Sign

They loved each other quite a lot. However there was one problem. Wilt never spoke. It drove Kade crazy for the first few months of their friendship. After all how were they meant to get to know each other if Wilt never said anything. Instead of talking Wilt would make all these gestures that Kade couldn’t understand. Always flailing his pale hands and making faces that warped his cold dark brown eyes. After consulting his mother, always his first choice, he found out that Wilt was signing. Wilt did speak it turned out, just not in a language Kade knew. Kade made up his mind to buckle down and learn sign language. He wanted to talk to Wilt, and he didn’t want to use a whiteboard to do it. He checked out every book he could find about ASL from the library and even begged his mother to buy a few. With his proper dragon hoard he locked his bedroom door, tied up his course brown hair, and began to study. He practiced and practiced in front of his mirror until he was tired of his reflection. On top of that he was now sure he would be able to at least introduce himself.

Now that he considered it, he actually had no idea where Wilt lived. Wilt seemed to know where he lived but not the other way around. Kade lived in a small two bedroom house with salmon pink paint. It was a very simple little house but he liked it there. He wondered if Wilt didn’t like his home. He seemed to be out and about an awful lot. Kade usually just looked around near his house and found him slinking around. Today was no different. After a bit of searching he managed to find Wilt sitting on a swing in a nearby park. His head was down and his long pitch black bangs obscured his face. He wore mostly gray with the occasional flash of white. He walked up to Wilt and waved a little hello. He received nothing in return. Wilt had his eyes fixed on the ground apparently mesmerized by something. What Kade found on the ground nearly made him leap from his skins. There, on the ground, sat a large fuzzy spider. Wilt looked up with a big smile and signed a few things to Kade, then changing tack typed it on his phone. (You afraid?) Kade shook his head with vigor. Of course he wasn’t afraid that was just stupid. It was only a spider.

Instead of dwelling on the spider and whether he was afraid or not Kade decided to try out his new signs. He waved and then introduced himself. Wilt’s look of astonishment made all that studying worth while, and the little claps he received made his heart feel warm. As Wilt clapped Kade noticed something he never really looked at before. Wilt had bluish black finger nails. At first he thought it was polish but upon closer inspection it was just how Wilt’s fingers looked naturally. Somehow Wilt still managed to blush as Kade cradled his hands. How on earth did vampires blush?

When he hung out with Wilt again he could hold a very basic conversation. This is how he found out that Wilt was actually quite the talker, just not verbally. He also found out that Wilt loved bugs and snakes, and had a rather extensive collection of them. Those things gave Kade the creeps but he liked the way Wilt’s eyes lit up when he talked about them. Their dark brown hue seeming to glimmer with light as he spoke. The way his hands moved a little faster and his expressions got a little more dramatic. On another day at the park he decided to take the plunge and ask the question that had been nagging at his mind for days.

(Wilt… Where do you live?”)

In reality Kade merely signed where and live then pointed at Wilt. The response surprised him.

(In the basement of the church)

Wilt didn’t seem to like where he lived, which made sense since vampires didn’t much like holy symbols. Though it was a myth that holy symbols warded them off it was true that holy symbols made them uncomfortable, or so Wilt said. Holy symbols didn’t burn them so much as make them afraid.

(Sort of like creepy clowns) Wilt finished with a flourish.

Kade nodded in understanding. He had watched It when he was little and had never looked at clowns the same again. Still, he wasn’t quite sure how a statue of Jesus dying would creep Wilt out so much. Once he even pulled out his crucifix necklace to show him, sort of like exposure therapy, but Wilt had just backed away with a look of betrayal on his face. They didn’t speak for a few days after that incident. Not until Kade apologized properly for doing something that stupid. Why on earth would he do something like that? That’s what his mother had asked. She knew about Wilt’s nature and was shocked by Kade’s actions. She didn’t seem to mind that he was a vampire so much as that the friendship was healthy and full. She was a gardener at heart truly. Later when Kade finally apologized for what he’d done Wilt had responded quite promptly.

(It’s okay.) Wilt contemplated for a while before signing something utterly foreign to Kade. It took him weeks to figure out what the exact sign was but once he did he was utterly lost. How was he meant to respond to such a thing. He couldn’t very well tell his mother. Yet he was so elated he had to tell somebody. So he pulled out a paper and began to write a letter to the fireplace. He wrote about meeting Wilt and all the things they talked about and then finally this most recent sentence. He was almost too embarrassed to put it to paper. Wilt had said: (It’s okay, I love you anyway.)