Private Are You Hearing Me?

Of course a school as advanced and inclusive as Starlight would have computers for students with disabilities. This particular computer had a microphone and voice-to-text program, along with headphones so she could listen as the program repeated back what it had recorded. It was how she did the majority of her school work and helped a ton when sending email to her family in the Narrow Reality.

Delaney used voice commands to open and log into her email, and was met with the automatic voice: No New Messages. The teen slumped into her chair. It's been like, a month since Clement or Madi emailed her, and longer still since they sent anything other than a quick update. Angel and Hilda were a little better, as they sent one last week. The fact that she didn't have anything from Velda, Jayde or Linnet was a shock. The four of them would get lost in email chain after email chain. Delaney sent one yesterday talking about the school dance and the outfit she planned to wear.

She pressed her finger tips to the screen, but what would that do for her? The computer didn't know what her siblings were up too. Or why they weren't emailing her. Delaney tried to remind herself that Clem and Madi were in college now, they wouldn't necessarily have the time to write. It still hurt, though. Like, it hurt a lot. She and Madi were close back home. Just about everything Delaney knew about thrifting and crafts came from Madi. What happened? Sure Delaney was now far off in an island drifting in its own dimension, but email was still a thing. They had means to communicate.

Ugh! This moping was gross and totally unlike her. Delaney Lavoux does not mope! She takes action! If Clement and Madi won't email her, she'll email them. It took the better part of an hour, but Delaney made an email that had all the exciting details of her life. A paragraph gushing about Hector, another about how school sucked when you're blind. Then she finished it with a paragraph about the dance and how she hoped they're doing great in college. With her voice, she sent the email and felt her spirits lift. Clem and Madi are gonna be super excited for her. Just as excited as she was to hear back from them!

Delaney packed up, and logged out of the computer. Maybe Hector or her friends were free to hang out!

Two Days before the Lake Party

Delaney opened her email and slumped in her seat. No new messages from Clement or Madeline. Two months. It's been two months since her last email from either of them. She sent them one every week, but nothing. Angel and Hilda sent the occasional one but those emails were so dry. They would write a sentence or two then give a laundry list of school complaints. Like, what had happened?

Georgette lay at Delaney's feet, dressed in her vest but more relaxed as the lead was off. Dela carded her fingers through the longer curly hair at the top of the poodle's head. "I don't get it." Delaney said quietly to the dog.

At least there was one email from Linnet. The second youngest Lavoux continued to send her emails, and they were interesting! Linnet loved school gossip, and kept her updated on all the juicy secrets being spread around his school. Apparently a girl in his class got pregnant and the father went to their rival school. He said it was mostly rumor for now, but he'll get back to her with more details next time.

Dela opened the email and idly petted Georgette while she listened.

[Dela, I can't stop pretending like everything is okay.]

What?

[And I hate that I hid it from you but Clem was so angry. Like, really, really mad and you know how he's like. We didn't want him to get mad at us. Then Madi said we shouldn't bother emailing you when we asked her about it. We couldn't not email you but we couldn't write them the way we did either.]

Flashes of memory crossed her mind. Of all the times she saw her oldest brother well and truly mad. He got suspended from school for a month when he punched another kid in the face for saying awful stuff about Madi.

[Clement's mad at you. He's mad that mom and dad took the college fund to pay for Georgette and that you get free schooling for life on your island place.]

"Mom and dad did what!" She shouted, forgetting for a moment where she was. Several people hushed her at once and Dela ducked behind her computer screen. She couldn't even be embarrassed about yelling in the library because what the hell! Georgette showed up at the end of her hospital stay on the islets. . . Delaney had always assumed it something the Island government or whatever payed for. Her parents said they got her Georgette, but paid for her as well?

The robot voice was still going and Dela hit the pause button to quickly google the cost of a service dog for the blind. She clicked the first search result and the robot voice said a number that made her heart skip. $50,000?! There's no way her parents had that much money! Then-then did they really pull from the college fund?

[He had to drop out and he's working three jobs like mom and dad. Madi finally dropped out last week as she lost her scholarship. I don't know what happened there yet, but I'm guessing it's because she's tired from all the jobs she's working too. I'm sorry. Like, this is dumb. You didn't ask to be blind or or whatever had happened that caused you to go to that place.

[And I'm going to say it. I'm happy for you. I'm not jealous like the others. You got out of our dumb town. You can have fun and not worry about all the bullcrap. I'm happy and I'm sorry.]

Dela paused the voice.

She was so stupid.

She was selfish.

She was stupid and selfish and only cared about bragging about all the cool things she did and complained about a school that was totally free for her. The school gave her an allowance! They fed her! And she had rubbed it in the faces of her family. She was blind. Completely and totally blind.

"I messed up." Dela was surprised at how rough her voice sounded. "Georgette, I messed up."