#creaminal

For as long as Neo was alive all she could feel was constant burning in her throat. She had never been able to speak. Even as a baby, apparently she never cried or screamed or made any noises at all. One would think it was a parents dream but ... apparently not. Some people are not made to have children. Among those are parents who do not wish to deal with any specific needs their child may have that they were not anticipating. When doctor after doctor said that there was too much damage to the young child’s vocal cords to fix without extensive surgeries and excessive healing and down time, her parents gave up on her. They put up with their mute child for six months, before deciding to leave her on a neighbours doorstep and skipping out of town. She had no name left with her, no trace of her family. Nothing except her inability to cry out for help.

The neighbours did not ask for a child so they dropped her off a at a hospital, who then transported her to child care facility and eventually she found herself in an orphanage, with countless other children screaming for attention around her. There was no way for her to get any medical attention there, and so even as a baby, she learned that being nice and patient never got you what you wanted. Many times she would not get any food, because the other kids were louder than her. She learned to crawl and walk on her own with no one noticing, or caring. The other kids talked and the young girl tried to copy their mouths but no words or sounds ever came out. On her third birthday they brought in a speech therapist, who said that the girl was a lost cause. On her forth birthday they brought her to a doctor who said that he could try an experimental and expensive surgery but there was no guarantee of it working. The orphanage did not have the money to do any such thing and so she suffered in silence still without so much as a name.

No kid had the patience to become friends with the weird kid who did not talk. And no adult wanted to adopt a child that they did not know how to speak with. By the time she was five she had learned that this would be her life. The last one for everything, the one who had to sneak food and break into the office after hours to get any type of colouring book and be able to play with the toys. She learned all the in’s and out’s of this orphanage. Being mute also meant that she was constantly underestimated. Although she was lonely, she did not know any other way and so, she learned to be happy in her own strange ways.

But then one day, there was a fire. The orphanage was burned to the ground and she herself barely escaped. Of course during roll-call, she was forgotten, but she snuck out through a back entrance and ran away in terror. She was now seven years old and didn’t know any better. She ran and kept running, wanting to scream for help but not being able to. Since she had left through the back she did not see where all the other kids went and ended up lost, afraid and completely on her own. Her bright brown eyes danced around for somewhere safe to go but came upon nothing. They grew heavy and tired, her body ached and she longest for her small, uncomfortable, cold bed. Instead she found a tree that cast a long shadow and someone’s lost sweater to use as a blanket. It would have to do. She curled up, eyes pooling with tears and eventually fell asleep.

When she awoke it was to someone sliding the sweater off of her, trying to be sneaky. One eye popped open and she saw a tuft of red hair going through the pockets. In a split second she decided to jump up, grab the sweater away from the boy and then twirl it around fast enough that it came back and tripped the young man.

Her plan worked and he fell on his bottom. With a scowl he said, “What was that for?”

She could not reply to say that it was him who started the altercation so instead she held the sweater to her chest and glared, daring him to try something again. It didn’t go as she had expected cause now that he could get a good look of her he sighed, “Dammit, you’re one of those orphans aren’t you?”

She tilted her head.

“In the fire? Heard the place burned down and now our home is overfilled with you guys. Guess that means you won’t have any food to take.” He crossed his arms and sat on the ground next to her. His stomach rumbled and Neo continued starring at him out of curiosity. He went on talking, “We had lots of food before you guys all came and lived with us. This morning I only got scraps for breakfast and they told me to get used to it. Lots of kids will be living here now, we will have to share our space, food toys. So I was hoping that I could find at least an apple or something out here. I’m starving.”

Now she understood, this boy was also from the orphanage. From a different one from hers but she supposed that all the kids from hers just moved to his. At least she knew where to go now though. She sat beside him then pointed behind them, trying to ask if that was where he came from. Now it was his turn to look at her weird. “Can’t you talk?” He asked abruptly.

She shook her head and pointed to her throat.

“You can’t talk? And you’re an orphan. Jeez, you’ve got it worse than me kid. My parents died last year and no one wants a nine year old. Now I’m ten, practically an adult and will never be adopted. But they’d probably take me before they’d take a deaf kid.”

She stood up and put her arms on her hips, pointed to her ears and at him, then at her throat again.

Somehow he seemed to understand what she meant. “Okay okay, not deaf but- well you know what I mean.”

She didn’t answer him but looked around again before shrugging and pointing in a direction.

“Are you asking... where the orphanage is?” He guessed and she nodded enthusiastically. “It’s this way,” he got up and led their way back.

When they arrived one of the women let out a sigh of relief when she saw her. “Oh thank goodness the mute girl is back. We all thought you burned in there.” She was getting scolded... for nearly dying. If she could speak she would scream at the top of her lungs about how unfair everything was, but instead she just had to take it. “You should know the plan little girl. When there is a fire you go to the front door and we escort you out. The insurance nightmare if you had burned to a crisp... I am having a heart attack just thinking about it. Now go inside and have your lunch and do not put a toe out of line again.”

“Sheesh,” the boy whispered to Neo once they were out of ear shot. “Did you start the fire or something?”

She shook her head and looked down, then back at them and shrugged her shoulders.

“Must be tough not. being able to talk for yourself. Do they always treat you like that? I know they’re not very nice but... they seemed extra mean to you. Do they even know your name?”

She shook her head more sadly again. Ever since she arrived at the orphanage, she had always been referred to as ‘girl’, ‘child’ or simply, ‘mute’.

He asked something she didn’t expect next, “Do you know your name?”

Again, all she could do was shake her head and the boy frowned.

“Well, mine is Roman, if you ever think of yours maybe you could write it down for me!”

Her brows furrowed and she shrugged.

“Like, with a pencil or something... do you know how to write?”

A stiff head shake this time.

“Maybe I can teach you some time- you know when we could at least pass notes or something and I don’t have to always guess what you’re saying?”

This made her whole body perk up, did this boy- Roman, intend to keep on talking to her, almost like a friend? Didn’t he have some of his own already?

“If you wanna try to communicate that is. I’m not really friends with any of the other kids here, they’re too young. Not many older kids, they usually run away. I was thinking about it but I don’t know where to go.”

They took their seats in the cafeteria and received their lunches. Three apple slices, some leftover porridge and a quarter sandwich. “Is this it?” He complained loudly and one of the women took away his sandwich.

“Not if you complain Torchwick.” The lady said harshly and gave the sandwich to someone else instead.

He whined out loudly but beside him, his new friend passed her porridge to him. She hated hot foods, it hurt her throat to eat. Plus he had been nice to her so far and she wanted some way to repay him. He looked puzzled at her gesture. “Won’t you be hungry?”

With a shake of her head she sucked on her apple slices instead and pushed it closer to him, insisting that he took it. He did and they both ate contently and ended up spending the rest of the day together.

And the day after that, the day after that, the week after that and nearly a year later they had never been apart for more than the few hours of sleep that thy got since the boys and girls had to sleep in different rooms. But sometimes they would meet up at night and sneak into the kitchens for snacks, her favourite was always ice cream and Roman would tuck some crackers or bread in his pockets to save or later. The two became the best of friends. And when she was ten and he was thirteen he decided that he was now an adult. Neither of them were ever going to be adopted and adults certainly did not need to live in dirty orphanages. The problem was lien... but he found a job for the both of them. It was a shady man who said he sold dust and needed them to help transport dust from their ‘factory’ to their ‘customers.’ Roman and the girl had over heard him whispering to his boss that he had the perfect solution since no one would ever suspect two kids and they barely had to pay them anything cause kids were dumb and didn’t know any better. Roman did not like that implication but did see how he could make some extra lien out of it. In the end they came to a deal. The man rented them a small room to share and supplied them with food. While the two of them now had to work seven nights a week making these special deliveries and never saying so much as a word about it. Everyone was happy. Roman was glad to have a place that him and his nameless best friend could live and the man was happy to have someone who literally could not speak and someone else who would not speak, working for him.

They did this job until Roman was 18, legally an adult and now with 5 years behind him of getting to know all the shadiest people of Vacuo. She was still a kid, at fifteen, but the pair of them had discussed in length what they would do when he was old enough to get a real job. They knew that what they were transporting was not dust. Or perhaps just not legally dust. And they knew that the cut their employers was getting was much higher than they were. They wanted in. They wanted to be able to take Neo to a doctor and see if they could do anything about her speech and then move into a nicer place and make actual money instead of being paid in cheap, probably stolen, groceries. And now it seemed like the best time to do it. All the contacts knew and liked Roman and his nameless friend. (She could never decide on a name she liked and also did not see the need of having one, he would just call her ice cream due to how quickly she always ate all the ice cream and her employers just called her brown eyes or mute.) 

Roman tried to strike a deal, it didn’t work and instead he lost their ‘job.’ Apparently criminals did not like to pay their staff very well and also did not like being called criminals. But this did not bother him. He could get a real job now, save up money for Miss Ice Cream and they could start a real life together.