Laura's world was never silent. Not really. It was full of vibrations and other sounds of life around her.  Sometimes, the music of deafness was so loud that she longed to share it with another hearing friend the way she had with Vincent. She knew he, too, saw things that other people missed in expressions and hands. Lovely hands.

    When Jamie asked her to write a letter for Vincent and Catherine, Laura was a little worried.  Because ASL was structured so differently from English, sometimes what she wrote on a page sounded strange to hearing ears.  She wanted it to say everything she meant and everything she felt. 

    She loved Vincent, plain and simple. And Catherine was a joy in her life.

    Laura sat down and wrote her letter Above, to the sound of sunlight.  She came Below before the party and had Pascal read it.  The pipemaster, who always talked with his hands whether he was signing or not, understood about the whole ASL to English to paper dilemma.  When Pascal gave her a warm, quiet smile, she knew that everything was all right. Or more importantly all write. 

   When it was her turn, Laura handed her letter to Catherine; and to Vincent she signed: 

Thank you, for being my friend.