Brandon Marshall Writing

            She felt a series of unusual reverberations; it came up from her desk and tickled her forearms curiously. She finished labeling her diagram of waves, complete with lambda, amplitude, and frequency, and when she looked up from her notes and back to the interpreter, stage left, she was gone. She looked to her physics professor; he too was gone. Blinding lights strobed around her in the dusty old lecture hall. Most of the class was already evacuated before she realized what was happening. Sophie’s breath hastened as the room turned black with smoke, triggering a painful fit of cough. She started toward the quickly darkening light at the top of the room.

            Sophie had long grown accustomed to the hardships of living deaf in a world full of sound, but her dad had done everything he could to help her. He had spent the first two years of her life taking night classes at the community college to learn ASL and by the time she was two and a half years old, he was teaching her. They had had long talks of cochlear implants, but she ultimately decided against them and to be proud of herself as she was. He had given her every opportunity in life he could afford, but all that he could afford still hadn’t been much. You could only do so much on the single parent income of a farmer in the Midwest.

            Sophie awoke to a sterile fluorescent light above her. She groggily wiped the sleep from her eyes and realized she was in a hospital bed. Above her, she saw her heart monitor. Nothing flashing she thought, I must still be alive. She felt a pat on her right leg. It was Shelly.

            Shelly and Sophie had met in her first year of undergrad at University of Iowa. She had been sitting outside of the lecture hall for her first ever lecture: introductory physics. Two guys who had looked about sixteen had attempted to talk to her. When they’d realized that Sophie was either ignoring them or couldn’t hear them, they let her have it. They’d slapped her Kindle out of her hands and called her a “dumb deaf bitch just like Anne Frank.” Of course Sophie hadn’t been able to hear them, but her Kindle had been one of her most cherished items. Well, Shelly sure had heard them and once she’d seen what had happened, she’d walked over and grabbed the one with mullet by the balls and squeezed as if she were juicing a lemon. “Don’t you ever speak to anyone like that you fat piece of shit. If I ever see you around her again, I will personally make sure you never have children. Oh, and by the way YOU’RE THINKING OF FUCKING HELLEN KELLER AND SHE WAS AN AMERICAN HERO.” The fat kid with the mullet had walked away limping. After that day Shelly and Sophie had been best friends, despite Shelly’s inability, even after her greatest effort, to learn sign.

            Shelly passed over a whiteboard to Sophie. “Those assholes couldn’t have helped you get out of that place, huh?”

            Sophie let out a diaphragmatic giggle and smirked. She wrote back, “the interpreter even forgot about me, LOL.” She passed the white board back to Shelly.

            “I will have her ass fired. I’m just happy you’re alive. I was so worried!!! We gotta get you rehabbed the fuck up and GET YOU READY FOR OUR TRIP!”

            The girls had been planning a spring break backpacking trip through Southeast Asia like all the influencers on Instagram they’d been watching. They already had their airline tickets purchased and figured they could just wing the accommodations once they got there. Their rough itinerary was two months long and included Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Sophia had always wanted to visit Sri Lanka to see the elephants, so they had planned to fly there near the end of their adventure.

            Sophie spent the next weeks in pulmonary rehabilitation after sustaining her severe case of smoke inhalation and was ready to go. The night before their departure, the pair got a little too wine drunk and ended up at a series of male strip clubs where Sophie had to pull Shelly away from sticking her last twenty dollar bill into the jockstrap of another Greek god sculptured man. They made it to the airport without an ounce of rest and with an hour to spare.

                                                                        ***

            After a crazy month and a half touring through their itinerary, Sophie and Shelly landed at Colombo Bandaranaike International airport in Sri Lanka.

            “This trip has been crazy,” Shelly typed on her phone to Sophie.

            Sophie responded, “WHAT REALLY HAPPENED LAST NIGHT WITH THOSE TWO BRAZILLIAN GUYS????”

            “Let’s just say this girl is content.” Shelly typed a winky face emoji.

            The girls reminisced about their experience so far. On their first day in Thailand, Sophie had gotten the worst bout of diarrhea she had ever experienced. She thought it was related to the panang curry she picked up from the first street vendor they saw in Bangkok. She had been doubled over in the shared bathroom of their hostel with Shelly rubbing her back all night. She’d felt sorry for the travelers sharing their room; for the rest of the week she had what was reminiscent of radioactive waste pluming from her ass. In Indonesia, Shelly had gotten bitten by a street dog she had attempted to “rescue” and take back home and they’d spent that night searching for a hospital that had the rabies vaccine available. By the time they’d reached Cambodia, they had been desperate for a cheeseburger and pizza, and had found something that was close enough to hit the spot. They’d spent those weeks resting and indulging. Vietnam had been a series of misadventures: Sophie had almost drowned kayaking, only to be saved by the Vietnamese coast guard. It had been her first and hopefully last helicopter ride. Shelly had thought she picked up bedbugs at the nicest hostel they’d stayed at, and they’d spent an evening sorting and bagging all of their belongings out of fear. And in their final days there, Shelly had thought she lost her passport and the two had spent several days traveling to the nearest US Embassy, only to discover it had been hiding in the lining of her travel-worn roller bag the whole time.

            After spending about forty-five minutes haggling with the tuk-tuk drivers outside of the airport, they set off to their mountain destination. It was going to be a week of disconnection; no electricity, locally prepared farm fresh meals, and hiking. Shelly had found the retreat on a Reddit thread and they were excited to rest their minds.

                                                                        ***

            The ride up the mountain was twisting and bumpy. The well-paved roads quickly turned into potholes large enough to engulf the tuk-tuk. With each turn, Sophie’s brain jostled, and she was overcome with waves of motion sickness. Regardless, the views were spectacular, so they didn’t mind spending the extra hours driving five miles per hour through the rows of switchbacks. The sunset dipped below the mountain range; beams of golden-purples spilled over and casted a nostalgic hue upon them as they approached the gated entrance. Sophie sighed in relief.             “Welcome to Whispering Mountain Escapes,” said the man at the gate.