Chapter 14 – Dots and Heartbeats
"Okay, your turn. Hands on."
Jepoy obediently placed his fingers over the paper she laid out. It was thick, textured, filled with raised bumps that he couldn't make sense of.
“Trust your fingertips,” Erica murmured, guiding his hand with her own.
“Parang Morse code,” he muttered.
“That’s Braille. Six dots. Two columns. And this pattern…” She moved his hand again, gently. “That means hope.”
“Hope,” he repeated, quietly. “Anong itsura nun, kaya?”
“To me?” She smiled, her tone wistful. “It used to be blue. Now, it’s your voice.”
He was stunned into silence.
She continued, “This one means ‘friendship’. And this last card…”
He traced it slowly. “Blank?”
“So you can write your own word.”
Jepoy’s hand remained. Then he pressed down gently on the paper, a quiet gesture of presence. Of decision.
“I’ll write your name there,” he whispered.
Erica bit her lower lip.
Somehow, that blank card said more than any written word ever could.
“You know,” she added, “when I was learning Braille, I cried every night. It felt like defeat. But now, it feels like freedom.”
Jepoy nodded. “I think… I’m learning how to read you too.”
She smiled, her voice barely above a whisper. “Then I hope you like what you find.”
He did.
Every word. Every silence.
ns216.73.216.251da2
