I got in line behind him. He turned around and caught my eye, then gave me the most over-the-top, exaggerated "'sup?" nod I've ever seen. Odd, I thought, but that's hardly unusual for downtown, and I let it go as one of those subtle markers that I work just above a major transportation hub. Trains do tend to bring in the crazies. After he ordered, I saw him leaning over the row of coffee pots, pointing at his cream-filled coffee and gesturing for the employee behind the counter to remake it. Oh great, I thought. One of *those* customers - the ones who think it's beneath them to actually open their mouths to speak to a server or retail employee. I watched him and the entire counter staff getting more and more frustrated - "Black?" they kept saying. "You want black?" Crap, I thought. This guy (who was black) is already pissed off, he's going to take that the wrong way and I don't want to know what'll happen next. Finally, Jonathan made that universal gesture for "Give me a goddamn piece of paper so I can write it down for you," and I finally got it - he's deaf.
Feeling really incredibly proud of myself for being such a non-cynical person and reserving judgment til after I had all the facts, I followed him down to the food pick-up area, where he gave me a look that said, man, sometimes this is tough. I smiled back at him, and lord knows why, but I fumbled around with my little bag of food enough to sign at him,
SIGN LANGUAGE?
Oh crap, I thought. I know less sign language than I do Spanish. I can't have a conversation with this guy! But his face lit up and he was signing back,
YOUR NAME WHAT?
Well now, I know that one. With a bit more bag fumbling, I managed:
MY NAME E-M-I-L-Y
(Actually, I managed "I NAME E-M-I-L-Y". Quick lesson break: hand shapes are really important in ASL. You use a pointing finger for personal pronouns like me, he, she, it, them, and so on.
A flat hand shape, like the one you'd use to swat a fly, is used for possessive pronouns like my, theirs, yours, etc.)
YOUR NAME? I asked (Well, in my pidgin ASL, I said YOU NAME, but he got it).
J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N
Blushing like an idiot at my awkward language skills, I said hi again.
YOU WORK HERE? he asked.
And I was signing
NO, NEXT DOOR
and clumsily fingerspelling the name of my company before I realized that I didn't know I knew the sign for work. Who knows where I picked that up - and who would've known it would come in handy down the line during a chance meeting at lunch.
Then the server came back with his sandwich and he signed
NICE TO MEET YOU. SEE YOU LATER!
And I waved to him and he was gone.
Oh yeah, there was a bird:
Oh yeah, there was a bird:
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