Free Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby

supposed to have butter or eggs or anything else that tastes good. Bland, fat-free, salt-free, flavor-free food, that’s my lot in life.
    â€œYou should have told me,” Joey said. “I could have cooked them in water.”
    â€œUgh,” Charlie said and made a face, then wrote, Your mother wants you to fit into the hearing world, but like most hearing people, she doesn’t understand the isolation you feel.
    As Joey read what he’d written, she felt the burn of tears and squeezed her eyes shut. He patted her hand and took the pad. Would you like for me to talk to her?
    â€œMaybe,” Joey said, then changed her mind and shook her head. “I don’t think so. It will make her mad that I told you.”
    Sukari banged her empty Coke can on her high-chair tray for attention, then signed, MORE DRINK.
    NO MORE DRINK, Charlie signed, then wrote, All that sugar makes her hyper.
    Sukari started to scream and bang the can on the tray. Charlie grabbed it away from her. SUKARI BAD, J-Y GO HOME, he signed, but Sukari continued to scream and shake her hands until Joey stood up and began to collect the dishes.
    She got quiet. GOOD ME, WASH DISH, she signed.
    â€œShe loves to wash dishes,” Charlie said, getting up to lift her out of the high chair. When he put her down, she ran across the room and pulled a small step-ladder from the space between the refrigerator and the pantry. Sukari jumped up and down until Charlie opened it and placed it in front of the sink, then she climbed up to sit on the edge.
    Charlie ran the sink full so that Sukari could flick the suds with her big toes. She scrubbed and scoured the plastic plates, then rinsed and rinsed them again while Joey waited to dry. “This always takes a while,” Charlie said as he put them away.
    It had stopped raining by the time they finished. Sukari watched quietly as Joey put her coat on, then went into her room and came back with her little pink plastic coat, one arm already jammed into the wrong sleeve.
    â€œYou’re not going,” Charlie said, taking the coat away from her.
    Sukari shrieked and signed, ANGRY, BITE.
    â€œYou do and you’ll go to jail,” Charlie snapped, then scribbled a note to Joey: Jail is the upside-down playpen in her room. Take your coat off. I’ll take her to the bathroom in a minute, then you can make a run for it.
    As soon as Joey took her coat off and returned it to the rack by the door, Sukari grinned, spun, did a somersault, then ran to bring toys from a box in the hall. A moment later she rounded the sofa, pulling a wooden train by a string and carrying poor Hidey like a rag doll.
    â€œIs it potty time?” Charlie asked her, signing “toilet” with a shake of the “T” hand, his thumb jammed between the first two fingers of his fist.
    Sukari drew up short and looked at him. J-Y, SUKARI GO TOILET, she signed.
    TURTLE, SUKARI GO TOILET, Charlie signed. “You little monster,” he said, taking Sukari’s hand and leading her down the hall toward the bathroom. Just before he closed the door, he gave a little wave and Joey waved back.
    Joey had her coat on and the front door open when Sukari scampered back into the room wearing a toilet-paper stole around her neck. When she saw Joey at the door, she screamed and lunged for her, catching Joey around her legs.
    Charlie came around the corner carrying a clean diaper and scolding Sukari, though Joey couldn’t tell what he was saying because of the two big safety pins squeezed between his lips. He untied Sukari’s arms but she held on tight with her legs.
    Charlie caught Sukari’s flailing arms in one hand, spit the pins into the palm of his other hand, then put them on the foyer table. He reached down to grab a leg and Joey bent to help him. Sukari let go, but she caught Joey’s jacket collar in her little iron fist, and when Joey stood up, the top three buttons popped off and arced away,