Loving in Silence: Neighbors Ch. 01

Joyce's face was a study as she thought about the children out in the back yard.

"I could never hear again, but my mom and dad supported me and did everything they could to get me back into a normal life. It took twelve years for me to get back in the mainstream. I was a high school freshman at age eighteen. I didn't think I'd make it a lot of times. My friends helped me so much. There's a girl who was a senior then, now she's a patrol officer for my hometown Sheriff's Department. She got in a lot of trouble because of me, and she supported me even more because of that. There was a young detective who set himself to clear her of the charges. I couldn't marry the girl, but I could marry the detective. He had loved me all those years."

"How long have you been married?" Joyce signed.

"Just after my graduation ... I was a June bride," Samantha signed back. "It will be a year next Father's Day. I had a little girl's crush on him before the accident. He blamed himself for it, in fact. But," she added, dropping her eyes pensively, "if I hadn't had the accident, maybe I wouldn't have married him."

Joyce strategically opened the Tupperware container full of the baked goodies. Samantha's nose caught the scent and her eyes lit up. Even Abigail reveled in it.

"Is that for me and Josh?" Samantha signed in astonishment.

"It was for the kids," Abigail signed, "but I asked her to make more so you could have your share. It's guaranteed healthy."

Samantha cocked her head and signed to Joyce: "Did you go to Life Skills school?"

"Yes I did," Joyce replied. "The school district made me do it. They weren't very smart. But I learned how much I love to cook and keep house. Which is good because Roger can't do either one. If he were here he'd stick his tongue out at me but he'd be lying!"

Samantha let out the warmest smile yet. "I was in Life Skills because I had to learn everything over again. I was still so smart but it wouldn't come out. They figured cooking would be an outlet. They were right. I stopped feeling all the pain when I made stuff. Josh can cook a good meal but I love making it for him. Guess I'm still the little homemaker I'm not supposed to be!" She gave the sign for "Laughing Out Loud."

Abigail help up her hand to request to speak. "I was a homemaker for nine years. It really isn't so bad. If I had found a man who really supported me ..." she slowly lowered her hands.

Samantha signed: "Abigail, I can read people. I am going to be a psychologist. I will also really really really want to be your friend. Joyce, I hope I am yours as well."

Joyce smiled and signed that she hoped so too. Then she asked a question.

"Samantha, do you speak?"

Samantha nodded.

"Would you speak? I am a good lip reader. Abigail and I always sign but I know she enjoys voice as well, if you like to voice I can follow along."

Both Samantha and Abigail looked puzzled, but Samantha spoke.

"Abigail, what would you like to do with your life?"

Abigail paused. And fidgeted. To kill time, she spoke. "Your voice is very good, Samantha."

"I taught myself. I was taken from the hearing world and I wanted to rejoin it. Also, the other cop, the girl in high school, realized that my interpreter was sending me the wrong signs. It's a long story. But I started speaking when I was ready, when I knew Josh loved me. I wanted to tell his ears that I loved him back. There are lots of ways to tell him, and I didn't want to miss a single one."

"Wow," Abigail said. Joyce smiled.

"Does she --" Samantha pointed to Joyce -- "tell you she loves you enough? You are really good friends."

"The best. She and Roger couldn't be closer to me." Abigail wondered if she would confess the lovemaking fest next. Her eyes flitted to Joyce. Joyce put a hand on Abigail's and started signing.

"Abigail's husband never really loved her. I can say that even if she won't. The best thing he ever did was give her those children." Abigail nodded in agreement.

Samantha smiled. "I can't be a mom yet, but I hope to when I get through with school and get set up in practice. Those kids are darling! How did you get them to be so well-behaved?"

Abigail blushed and stammered something about patience and careful discipline.

Samantha smiled broadly. "I hope you give me lessons."

Joyce had observed her sister and her neighbor and had realized how much Abigail needed a friend. Samantha couldn't be nicer, but Abigail was little-girl shy and eager to talk. Joyce looked at Samantha and saw something in her expression that said she had read that in Abigail, too.

Samantha continued the chat, but she looked directly at Joyce. She chose her words carefully and her facial expressions and lip movements conveyed much under the surface.

"I try to carry on as a hearing person as much as I can. I hope that won't bother you. Abigail told me a lot of people stare at you two."

Joyce nodded, and signed: "We take it in stride. It's their problem, not ours. We've just never felt trapped. I hope you haven't too much."

Samantha replied: "It was tough for a long time. It will still be tough, being a cop's wife. I may need friends like you a lot. I also have some physical disabilities too. I get really bad headaches and I'm not coordinated enough to drive." She broke the glance and looked down. "I think some people thought I was stupid -- not just because I was deaf but because my brain was hurt so bad." She looked up and framed her words with unusual distinction. "I ... am ... not ... stupid. I was the valedictorian in high school and I got straight A's in community college. I just need help with some things, that's all."

Abigail spoke, just as emphatically: "Do you see why I like her?"

Joyce reached over with both hands. She gave the "Vulcan love caress," from the "Star Trek" episode that featured Spock's parents, to her sister and her neighbor. Then she pulled back her hands and signed: "I think you two are incredibly wonderful! I hope you're two of my seven best friends," pointing toward the back yard and the other five.

Roger, Josh and the kids came in almost as if on cue. Abigail excused herself and went into the living room with the children. A much more routine conversation followed among the remaining four adults, with Samantha explaining that she could not drive and getting reassurances about the specialized buses. Josh and Samantha explained what they knew about the concert coming up. They had never heard of the artist, but he was apparently very popular about the metro area.

Following up on Samantha's talk about being a policeman's wife, Roger and Joyce talked about support groups for police and their spouses, and asked Josh about his forthcoming duties. Josh had seen some hairy situations as a Sheriff's Deputy, and had a set of recommendation letters detailing how he was a thorough thinker and did not hesitate in dangerous situations, having planned for them in advance.

Samantha didn't want to talk about the "trouble" she had been in earlier, but she did say it was when she was in class for the last six weeks of her freshman year, returning full-time as a sophomore. She smiled as she recounted her friend from school getting a baby brother right on Mother's Day. Later, she had befriended her friend's sister, who was younger and had a couple of years left until graduation. She and Josh had often visited the parents' home over the years until he applied for this job.

Finally, the treats were all eaten or put in storage for later. Joyce and Samantha made an appointment to do more baking, and Joyce and Roger went to pick up Abigail and the kids. On the walk home, Abigail thanked Joyce for asking her to come by and help meet the Cranes. Joyce smiled. Roger and the kids chatted about the new neighbors and suggested they all get together to play at a park. Abigail kissed her sister and brother-in-law -- chastely -- as she loaded the kids into the van. Roger gave a high sign to Philip, who seemed much happier now that his mom was happy. They waved as the van drove away.

That night, while preparing for bed, Joyce put out an idea that had been growing in her mind since she met her neighbor.

"Have we been going the wrong way with Abigail?"

Roger, rightly puzzled, asked what his wife meant.

"We've looked over the guys she's dated and we think they're all wrong for her. Shouldn't we think about who is right?"

Roger tried to think it over. "Who is right? You mean the right guy or the right KIND of guy?"

Joyce nodded to the second alternative. "Try to think. What made you want to fuck her ... to make love to her? And what got her to let you and me do all that?"

Roger let out a silent whistle, extended, not a wolf whistle but more a sign of intense thought. "You've been her best friend all your life. You could figure out what she needed. I ... I guess I just followed your lead. I treated her pretty much the way I treated you. I thought about her the way I think about you. You're different, but I got the general ideas from you about how to treat her. Knew what you liked, tried it with her, followed her cues. If I loved somebody else, I guess I'd do the same thing."

Joyce nodded. "But she gave it all up to me and to you. She never opened up to that fool she married, anybody could see that. What do you think she wanted?"

Roger frowned. "Appreciation is a good starting point. I guess she could turn me on just by being nice to you. And she looks a lot like you so that means she's beautiful." Joyce stuck out her tongue, but then smiled.

Roger continued. "I guess what did it for me was how she wanted to be like ... us. She wanted you and me to find her sweet spots, so to say. There were a lot of places I touched that I could tell she'd never been touched before. Some places not even a great lover would think of. They got my cock hard, but for her ... I guess for her they went to her soul."

Joyce nodded. "She can't possibly want to become deaf. She wanted to become one of us. If being one of us and loving like we do meant losing her hearing, she was willing to do that. In the short run, it was heaven for her. But she'd have to be lucky as hell to find someone she wants to become one with."

Roger looked searchingly at his wife. "Was Samantha lucky as hell?" He was pretty sure he knew the answer.

"Yes," Joyce signed. "I think she knows what Abbey is going through." Joyce pursed her lips, not wanting what came next to sound "bad." "I think Abigail is Samantha's first case study. I think she really wants to observe her, get to know her like we do."

"And after that?"

"I'll have to think about this a little, but maybe Samantha can help me find out the kind of person Abbey could love. Maybe it's a man, maybe it's a woman, I don't know. I know Abigail doesn't. But when Abbey talked to me before we went over there, it was like she had an early Christmas present. I wonder ... I wonder if that concert is more than just music. I wonder if maybe it means something else to her."

Roger frowned. "Do we know the guitarist?"

Joyce thought. "The name seems a little familiar ..."

Then she snapped her fingers. "Wait a minute. Do we still have the school annuals packed away? Did you take them to the storage unit?"

"No, never got around to it," Roger replied, a sheepish look on his face. Whereupon Joyce gave him a big kiss.

"Wait right here," Joyce said and left the room. Roger did as told, getting into his pajamas and turning down the bed.

Joyce returned, carrying four volumes from her high school. She laid each out on the bed and opened them to the orchestra pages.

"Look, that's him," she signed. He was in the first two group pictures with Abigail, and on his own in the last two after she graduated. Roger turned the pages and found that the fellow had made All-State orchestra every year. Since Abigail had too, they must have known each other.

"Puppy love?" Roger signed. "You don't see older girls having crushes on younger boys." Joyce stuck her tongue out at him.

"Better watch that tongue or I'll make you use it," Philip signed back.

"Oh, I'll use it all right," Joyce replied. She walked over to him and gave him a big kiss. Then she asked him to put the annuals away while she went to the bathroom.

When Joyce returned, Roger's eyes widened. She was carrying a package of condoms. Since she was on birth control pills faithfully, the condoms meant only one thing -- she wanted to keep his cock clean. And that meant his cock was going someplace it rarely visited.

"Are you sure?" Roger signed. He didn't want to hurt her.

"I have been thinking of a way to make it work," Joyce signed after putting the package on the bedside table. "Lie down here beside me and do what I do."

Roger lay on his back on the bed, and Joyce lay to one side of him. She took one of his hands in one of hers and communicated through finger spelling.

"For this to work, we both need to be SO ready," she told him. "So let's touch and caress and get us both wet with desire. But don't touch anything of mine that I haven't touched on you."

Roger contemplated his earlier shower. He was pretty sure he had cleaned everything she wanted to touch. The little homemaker had bought extra items for personal hygiene, including a brush for those hard-to-reach places and special disinfectant soap that contained a soothing gel as well. Yep, he thought, he had been wise to use that tonight. He didn't think she'd go that far, but if he did ...

Then he banished those thoughts from his head for a while as she nuzzled up to his neck. He wasn't sensitive in a good way there like she was, but the thought sent a pleasurable shiver through his nervous system. The two of them had plenty of "moods" from ultra-assertive on his part to hyper-drive by both to very subtle to very assertive by her. This night was going to be a mixture, something they didn't try very often. When she eased back, he kissed the side of her neck as well, finding the sweet spots.

The couple continued touching each other, staying above the waists for now. Gradually they unbuttoned the pajama shirts. Joyce allowed Roger to take the lead a number of times, caressing spots on her that sent sparks through his fingers.

When Joyce lay of top of Roger to kiss his chest, their groins touched. He could feel her heat through the pajama pants, and she felt his hardness. She looked up at him and signed it was OK for him to move his hips. She pushed her knees around his hips, her pubic bone at the head of his penis, her cleft down near the base. She moved easily back and forth as she teased his nipples. After a little bit she rolled off and lay on her back, her legs still apart, the pajama pants pulled tight against her tummy and between her legs. He could almost see her lips through the fabric, and he knew he saw a little of a wet spot. He settled in between her legs, and now he felt the wetness against his tummy. He could feel wetness of his own, at the tip of his cock. That had no place on her body to touch her, to he put one leg over hers and rubbed against the inside of her knee while he licked around and beneath her breasts. Anyone could tell the nipples were hard, but he took his time before paying attention to them. Her hands caressing his hair tapped out a message of appreciation on his skull. As he moved from one breast to the other, he took her hand and spelled out a welcome message.

"When it's time," she spelled back, "I want the lube to be all me. "Don't let the air dry me out, okay? We can use the K-Y later but I want you to move in my juices."

"Okay," he spelled out. "But I want a favor too."

"What is it?"

"You'll see. I think you'll like it."

Joyce shivered in anticipation and began rubbing Roger's neck and back. She reached down as far as she could and trailed a finger up Roger's spine. She trailed it up again and again, increasing the pressure each time he pleasured her.

Roger's mouth finally left his wife's breast and moved down onto her belly, just above the waistband of her pajamas. He reached over with his hands and put them in the small of her back, feeling the waistband from behind. She wore tight panties under the loose pajama pants, and he felt that waistband too. He nudged down the pajama pants with his chin and began licking around her tummy. Joyce arched her back as his hands went up her spine, and then she sat partway up as he reached her upper back and neck. He repeated her motions to him, but also pushed up and massaged the muscles leading to her shoulders, pushing her up and down against his tongue. Joyce massaged Roger's chest with her fingertips, and cuddled his face.

Joyce felt very, very turned on. The two layers of clothing against her pussy helped hold in the liquids and created a very pleasurable pressure on her clit and lips. But she had greater ideas. She put her hands on Roger's sides and urged him to come up to kiss her.

Roger's pajama pants had come unbuttoned. Joyce reached inside and put her hand on his lower abdomen. She looked him in the eye and blinked, asking him to touch her abdomen as well. He put his hand under her waistband and left it there, on top of her panties. She nodded and put her plan into its first motion.

As they shared a deep tongue kiss, Joyce moved her hand down Roger's hip, carefully avoiding the stiffened organ. She trailed her fingers across the inside of his thigh, switched to the inside of the other thigh and cupped his balls. Roger did the same, cupping her sex from outside the panties.

Joyce lifted the scrotum out of the way and let it rest on the back of her hand as she caressed the area beneath it, the prostate and the smooth flesh that covered it. Roger was very sweaty there and Joyce's fingers soon became wet. So did Roger's fingers. He slipped them into the leghole of her panties and went to her perineum. He let her juices coat the fingers, the knuckles of which were shallowly between her lips.

Joyce let her fingers go to Roger's anus. She didn't plan to penetrate it, but she wanted him to encourage her to put his finger inside hers. She circled the puffed-up flesh, brought her fingers back and caressed his prostate again. She moved up his groin quickly and directly touched his cockhead for the first time. She swirled her finger around, soaking up the juices he had leaked, and sent her hand back to his rosebud. There she bathed it with his juice and hoped he would take the hint.

Roger did. He brought the tip of his forefinger up to the base of her pussy, the reservoir, and dipped it inside her as deeply as he could. He gathered her fluids on his fingerprint area, then rubbed against the tunnel with his tips and joints. Joyce pulled away from his mouth and let out a long sigh of thanks.

Joyce and Roger repeated this several more times. Roger smeared Joyce's sex juices around her rosebud, using two fingers to pull her cheeks apart and get the anus ready for his finger. He let another finger enter her vagina and massage it to keep her flowing. Finally he let his forefinger push inside her nether opening.

Joyce opened her mouth wide with a sigh. She took his cock in her hand and began rubbing it up and down. Then, while signaling him to hold his fingers as they were, she twisted her upper body around. She reached for a bedside drawer and opened it. She got out some alcohol wipes in a box and placed them near him, and pointed to a soiled-waste container she had bought from a medical store. She signaled "Not yet" and pulled his pants to his knees. She lifted her hips so he could pull her pants off, while keeping on her panties. Then she twisted around and began to lick him, every part of the area she had touched.

Roger felt a tickle, especially to his prostate area. He let out a little gasp. He didn't want to reciprocate while his finger was still inside Joyce's bottom, so he waited and moved it around to help her get accustomed to the penetration that was to come.