Member-only story
Please Be Patient with Me
She looked straight at me. A clear-cut look. Full eye contact, zero hesitation. Her gaze felt like a firm handshake. Not the limp, lukewarm, slightly sweaty kind that leaves you rather discombobulated. But the bold, ‘I know who I am,’ no-nonsense, reassuring kind.
I made an effort not to avert my eyes. It’s great when you can match a confident handshake with a similar level of intensity, I thought to myself. Doing that with my eyes, though, proved a little bit trickier.
Especially when I kept being drawn to the giant message staring back at me from the thick navy-blue face mask she was wearing.
‘Please be patient with me. I am deaf.’ The thick white letters really stood out. They made her invisible disability visible to me. To all the people waiting in the queue with me. To the whole world. We all watched speechless, shrouded in silence.
As she was taking the clothes I had bought off the hangers and folding them meticulously, a thought kept bugging me. Did she really need that face mask or was it only there as a giant notice board? Would a badge have done the job as well? Maybe not.
I smiled as I thanked her. Full set of teeth and all the genuine warmth I could possibly muster. She did the same with her eyes. Full eye contact. No hesitation.
Our brief moment of deep connection will forever stay with me. Like the memory of a sunset whose light penetrates way beyond the retina or the skin. A kind of energetic tattoo or imprint. Permanent.
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