She was aware of the time passing by when the smaller man would feed her. Most time her tray was delivered in the morning while she slept and then she would have to do the back to the door ritual in the afternoons. The smaller guy gave her a name of Jimmie, and that was what she called him. He was the only person she was in communication. Lynx seemed to have disappeared because he never came around and when she asked Jimmie about Lynx, he would only say, "He doesn’t like to be around people he can’t communicate with.”
In turn, she asked Jimmie to teach her to sign. So Jimmie would come after breakfast and teach her words with her hands while she wore her blindfold. The education of a new language and the handicap that forced upon her seemed to make her a much humble person.
Days turned to weeks; by the end of her third week with Jimmie she could form sentences, and he was proud of her. He admitted Lynx had taught him how to sign, and she learned even faster than Jimmie did.
Going into the fourth week, Jimmie started to act funny. He was sluggish and tired. Twice he forgot her breakfast and lunch, and by the fifth day of the week, she hadn’t seen him at all No one came for her, and she started to get scared by the sixth day when her breakfast tray from the fourth day. She pounded on the door, and she tried to find an opening or a way out, but she couldn’t find a thing and cried for Jimmie to come for her.
When her light went out later on that day, she begins to get frightened and laid by the door instead of on the bed hoping she would hear something.
Tanae wasn’t sure how long she had slept, but suddenly she felt weightless, and when she opened her eyes, the room was still dark, but she wasn’t on the floor anymore. Someone was carrying her to the bed.
Lynx! Tanae could tell it was him by the familiar pheromones. He had come, and she hugged him glad to see anybody. Glad she hadn’t been forgotten.
She didn’t have her blindfold on, but she couldn’t see a thing in the darkened room. “Where’s Jimmie?” she asked even though she couldn’t see his face.
He picked up her palm gently and made a hand gesture. Immediately she understood and asked Lynx, “He’s sick? But he didn’t sound sick.”
Lynx finger spelled what Jimmie had, and she couldn’t believe she didn’t realize that Jimmie had AIDS. Lynx made more motions.
“Can you understand me?”
Out loud and with her hands, she said proudly, “Yes. Jimmie taught me a little with my hands.”
“Good. Where’s blindfold?”
“By the door, but I can’t see anything. Please don’t make me wear it!” Tanae cried in protest.
“We talk about father.”
“Alright talk,” she said.
Lynx seemed reluctant to try to talk with her, but Tanae was so eager to speak with anyone, she did her best to understand what he was saying. “He won’t what?” she asked not understanding his last words.
He huffed in impatience and made the motion again, but as hard as she tried, she couldn’t understand.
“Please go slow,” she said. “I’ll try to understand.”
“He won’t do right.”
“He should pay whatever you want him to pay. He loves me.”
Lynx made the no sign and then motioned. “He stole from someone. He took work from doctor. Doctor wants work back and all money.”
She didn’t even sign to answer. “My father would not steal anything from anyone.”
“Love for father is talking. Your father stole work.”
Protesting, she said, “He wouldn’t do something like that, Lynx. He wouldn’t steal.”
Lynx signed again, “Love talking. Love don’t see truth.” He stood up to leave, but she grabbed for him.
“Please don’t leave.”
“No more talk. Love don’t see truth.”
“Alright, I’ll be objective. Tell me what the truth is.”
Reluctantly he replanted himself beside her on the bed and took her palm to the letter spell out everything.
“He stole work from doctor three years ago. Doctor wants father to publicly admit it and pay money.”
“Did he go to court?” she asked. “This sounds like only a civil matter.”
“Court ruled...father favor. Father kept the truth from court too.”
“Are you the doctor?” she asked.
He made the no motion. “Doctor, friend.”
Tanae asked in disbelief. “You’re committing a federal crime for a friend?”
“Commit crime for truth. Will you help me with father?”
“How can I help?”
“We call father tomorrow. You get him, to tell the truth.”
Tanae wanted to go home, but she also knew her father’s wealth had come about from the information he sold to the government, yet if getting home meant losing that wealth, she didn’t care much about the wealth. “Yes, I’ll talk with him.”
“Good. Are you hungry?”
“Not anymore, but could you sleep in here tonight, please?”
He paused for a moment as if it would be the hardest thing to do, but then he conceded and gave her the “yes” motion. She handed him one of her pillows, and he lay on the floor while she lay down in bed.
Tanae closed her eyes trying to sleep, but she couldn’t. There was so much going through her mind, and when minutes turned to hours, she sat up in bed and called out his name. “Lynx are you sleep? Knock on the floor if you're not sleeping.”
The room was silent, so she quietly got out of bed and felt on the floor until she came to him. She had pulled the covers off her bed and lay beside him. Once her head rested against his chest, dreamland pounced on her like a hungry panther.