by Beth Hoyer
Yulien appeared to be an African from his black skin dressed like Anna all green, Georgia Holm was wearing something like I was wearing was a short woman who had red hair in ponytails and green eyes, and Dina Kovtova dressed in a similar outfit of mine, was another tall woman who had blonde hair and appeared to look like a gymnast to me. They seem to be really nice people. They treated me equally with no rude comments about my deafness. I wrote on my application about lip reading and knowing sign language. Georgia tried her best to make me feel welcome by doing some signs. She signed hello and welcome. I taught her some signs.
The break room had two machines that are like ovens they make food fast. One machine had drinks. I had chocolate for drink with green cream to eat. I think the cream is vegetable. It’s been a long time I had chocolate. I don’t eat chocolate very much. My dad has diabetes. It's one fact I failed to mention earlier. There are some facts I accidentally omitted which I didn’t find important. I’m glad I did because of Mathew’s nosiness. My grandfather, my dad’s father, Alexei Zesky Senior is said to have gotten diabetes too. So I watch what I eat a lot. I make sure I don’t get diabetes. I guess there is already a cure for diabetes. Anna asked me to come back tomorrow same time. She wanted me to work. I agreed to do this.
After work I walked in the fog led by the ghost again to Bruce’s house I also could have sworn I’ve saw a knight following me. I rang the doorbell. Bruce answered the door. It was nice to see him. We had macaroni and cheese for dinner along with soda to drink. Luke and Vladimir were out. I asked Bruce where they were. Bruce told me they were at the community center. After dinner Bruce walked me to my house. He kissed me on the cheek. Then he went to his house. I feel like I'm in love.
Yours truly,
Elizabeth
February 2, 2101
Dear Anne,
I sent Sue a videophone message.
"Hi Sue this is Liz. I got a job at Cherrio. Please be sure to call me when you come back"
I wanted her to call me when she comes back from her honeymoon with Kurt. I walked to the store this time with no help. I managed to use my nose and smell the store. Georgia came by my area and she told me there was a flying class at night. I’m glad she told me that. Lucky I brought along my car-driving book to study. I have no idea if it's different from the gasoline cars. Sue can tell me that. Work went okay. There were visitors from other towns on the planet. The planet has a population according to the computer, three million and counting. The visitors were very messy in the store. The Winsted town people are neater and politer. I was dealt with rude people today. They didn’t treat me as an equal. They treated me as a servant. Hmph. Bruce came by. I told him about the car driving class. He told me he’s in that class.
I asked him “What town are you from?”
He told me he’s from a town named Canada. I told him I was curious that’s all. He left. At the end of my shift I had dinner from the machines and did some shopping. There are no longer metal coins or paper money, there are just credit cards. I looked around the store doing some exploring. I found the food which was on the highest levels of the metal shelves. There were ladders leading up to the foods. The store is also like a grocery store. I wandered around at the end of my shift exploring the store. Anna gave me a credit card. She told me the card account is one thousand lei which is the money amount. I don’t believe it. She asked me to come back tomorrow. She told me she liked the way I clean. I didn’t spend a thing.
I left the store and found the arch and then I walked in the fog to the auditorium which was the classroom. No one talked to me. I noticed many of the people were not from Winsted town because of what I lip read. Bruce arrived and we talked about my work. Then Jeff arrived and he asked us to come up one at a time and then he questioned the person like it was a quiz on the books.
It’s a good thing I studied because when it was my turn I had to use my voice because Jeff didn’t know sign language. He asked me all sorts of questions about the book. Then when it came to Bruce’s turn I had to interpret for Bruce using my voice and lip reading Jeff too. After that Jeff told us he’ll start teaching us how with a stimulator soon. I can’t wait.
After class Bruce and I walked home thru the fog while holding hands. Bruce seemed to know where he was going in the fog because I looked at him out of the corner of my eyes and he seemed alert and sniffing the air. He led me to my house and the fog disappeared. Then he kissed me on the cheek and then watched as I went inside the house. I think I’m in love with Bruce. I think he loves me according to the look in his eyes. I got a video message from Sue. She asked me to call her. She seemed happy. I called Sue on the video phone and reached her. I told her about work, Bruce and the class. We talked for an hour. I asked her about her honeymoon. She told me she went to a town named Canada. It’s near the ocean. I told her Bruce is from the town too. It’s a town like Winsted. Kurt and Sue had fun skiing with helmets on and sledding which is weird because she’s pregnant, but Sue tells me that Kurt did most of the skiing and Sledding while she stood on the sidelines.
After the phone call I checked the computer on Canada not to be confused with the country. Sue was right about Canada being a shoreline town. It’s a paradise. What a nice town. I would love to go there someday. I didn’t do much for the rest of the evening. I have to go to bed now. I have to get up early. I’m working at the store tomorrow. I might want to shop for some breakfast food. I’m low on breakfast food. I noticed I need a cleaning solvent for my dress. The store is oddly dirty with a dirt floor with straw on it. Lucky for me there is no dress code at the store. I have been wearing my medieval dress.
Lucky,
Elizabeth
February 3, 2101
Dear Anne,
What a day. I arrived at work by sniffing like a dog to the store. Inside I saw Sue who told me she was hired to clean the women’s area, mainly women's clothes. I took a look before going to the children’s area. The clothes were on one level on the metal shelves and they were hung like the children’s items. I saw them and the clothes are just dresses like the one I’m wearing with lots of cloaks of different colors. Some of those dresses looked rich and while some looked poor judging by the design and the price. Ouch, I checked one dress looked like what Serena was wearing and it was expensive, about one thousand lei. Anna has me do the children’s clothes, which is mostly girls and babies stuff. Sue has been hanging around the baby wear clothes in my aisle on the lowest level of the shelves. I think she is daydreaming about what to get. She told me she’s having a boy. They found out so early?! This is nuts. Technology must be really advanced. I feel jealousy.
Work was not fine. The customers were really rude to me. They didn’t treat me as a normal person. They came up to me and handed me a piece of paper and expected me to read it and find the item for them. I did my best to help them. I complained to Anna when I saw her wander by my area. She wasn’t helpful. She told me to put up with it.
They yelled at me mostly saying "You wretch! Find me this and find me that."
Over and over again, ugh I told them I can lip read and yelling isn’t necessary. This didn't help. They continued to yell at me. Rude.
Anna sent me home early. A customer a woman with green hair and green eyes grabbed me from behind and she nearly broke my left wrist grabbing me like she pushed me. I had a feeling of falling down and hitting the floor plus hurting my wrist too. I think I blacked out because I had an image of a wolf and growling at the woman with green hair who tried to kick me several times. It explains why I felt like I was bruised on my left side. I think the woman must have pushed me or something. The woman proceeded to drag a protesting me to the front of the store pulling and protesting. Several customers on the way applauded that act.
Also at the front of the store I saw Anna came up to the green haired lady asking “what do you want?”
The green haired lady told Anna to fire me. Anna told me to go home. What a horrible day. I went to the locker room to get my stuff which was my c
loak and I saw some of the employees there watching me with smirks on their faces.
Humph. I noticed that the customers treated Sue nicely when I peeked in the next row where the women’s clothes were. I lip read them asking her about the baby and if she was alright to be working in the store. I guess it’s because she’s having a baby. I asked her why they treat us differently. Sue wasn’t helpful. She had no idea why. Humph. I’m not in a good mood. I considered being rude back at the customers. Bruce showed up. It was nice to see him. I spent one break of mine talking to him. We talked about work. I complained about the rude customers. Bruce told me to put up with it. He used to work at the visitors’ center where visitors are rude to him too. I think it’s because we’re deaf. Some of the customers come up to me and yell what they want. I have to be polite no matter what they treat me. Oh I forgot to add the days on Terra are like Earth days twenty four hours and seven days a week but the time frame is different. Since I’m new Anna has posted old Earth times for me to show up and the same for Sue who is working the same shift too. The store closes at 9pm Earth time which is U.S.A. east coast time.
I didn’t see Sue who was at a credit register. She