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~ September 2021 ~
Fall had arrived in New York City once again. It was just beginning to become cold, the leaves were changing to autumn shaded vibrant colors and the amount of tourists increased with each day that arrived. Why was New York a popular place to visit in the autumn season? Wasn't that more of a New England call?
The Arconia's outdoor sitting center with the fountain was a scenic view. Just a perfect spot to sit and enjoy the view. No wind which made it better. Just a crisp cold. A man in his late twenties sat outside on the wall of the fountain with a lunch he had made; peanut butter and strawberry jelly with a bag of sour cream and onion wavy chips. Unfortunately he had failed to realize that he didn't bring a soda with him to wash down the sticky substances. It wasn't the first time so Theo Dimas would manage.
His court case had ended a few weeks earlier. The final result was nothing he had imagined. Theo pictured jail time. Years and years of prison time. The only time he would be able to come out of prison would be for his fathers wake and funeral, then straight back to jail. But the court trial was different in the end. Zoe had some relatives who spoke up in the court and explained in their own words that when Zoe had a few drinks and was angry, she could be violent. Shoving and pushing were her weapons of choice in her anger. This was later determined by a court psychologist that Theo had to speak with as mandated by the court that Theo had reacted to the pushing and shoving in a similar but unrelated manner. She had dug into his past and learned (and revealed in court) that Theo had typical bullies who taunted him, harassed him and often physically attacked the deaf boy. After a long time of this, Theo had to do what he must do to protect himself. Now he didn't want to get violent with the boys' so Theo would shove back hard and then run away.
Zoe had brought those memories he hid away and Theo reacted on the rooftop the way he had as a child. Intentionally pushing her off to get her away from hurting him, unintentionally pushing her off the roof.
There were no big charges. Deemed accidental murder, accidental death. But he didn't get away completely. He had community service hours from 5AM until 6PM Tuesday to Saturday. Mondays he was able to do community service hours at a local deaf and hard-of-hearing center from 7-4 which wasn't too bad for him. But still rather annoying.
He was not alone for too long as he saw someone approaching from his peripheral view. Someone around his age with medium length dark hair that contrasted the beige trench coat that she wore. She waved her hand when she was near him enough, getting his full attention now, and properly waved when she met with him. "Hi." Theo waved back at her. Then, to his surprise, Mabel motioned her hands in a specific gesture. First, she pointed to herself. Second, Mabel held out her left hand and used her right hand to pull an invisible string up from her left hand and finally ended it by using her two index fingers to circle in a front-and-back motion. *I'm still learning ASL.*
Theo signed; Since when did you learn ASL?
Mabel said, "I've been trying to learn for the past few months." She used her hands again and said, "Youtube has helped a lot." Mabel put her knuckles together back-to-back but allowed her thumbs to point at her chest. She moved her hands and thumbs in an upwards direction then she used her right index finger to point to Theo. *How are you doing?
Theo signed back to her; *Doing OK. Could be better.* Then offered her a seat next to him to keep the conversation going. Since the Bunny case was solved and their time at Coney Island, they only spoke a few times here and there. Mabel took the open spot next to him, putting her reusable grocery bags on the ground by her feet and her regular bag on her lap. Theo asked; How are you?
Mabel spoke and signed what she knew. "Same as you. Doing ok. Call me crazy but I kind of miss solving a crime. The thrill of it, really. I prefer those old….H-A-R-D-Y B-O-Y-S to my old H-A-R-D-Y B-O-Y-S friends. Believe it or not." Unsure how to use Hardy Boys in ASL, she just spelled it out. Just as she did when she forgot the sign for the word or was unsure which sign was correct.
*Well at least you had friends to play with. I didn't have too many* Theo thought. He signed; How are your old friends?
"Great, I think. We still hangout. A-L-I-C-E is too. She wants us to dress up for H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N but we aren't sure what to dress up as."
Theo pulled his phone out and began to type his message in his notes for Mabel to read; Henry the 8th daughters Mary and Elizabeth.
"Why? Because A-L-I-C-E is British?"
Theo typed again; No. Remember that childhood game where you stand in the bathroom and say a name three times and the woman appears?
"Theo this may come off as insensitive but how in the shit do deaf kids play that game?" Mabel asked. "Do you just sign 'Bloody Mary' in the mirr—'' It hit her now. Bloody Mary, Bloody Mabel. She saw Theo smirking hilariously at his own joke. Mabel made a face. "Fuck you, asshole!" That sign she knew too well from a movie.
Theo typed once more into his phone; To be honest I was more of a Scooby-Doo fan than Hardy Boys.
"What the shit?" Mabel snapped. "Scooby Doo over Hardy Boys? Theo, that is just….Lame!" She half-laughed at him. Again, using what signs that she knew, she explained to him why Scooby Doo was lame. "Because all of those episodes were just repeats of one another. A haunted, old museum, an old shut-down carnival, a creepy hotel, a M-I-L-L-I-O-N-A-I-R-E-S M-A-N-S-I-O-N, a shop where they sell ancient artifacts like masks. It always ends up as some jealous wimp who wanted money."
Theo wrote *The series took place during The Great Depression. Of course it's always going to be about money!* Mabel laughed at that. Theo then typed; There's Zombie Island, Witches Ghost and Cyberchase. Real zombies, real witches and wiccans and a real virus that turns into human form.
"Fine. *those* are the only exceptions to that franchise. But they're still so lame."
They sat in silence for a couple of minutes just watching people and tourists who scooted by the front gates far ahead of them. Theo took hold of his sandwich and split it in half, handing her the one piece that appeared to be a little larger than the other. She tried to decline but Theo insisted. As a thank you and a return, Mabel pulled out of her grocery bag a pack of blue Gatorade and took one off the holder and handed it to Theo. "So is community service ok?" He signed 'yes' "Oh. Cool."
Again, they sat in silence for a couple of minutes and ate their shared lunches. Mabel was surprised that Theo didn't have deli on him…. No, what was she saying? She should not be surprised. The guy grew up with a deli loving father! She had wished she had known him before all of this murdering back and forth happened. Theo was a really cool guy. Funny too and smart and, yes, a badass for stealing the 'fish' from Coney Island for her. From what she was able to pick up she could tell that Theo was a loner for most of his life. Either no friends or a small group of friends…. She wishes that she had invited him to join Hardy Boys but there were already four of them and Zoe and Oscar both didn't want him to join. All that made sense years later, of course. So for the most part it was just Theo and Teddy for Theo's entire life.
Mabel tapped Theo and asked, "Are you busy on Sunday?"
*No*
Mabel told him (and signed), "I don't have plans on Sunday. A-L-I-C-E is going back home for a few days on Friday and I want to do something fun."
*What do you have in mind?*
"There's a movie theater just outside of Time Square that shows movies with subtitles on Sundays," She explained. "They're showing The Breakfast Club at 5PM. If you're interested. I was planning on going with A-L-I-C-E but…Yeah, she's out of town." Theo smiled. *YES! Sounds like fun.* Mabel smiled. Theo added *Meet here at three-thirty?*
"Yeah, sounds good." The brunette answered. Mabel got up, but Theo tugged her shirt to get her to look at him again. "Yeah?"
Theo held up his two hands. He left his left hand open. He used his right hand and laid his fingers down against the inner palm of his hand, but left his thumb sticking out. Mabel recognized his right hand was making the 'A' letter in the ASL alphabet. Theo used his thumb and pretended to scribble on his left palm. "Sorry. I'm lost."
Theo typed again on this phone; Every person gets a signed name in the deaf community. Down at the local deaf community center we all met up one day discussing Bunny's murder and how it was solved. We ended up giving everyone a Sign Name. For Alice we made her the sign for Art. Using the first letter of her name, A, we switched using the index finger and replaced it with the thumb that sticks out for the letter 'A' and scribbled the thumb along the open non-dominate hand palm
"Shit! That's cool!" Mabel grinned. "What's mine?"
Theo's left hand went up as he had done before, middle finger sticking down, when signing 'glitter' to Mabel. But instead of using his right hand to make 'glitter' he curled his fingers and stuck his thumb between his ring and pinky finger, making the sign for the letter 'M' and with his hands like that he mimicked the hand shaking for glitter.
"Really?" She snorted but chuckled. "I get glitter as my sign name? Says who?"
*About fifty or sixty of us at the community center. I guess you have not seen it online. We made Glitter Mabel more popular than Bloody Mabel*
*You are lame, Theo* "See you Sunday." With that, Mabel waved at him and was off towards the doors of the building to return to her apartment.
Theo fully respected Mabel's relationship with Alice. He was not and would not try a move on her. He was just glad to be making friends again. Even if it was just one friend, so far, personally, he was glad it was someone who not only could help at the time she needed someone to connect to at her lowest point in her life. But someone who generally seemed to not judge anyone. Except murders.
Which meant….She didn't see him as a murderer.