Graham knelt so they were eye to eye. Then he answered with his hands. I will always hear you.

Outside, waves rolled against the shore. Some people heard them. Some people felt them beneath their feet. Some people watched the sunlight break across the moving water.

No one experienced the lake in exactly the same way. But it was there for all of them.

And for the first time in Graham’s life, silence no longer felt like something being taken away. It felt like a language he had finally learned to respect.

THE END.