Song for a Whale

While Iris waits anxiously for Andi’s reply, wondering if her idea is any good at all, she decides to update Wendell on her progress. She catches a ride with him and his mother to Bridgewood junior high school, where many students and teachers are Deaf. She thinks about asking her mother again if she can attend Bridgewood but recalls that every time she asks, her mother gives her a lonely, disappointed look.

In Wendell’s mother’s classroom, Iris spots a book titled American Sign Language: A History. Up until this point, she has never thought about sign language having a history. Wendell tells her that French people brought it over to the US in the early 19th century and that the language evolved from there. Iris marvels at this creation of a new language “from groups who couldn’t understand one another at first” and wonders if “maybe Blue 55 and I would understand each other, just a little. Just one sound” (97). Iris puts the book down to join Wendell’s conversation with the junior high students. To her dismay, however, she can’t keep up with their signs, as they’re faster and more sophisticated than the ones Wendell uses with her.