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8 Eugene Bergman The Deaf Conspirators The next afternoon, Harry and Winona arrived at the door of Davenport’s apartment. Harry pushed the rectangular white flashing-light button on the doorframe . That was a sure sign that whoever lived there was deaf. The door opened. Their host welcomed them inside. He hugged Winona and signed to Harry, “You must be Harry. I’m Wilbur Davenport. I’ve heard so much about you. I’m glad to know you made Winona happy.” The altruism of this greeting sounded strange. After all, it came from the man who had been Winona’s abusive first husband. They shook hands. Davenport’s grip was incongruously strong given his lank physique . It was the grip of a man too determined to assert his virility. “Thank you,” replied Harry, sizing up his host and the surroundings. Davenport had a pale face with incongruously full lips. He was wearing a navy blazer and under it a pink shirt open to reveal a hairless chest. They were inside a salon with chairs and a sofa upholstered in red-and-white striped brocade. The TV set was on. It was showing two fat, middle-aged women wrestling, tearing at each other’s hair, and cursing. The captions said: “Liar! I’ll kill you, you (bleep) bitch!” The scene switched to that of a screaming and laughing audience. Next, a bulky, bald-headed security guard was shown trying to separate the two women. His was only a half-hearted effort as if trying to prolong the spectacle. The camera panned to a corner of the podium, showing a young man with sideburns and a triangle of hair sprouting under his lips. He contentedly watched the spectacle. That was when Davenport turned the TV off and apologized, “Oops! Sorry. As you can see, I like to keep up with popular culture.” “Where are the others, or did we come too early?” asked Winona. Davenport was visibly embarrassed. “Oh well, it was difficult to get our schoolmates to come on such short notice. Maybe some will come later. Anyhow, I asked you to come early so we could surprise Miss Jerald when she arrives about an hour later. Let’s have a chat in the meantime. Do sit down.” They all sat down. Davenport signed to Harry, “So you’re the lucky guy who married Winona. I’m glad for your sake. I can tell you have a happy marriage.” “Thank you,” signed Harry. “But I’m surprised to see you sign. Aren’t you after all a graduate of Miss Jerald’s strict oral school?” “All my schoolmates are signing now,” laughed Davenport. On an afterthought, he added, “Well, not all. Some have been too maladjusted for that. But that is by and by. Main_Pgs_1-330.indd 8 3/28/2012 10:24:47 AM Eugene Bergman 9 Take me: I’m a convert to sign language. Do you see that badge on my lapel? Look closely. It says AADP. That means American Association of Deaf Professionals. I’m a member, a lawyer myself, for your information.” The lights blinked repeatedly. Davenport looked mystified, glanced at his watch, got up, and signed, “Too early for Miss Jerald to arrive. Must be someone else joining our party after all.” He opened the door and in walked a round-bellied, sallow-faced man, his hair in disheveled black ringlets. When he saw Winona and Harry he stopped in his tracks. Davenport introduced him, “This is Ziggy. Meet Winona and Harry.” But instead of greeting them, Blackman turned to Davenport and started to berate him. “Why tell me I first to arrive? You sly, tricky.” Harry watched the newcomer, trying to size him up. Unlike the more subdued Winona and Davenport, the broad-mouthed Ziggy at once revealed himself to be an oralist. He mouthed his words in an exaggerated way, opening his mouth too wide when uttering syllables containing a and e, and pursing it too much when pronouncing you. The effect was magnified by his sticking his tongue out, with his mouth open, when he pronounced the consonant l in sly. In short, he embodied the perfect caricature of an oralist, and just to see him move his mouth was to understand why among the Deaf the sign for “oralist” was the pun “hippopotamus,” signed by spreading one’s arms vertically and then bringing them together like the huge jaws of that animal. His signing style was erratic. It might be called...

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