by Jennifer Pinto

True Biz

(adj./ exclamation; ASL): Really? Seriously? Yes, really

I am nine and my mother is on the Morning Exchange. She is interviewed about being a successful Deaf business woman. She sells clothing for a company called Queen’s Way to Fashion. The teachers at school stopped all classes that morning so everyone could watch. I’m thinking this will somehow make me famous, or at least as popular as Kari K., but instead from that day on I was known as that girl with the Deaf mom.

Train Go…. Sorry

(Idiom; ASL): You missed it, I’m not repeating myself

A few years later, we move to a new house. Our neighbor stops by and my mother asks me to translate for her. I stand slightly behind the neighbor, look at my mother and repeat everything she says word for word in sign language. My mother uses her own voice to respond. She apologizes to my mother for not introducing herself sooner, explaining that she is a newlywed and most days she and her husband barely make it out of the bedroom. They both find that very funny. I laugh along with them but don’t quite understand. I think the neighbor has forgotten I’m even there. Later, when I ask what the joke meant my mother looks surprised then brushes me off and says, “That’s none of your business.”

Deaf-Bing

(Adj.; ASL): Typical Deaf behavior

On Sunday mornings I sit next to my mother at church. I’m supposed to interpret the sermon but my mother says, “I’m bored. Tell me an interesting story instead.” When we return home, my mother asks me to help her with a few quick calls. I make her beauty salon appointment, place our weekly order with the Charlie Chip delivery guy and help her chat with her good friend, Linda. Whenever the phone rings, I answer it. The calls usually go something like this, “Yes my mom is home. No, she can’t come to the phone because she is Deaf. If you tell me what you are calling about I can relay it to her. Ok, sure you can try back later, but I promise she’ll still be Deaf then.”

Gulp-Fish

(Adj; ASL): Gullible

I’m sixteen when my mother decides to go to college to study psychology. She has professional interpreters in the classroom, but it is difficult for her to watch the interpreter and take notes at the same time. So, she uses a tape recorder to record her lectures. After I come home from school, I listen to the tape-recorded lectures and write out her notes. By the time I get to my own homework I need no-doze caffeine pills to stay awake. I agree to this task because my mother convinces me that I am basically taking these college courses with her.  I begin college believing I have a head start. When she graduates, the college presents her with a special award for so easily being able to complete her degree as a Deaf woman.

Kiss-Fist

(exclamation; ASL):I love it!

I’m seventeen and my mother finally gets a TTY.  I love that assistive device probably more than I should. It’s nice that she can make a few phone calls by herself if the person she is calling also has a TTY. But the best part about it is that I borrow it, pretend to be my mother and call myself in sick to school. I spend the day at Lake Erie instead with my friends. She doesn’t even notice when I come home from school with a fresh, pink sunburn.

Pah!

(exclamation; ASL): Finally!

I’m failing Algebra and confess to my teacher, Ms. Bing, that I don’t have much time to do my homework. I confide in her about how much I’m expected to help my mother because she is Deaf. She says,“Your mother is Deaf? How cool!” After some explaining she finally seems to understand my predicament. She promises to help my mother understand that I need time for my own work. I go with my mother to the parent- teacher conference but because there have been no arrangements made for an interpreter I have to translate. My mother is charming as usual and chats, through me, with Ms. Bing who forgets all about her promise to help me. The next day all she can talk about is how amazing it was to talk to a Deaf person. She says, “I can’t believe how easy it was.” I guess the communication was so seamless it was like I wasn’t even there.

Jennifer Pinto is a clinical psychologist who writes fiction and creative nonfiction. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband and pup, Josie. She enjoys cooking, pottery and drinking coffee at all hours of the day. Her work has been published in The Sun, Sundog Lit and Lunch Ticket among others.