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being inserted into his veins. He had a hearing impairment and he used to wear hearing aids but his sore ears forced him to often discard them. He was adept at Adapted Makaton and he was one of the best of us for lip reading.
                  I didn’t really interact with him, he had Asperger’s like Phoenix, but unlike Phoenix he had a modicum of social skills and when he was well enough, he had interacted reasonably well with most of the other residents. He had also formed a friendship with Stevie who when Paul was feeling well enough would let him push him around in his manual wheelchair in the garden.
                  I found it odd that such a high functioning Asperger’s person like Paul would look twice at someone like Stevie who spoke monosyllabically, and simply. Stevie had no academic leanings in any direction other than looking at pictures of weight lifters and reading comic books. He was good at Adapted Makaton though.
                  When I had arrived at Thorncroft, I had been taught the rudiments of Adapted Makaton, it was one of the house rules; everyone had to learn Adapted Makaton as this helped those with speech difficulties integrate with those that didn’t. I hadn’t been overly keen, but a rule is a rule and I dutifully attended my induction workshop.
    To my utter surprise, I found that I enjoyed learning Adapted Makaton, which incorporated signs, symbols, and speaking if the person using it could verbilise.
    Adapted Makaton comes in between Makaton and British Sign Language (BSL). It has more nuance than Makaton itself but is not as richly complex as BSL.
    It did, however level the playing field for many people in the home though Seb said it was a load of shit and he would rather scratch his arse and sniff his fingers then learn the language of morons. He had, unfortunately, I was told by Shannon said this in front of a Social Worker and the fall out for his behaviour almost resulted in him being reported for a Hate Crime.
    I am no goody two shoes angel; I don’t see me as having much in common with anyone in the home, but I don’t believe in being rude about someone just for the sake of it.
    I think my early dislike of Seb stemmed from that particular story though watching him I did find him a bit of a contradiction. He was rude to his fellow residents, yes, and he often used words I didn’t like at times, but if Stevie asked him to fix his earphones, he would do it, he set the SKY up to record everyone’s favourite programs, and he often helped fix small problems with other resident’s wheelchairs if needed. Like I said, Seb was a real contradiction, along with being unpredictable.
    Paul loved to read, and watch the documentary channels on SKY. His passion was anything to do with the universe, from quantum physics to space travel.
                  “She had to go into town with Gregory,” I said, making sure he could see my lips moving. My hands moved to form the words as I spoke. I handed him a wet flannel, then took his bowl of sick off him to empty it down the toilet. I rinsed it out with the shower head. Thorncroft is nice that each room for its residents has its small on-suite bathroom, toilet, sink and shower. It gives you a sense of having your own space though you have to eat your food in a communal area.
                  I gave Paul his sick bowl back along with a fresh clean flannel and the bottle of cold water. His face was grey and pasty. The treatment he had been having had taken a lot out of him. He should have been in a hospice really, but his family had persuaded Thorncroft to keep him for another month before the inevitable happened, and he became too ill to stay where he was. They wanted him to have continuity for as long as possible. Like Phoenix, Paul didn’t handle change well. He had been in Thorncroft since he was 18 and he was settled. He was also dying.
                  “Can you put my TV on?”