Read Signs for Free Online

this buzzing… sort of humming sensation instead. Like my whole head is vibrating.
    Luc: That sounds awful :(
    Caleb: It’s not great. I’m supposed to wear them, though.
    Luc: Caleb? Can I ask you something?
    Caleb: Sure.
    Luc: It’s sort of a personal question.
    Caleb: That’s okay.
    Luc: How did you get to be deaf?
    Caleb: I have this genetic condition which causes deterioration in my inner ears. I could hear when I was born, though the doctors knew there was something wrong when I was about six months old. By the time I was about five or six, they knew there was a really bad problem, something that they couldn’t fix, and I lost most of my hearing by the time I was 10.
    Luc: So you use sign language?
    Caleb: Yes :) ASL
    Luc: Could you teach me?
    Caleb: Of course. It’s a bit difficult to do it like this, though. There’s a lot of really good free programs online that’ll show you the basics. And once you can finger spell, then you can get by in a conversation. I’m really good at reading lips, though.
    Luc: Good to know. I have another question.
    Caleb: Okay :)
    Luc: Do you like me?
    Caleb: Yeah.
    Luc: Like… as another boy, not just as a friend.
    Caleb: Yeah.
    Luc: Good. I like you too.

4. HANDSPEAK
     
     
    L UC DIDN ’ T think too hard about why he looked up those websites and started to learn, in his own time, how to move his hands into different shapes that could tell a story to someone who could interpret them. He got an app on his phone too, one he could look at during the day if he wanted to know what the sign for “home” was. Or the sign for “chocolate.” Or the one for “tired.”
    He learned the alphabet quickly, memorizing those signs, then how to string them together to make his own name. He practiced under the table at school where no one could see. He learned greetings and basic vocabulary, and was pleasantly surprised at how logical many of the signs were, even if syntax, grammar, and sentence structure were still eluding him. That would come with time, though.
    In the evenings Luc talked to Caleb online, or one of a number of other friends he knew from his blogging. He got his homework done. He mostly got to bed before midnight. He lived, day-to-day, for the evenings, as he always had.
    Learning American Sign Language became Luc’s secret project. He didn’t want his friends at school to know he was doing this all for a guy he’d met online. A guy who was beautiful and artistic and clever and kind… and deaf. For some reason having a secret project for a secret friend was the right thing to do. When Caleb became real to him, in the real world, maybe the ASL would come out of the closet too.
    On the weekend Luc slept in late, then lounged around the house for most of the day, ignoring text messages when they came through from his friends. Life seemed to be getting more and more hectic as he approached the end of his high school career, and there was something to be said for doing nothing for a few hours.
    By early evening he was bored.
    Sprawled on the couch in Ilse’s homey living room, Luc pulled his laptop over from the coffee table and fired it up.
    Caleb wasn’t online, and that sucked because Luc had been sort of fantasizing about spending a few hours showing off via Skype and maybe getting Caleb to help him improve his sign language skills.
    Instead he pulled up YouTube and started to practice again.
     
     
    C ALEB HAD long since stopped arguing with his mother about attending the Deaf Youth group in Boston. He hated it, and Carrie-Anne knew it, but she forced it on him as one of those things that was “good for him” and part of his “growing experience.” Caleb’s mother was all about him expanding his horizons, learning new things, not letting his disability hold him back.
    Apparently, meeting with a group of other people who were deaf and hard of hearing was supposed to help with that.
    The Deaf Youth group met at a community center twice a month. Caleb tried to