shopping with me for groceries, she also began buying more underwear and clothes. We were now having small conversations outside of the work environment, after a long day working it wasn't uncommon for us to eat out, neither of us wanting to cook. Her two favorite places to eat were Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel, we visited other places as well, but if we couldn't make up our mind those were the default locations.

With her teeth now fixed the next thing I did was to make her an appointment with a gynecologist, on the day of her appointment with Pak working and Sean or Sarah to help if needed, she insisted I go with her, the doctor informed her that she was nearly through menopause. Her suspicions had been correct.

What I didn't know at the time, nor did the gyno tell her, it was not abnormal for her libido to increase during this phase. I would learn later that Mary thought she was having perverted thoughts when she found herself wanting to be held and loved by me, I certainly noticed how attractive Mary had become though by most human standards she was not considered to have elegant features. There was so much more to her than physical features, which other than a face that wasn't Mona-Lisa quality, the rest of her was very inviting. She had a solid intellect, was quick with her wit and a joy to simply be around once she got to know and be comfortable with you.

I noticed the furtive glances between us, I would catch myself watching her or she watching me, we would quickly look away as though nothing happened. I recall an apple display we were working on, without thinking about it our heads were all but touching, as we looked at each other in surprise I was sure we were going to kiss when we both suddenly stood back, smiled and went our separate ways. Incidents such as that began to occur every few days, as they did, we began to move apart more slowly each time. In a moment of bravado, I asked if she'd like to go to dinner with me.

She laughed and signed, "I go to dinner with you all the time, what are you talking about?"

My answer in sign, "No, I don't mean supper, I mean dinner at a nice restaurant."

Her look was one of surprise as she spoke to me with her voice, "Do you mean like a date?"

I touched her hand; she didn't pull away which to me was a good sign. "Yes, a date, I'd like to take you to dinner."

Her reply was in ASL, "I'm eight years older than you, are you sure you want to do this?"

My reply as she read my lips, "I don't have a problem with it if you don't. Will you go to dinner with me or not?"

Although the time period she sat thinking seemed like an eternity I'm sure it was no more than a minute before she spoke once again with her vocal cords.

"I would love that."

When I walked down the hall to her apartment on our date night, I was surprised to see her door open, she had never done that before. Gazing into the room she stood by the couch smiling, wearing a conservative cotton dress open enough to let you know she had cleavage but not enough to look slutty, the hem line ended a few inches above her knees, the glimmer of stockings and low red heels set it off. There was a churning in my groin I hadn't allowed myself to feel for an awfully long time.

As we left the back alley parking area she motioned for me to go right toward where the homeless camps were, I knew she'd been helping Aubrie, an older woman who'd helped Mary when she first hit the area, she'd been giving her a few dollars for food on a regular basis, I thought that was where we were going, to find Aubrie. When we arrived at the camps, I wouldn't let her out as I searched for the old woman, Mary finally recognized another woman she knew, unlike Aubrie who was homeless but not a drinker or druggy, this woman was both. When I asked about Aubrie she told me she'd been taken to a hospital, no idea which hospital, just that she'd been gone three days, all of her stuff had been stolen, Mary worried what Aubrie would do if she didn't die in the hospital.

Once out of the camps I pulled onto a side street where we could talk. I told her we should go to dinner as we'd planned, Aubrie was safe, warm and fed, there would be nothing we could do tonight. In the morning I would call the three hospitals in town to enquire about her, if we found her, we would go see her and help if we could. That was enough to settle her nerves, we enjoyed the meal and were sitting with dessert when a band began in the dance hall adjacent the dining area. It surprised me when she began to move her head to the music.

"How do you hear that Mary?"

"Oh, I don't, I can feel the vibrations. Do you want to dance a few songs after we finish?"

I hadn't danced in years but then I figured she hadn't either, "Sure, I'd love that. I'll get to hold you in my arms."

It was my turn to be red faced chastising myself internally for uttering those words, she hadn't heard me, but she knew what I said. Looking at me coyly she grinned, nothing diabolical, a soft teasing sort of grin, inviting one might say, maybe I hadn't made a mistake after all.

With dinner over we drifted into the dance lounge, found a table and ordered two Arnold Palmers. Alcohol and I don't get along well, I become less than kind when I drink, therefore I don't drink and I knew Mary didn't either, I felt safe ordering what I had. The music was loud and fast moving, neither of us were game to get out on the floor and grind with the others, when a slow song began she smiled as she reached for my hand. She had explained to me that once she could feel the beat it would be up to me to gently lead her, to give her an indication with body language as to which way I was planning to go.

We danced three slow songs, walking back to the table she softly slipped her hand into mine, when I looked at her, she had a pleasant smile on her face as she looked straight ahead. We had a few more dances later and then headed home, our dancing was not sensual in any way other than the fact that I'd been able to hold her, smell the inviting fragrance of her shampoo and perfume, and listen to her hum along with the music. She was a delicate flower that if allowed to I was going to savor being around, I'd never met a woman I found so desirable, I only hoped she might feel the same way about me in some sense. As we stood to leave, she once again took my hand, this time with a bit more authority, I didn't waste the opportunity and squeezed back enough to let her know I was honored.

There were several men who had ogled and stared at her throughout the evening, it made me feel proud to know it was my hand she wanted to hold. At my truck I opened the door for her, as she turned, she signed *thank you* and then put her hand on my shoulder. Leaning in she kissed my cheek, not a peck, it was a kiss held longer than one would expect, she spoke with her voice as she pulled back.

"I had a lovely time."

I'd been around her long enough to know what she was implying even if I couldn't necessarily make out a word, looking at her I asked, "May I kiss you?" She nodded with a grin.

Our first kiss was soft, tender and affectionate, no tongues, no groping the other, no eagerness, a simple and soft, mind numbing kiss. I helped her into the truck keeping my eyes where they belonged, the last thing I needed was for her to see me as an opportunist pig, I had worked far too long to reach this woman even if it was still only on a minor scale. As we parted in the hall between the upper apartments she stopped, put her hand on my chest and kissed me, once again signing thank you before she walked away.

She was anxious for me to call the hospitals in the morning, I explained we should probably wait until about nine when the breakfast rush was over, she agreed and tended to customers until Pak came in at eight thirty. Taking my arm, she led me into the break room and pointed at the phone, she had already opened the phone book to the hospital numbers. It was the third place we called that had admitted Aubrie but weren't going to give us anymore info than that, after I explained the situation and that we were likely the only people who cared she gave us the room number but told us not to come before ten.