Nothing To Say

Apologies for not being around much this week. Sadly I lost yet another friend and neighbour. He was a motor neurone sufferer aged 55 years old. Slowly he lost his voice and could only communicate with his wife through their own method of communication.

 Reflecting on his struggle I wondered about characters who have vocal issues and cannot communicate. How would you write them into a story? They would have to be a 'tell' character as the author would have to write good descriptive outlines for the reader to relate to them and their daily routine. Dialogue would be one-sided.  Inner dialogue can be introduced but sign language could not. You could say the person held up their hand spelling out a word, but they would not be able to communicate it in any other way.

I decided to play around with the idea to see if I could introduce the concept into The Man In Room Eighteen. The piece below is for fun and not part of my novel. I set myself a five minute challenge.

I wanted to make it difficult for my mute character Joe, and see how he dealt with the situation I told him he was in...

Joe sighed. The woman just didn't get it, she had no grasp of his situation. He could not tell her what he wanted, there were no writing materials to hand and she stood facing him expectantly. To have to point out his needs and desires frustrated Joe and tended to make him tense. At times he found it embarrassing. Today was one of those days. People watched and waited for him to speak but he cannot. Yet he knew not one person in that cafe would take this into consideration. All they could see was a blonde, gum chewing woman and a stubborn male. All they could hear was the impatience in her voice. Joe knew he had been labeled awkward. Judged and guilty before the crime.
Joe walked to the desert cabinet and stood beside two large cheesecakes.


'Well, what do you want lover boy? Vanilla or Vanilla and Almond?'

 Both cheesecakes were identical, neither had labels on, there was nothing to give him a clue. There was no coloured topping drizzled across the top and he had no means of asking which was which. Two ivory circular temptations but which one was Almond?

If only they had a label. I could point to the Almond one.

' I don't wish to be rude but I do have other customers. Make up your mind and let me know. I will come back in five.' The waitress walked away.

But I know what I want! You just haven't got the means for me to tell you.


He tapped on the glass and she swung around.

'Keep your hair on. Made your mind up? So what will it be?'

Joe had no choice, he pointed to both. One of the two would be the Almond that had been highly recommended by Dave his room-mate.


'A bit of both coming up. Got a hunger on today?'

No, but tomorrow you will have a pen and paper in your pocket. My student funds cannot keep buying double portions.


***
The great thing that came from this exercise is it gave me inspiration for a possible character in TMIR18.