True Biz

“And yet, February saw the results of such trials every day—children whose parents had feared sign language would mark them, but who ended up marked by its absence.”

February empathizes with the difficult upbringings and home lives many of her students endure. She takes her job as headmistress of a Deaf school very seriously, knowing that she can provide an education that will improve their lives and enrich their understanding of themselves and their culture.

“Still, as February filled out the paperwork to complete Charlie’s transfer, she felt herself seething on the girl’s behalf—all those years of energy poured into achieving the aesthetic of being educated rather than actually having learned anything.”

Though Charlie’s enrollment is arduous to manage from a logistical standpoint, February cannot help but empathize with her. The fact that Charlie faced so much hardship throughout her schooling, despite the available resources, is maddening to February and a reminder of how most of the hearing world treats Deaf people.

“Charlie was aware from a tender age that she was not the daughter her mother wanted.”

This quote characterizes the essence of Charlie’s relationship with her mother. She is acutely aware that her deafness is a great source of shame for her mother, who also fails to appreciate her personality. She is certain that she is a disappointment to her.

“Like her faculty, February dreaded the day scientists would perfect some stem cell transplant or in-utero tweak that would rid the world of deaf people and render her native language obsolete, when there’d be no students waiting at the foot of the hill for her to unlock the campus gates.”

This quote highlights the pride February feels in her community. Though she is a hearing person, from her Deaf mother she inherited a deep appreciation and affection for Deaf culture and Deaf people, and she does not wish to see this culture destroyed by technology.

“For Austin Workman-Bayard, Deafness was a family heirloom.”

This quote is the reader’s introduction to Austin Workman. The first mention of this character highlights the importance and value of inherited deafness in his family, revealing that his upbringing was very different from that of his peers.

“A lot of his friends had it rough—solitary confinement in their own houses, their mothers crying over having birthed broken babies, constant prodding by surgeons and therapists.”

This quote draws a direct comparison between Austin and his peers at River Valley. Unlike many of them, as a fifth-generation Deaf person, he is greatly supported, understood, and valued by his family and his community.

“How might her life have been different if she had always gone to River Valley?”

This is a question that crosses Charlie’s mind when she first arrives at River Valley. Having grown up in a hearing, mainstream setting, Charlie is awestruck in her new school, where being Deaf is not simply accepted, but is honored and valued. In this strange new setting, she cannot help imagining the possibilities that a different personal history would have created for her.

“Austin spent the weekend at home vacillating between love for his sister and a growing disillusionment with his father, whom he watched curate playlists of children’s songs on his phone, shush and whisper things as he rocked Skylar to sleep.”

Following the birth of his baby sister, Austin struggles to make sense of his emotions. While he loves Skylar, he cannot help but feel disappointed that the family “tradition” was broken by her hearing abilities. These feelings are complicated further by the fact that he is deeply offended by the actions of his father, who seems delighted by the news.

“In her life’s biggest decisions, she had always consulted her mother, who had unfailingly given good advice.”

This quote indicates that February is in a new and unfamiliar stage of life. While she always looked to her mother for guidance, her worsening health and memory mean that February can no longer rely upon her for answers.

“She rested her head on his shoulder, again gripped by the feeling she’d had that first moment they met: an attraction not only to him but to the kind of person he was, the life that might have been hers if she had his stride and sureness and a hundred years of sign language coded into her bones.”

From the outset of their relationship, Charlie recognizes that her feelings for Austin are new and unfamiliar. She never felt a similar attraction to anyone else. Her feelings for him extend beyond the physical, as she has a profound appreciation for the ways that his upbringing enabled him to become the person he is, someone who acts without fear or limitation.

“Now Charlie’s language was burgeoning. During the school day, she sat on the edge of her chair, eyes tracking wildly between her teachers’ hands and whatever clues she could glean from the whiteboard or PowerPoint.”

Weeks into her first year at River Valley, Charlie finds herself fully immersed in her new life. Having made vast improvements in her understanding of ASL, Charlie is eager to continue to learn and grow, using every opportunity she can to improve. 

“Slowly she was becoming aware of how much she had believed the hearing world, the thousand little hatreds that had leeched into her being.”

Attending River Valley opens Charlie’s eyes to the injustices of her old life. She was accustomed to—and, to some extent, accepted—marginalization. Living among other Deaf kids and being treated like a person rather than an unsolvable problem empowers her to realize that there is nothing inherently wrong with her.

“She knew it was unrealistic, but she’d so wanted River Valley to be different than the rest of the world.”

Charlie bearing witness to the racism her Black roommate, Kayla, regularly endures forces her to accept an important reality. Though River Valley accepts her and is a comfortable home, the racism Kayla faces is a reminder that the Deaf community is not an inclusive utopia.

“She would learn as much as she could and do whatever she could to dismantle all that she knew to be broken, brick by brick, by hand if she had to.”

This quote conveys Kayla’s desire to live in a better, more accepting world—even if she must create it herself. Rather than let the racism she encounters in the Deaf community discourage her, Kayla uses these experiences as motivation.

“Usually, Kayla was careful to switch to blander, more standard versions of signs in mixed company to avoid the inevitable white people meltdown—not to appease them or anything, but just because she didn’t feel like dealing with them.”

Even at River Valley, an environment that is intended to be safe and inclusive, Kayla feels obligated to conform and perform for the majority. That she finds it easier to codeswitch from BASL to ASL, even without the supposedly safe confines of River Valley, speaks to the fact that the Deaf community is marred by the same flaws and prejudices as the hearing world.

“So Charlie was glad her father was making progress, but also angry that he hadn’t tried to learn sooner.”

Though Charlie is glad to be able to communicate with her father via ASL and grow closer to him in the process, the experience also provokes frustration and regret. Seeing how quickly and happily her father learns ASL makes Charlie resentful that he did not make these attempts earlier in her life.

“The film of February’s sadness was peeled back by Wanda’s signs, which were faster but otherwise not unlike her mother’s. In that moment, February knew she would be okay.”

Following the death of her mother, February struggles to find comfort, even in her wife, Mel. When she reconnects with Wanda at the funeral service, she is consoled by a sense of familiarity because Wanda signs in a similar fashion to that of her mother. This connection to Wanda provides February with the strength she needs to cope with her loss.

“In retrospect, he realized this had been the moment for her, that for years people in power had overrun her body, and this was the shutdown, the hard reset.”

Charlie’s decision to act against the River Valley closure marks an important moment in her life. Austin witnesses this moment. Her desire to protest the school’s closure reflects its affirmative impact on her understanding of herself. No longer willing to tolerate mistreatment and erasure, Charlie is eager to fight back.

“But the thing about River Valley was it made her hopeful—and anyway she’d already been to the lowest point heaps of times. She hadn’t yet been to the top.” 

As her relationships at school continue to develop and grow, so does Charlie’s desire to give herself the life she could not have at Jefferson. No longer a social outcast, Charlie realizes that the possibilities at River Valley are plentiful.

“The holiday giddiness in the dorm the night before Christmas break was charged, undercut by a run of tension because of what going home meant for so many River Valley students.”

This quote underscores the reality that many River Valley students face difficult home lives, particularly those with hearing or non-signing families. The tension before school breaks further highlights the boarding school’s function as a haven.

“Hearing people turned aggressive so quickly, at even a momentary failure to respond, so sometimes Austin gave them the kind of answer they wanted, albeit loud and slurred.”

While boarding the bus on the way to Colson, Charlie and Austin encounter an impatient bus driver. That Austin is willing to use his voice to indicate to the driver that he is Deaf indicates the ways he adapts his behavior in Deaf versus hearing settings.

“The thing in her head was trash, and it was their fault. They knew, and nobody said anything.”

When Charlie discovers that her doctors knew about the recall of the cochlear implant that has been causing her problems for several years, she is enraged. Dealing with a faulty, irksome device is one thing; that no one cared enough to warn her of the potential havoc it could wreak on her body is another. This moment catalyzes Charlie’s fight for bodily autonomy.

“That was the thing she loved about River Valley—even without seeing another soul on the quad, she knew she wasn’t alone.”

This quote points to February’s attachment to and affection for her school and, consequently, the Deaf community at large. Even in the midst of crisis—trouble in her marriage, missing students, and the loss of her job—River Valley is a welcome refuge.