"This will help me evaluate you." he said. I knew he had said it, but I responded with the signing for "I can't hear you."
He squinted and I turned my head so he could see the wax in my ears. Then he raised his eyes to the ceiling. I saw an impish light come into his eves. When he looked at me again, he signed. "Let's have breakfast."
I shook my head at him and signed back, "We already ate breakfast."
His eyes widened with surprise. I stepped forward and indicated the tests. For me?" I signed.
He nodded. I took them and sat. "What do I start with?" I signed. "Math," he signed back.
"I hate math." I told him.
"Then that's what you should start with," he replied, signing quickly, almost too quickly. "What is your favorite subject?" he asked. I got thrown by the word favorite for a moment and then figured it out.
"English," I said.
He nodded gently, his eyes bright with his surprise and admiration for what I had already achieved.
Echo had been watching us the whole time. She started to smile, looked at Tyler, who was staring at me now with a lot more respect, and then she looked back at me.
Her smile slowly weakened until it was gone. She looked at Tyler and then at me again. I think she was afraid my initials might get carved into that heart scratched into the rock.
And maybe she thought that was the reason I had warned her against being too intimate with him or any boy?
Of course. I told myself it wasn't.
I looked at Tyler Monahan flipping through the pages of a book. He was a handsome young man, so self-assured.
Maybe what I had seen in Echo's eyes was really in my own, I thought.
And if a young, innocent girl could see it so clearly, he surely would.
3 Distractions
. The tests Tyler gave me took hours and although I wouldn't admit it to him, the wax in my ears made them very itchy inside. Every once in a while, I caught him looking at me with some suspicion in his eyes. I was sure that in his mind I was simply pulling off a stunt to win Mrs. Westington's affections even more, When I saw Mrs. Westington in the door to announce lunch. I signed back at her that I was going to skip lunch and continue doing the tests. She looked confused and turned to Tyler. He told her about the wax in my ears and she came over to me quickly to look.
"I want to learn like Echo learns." I explained when she opened her mouth in amazement. "I want to be dependent upon the same means she is. It will help me develop the ability to communicate with her faster and better."
She looked at Tyler. who shrugged, lifted his arms, and shook his head with a look that said. "I don't understand her.' They went off to lunch, but Mrs. Westington wouldn't hear of me not eating anything. She brought in a turkey sandwich and a glass of lemonade and put it on the desk. I thanked her. I could see her go off muttering to herself.
I was so involved in the tests. I didn't notice how much time had gone by without Tyler and Echo returning to the office.
Either hoping to defeat me or trying to get me to give up on my own, he had presented me with a great deal of work that included math problems, science questio
ns, social studies questions, and pages and pages of grammar exams. By the time I was finished, it was nearly time for him to leave for the day. I closed the test booklet and looked about, puzzled, but before I got up to leave. Tyler appeared without Echo. I looked at him curiously. He seemed very upset.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "Where's Echo? Something the matter with her?"
"You'd better scrape that wax out of your ears
right now." he wrote on a pad.
"Why?"
"I want to talk to you about what you told
Echo." he added. "And also about what you showed
her." Of course I knew he meant Destiny.