[ WP ] Years after waking up deaf due to an unknown cause , you bump into someone that you can hear .

I was awoken from my daze by my friend, Austin, shaking me hard. The first thing I saw was a spoon two inches from my face. The soup I had just scooped from the bowl in front of me had spilled from the spoon and onto the table. I turned my head slowly to look at Austin. His hand was still on my shoulder and he had a very confused and concerned look on his face. He signed `` are you okay?'' to me. I squinted at him and gave a half nod as I put my spoon back into the bowl of soup that was probably cold by now. I began frantically looking around the diner we were sitting in. All I heard now was silence, but I could swear that I had heard a muffled giggle. A laugh. I had heard something. 
 
 It had been 6 years since I woke up one morning unable to hear. Honestly, the sleep I had woken up from that morning had been the best night's sleep I had experienced since I was a child. Austin, my best friend since the first grade, had gone with my mom and I to the doctor. In fact, he went with me to all the doctor appointments as we tried to figure out what was causing this seemingly inexplicable anomaly. The doctors ran every test in the book, but came up with nothing. The first year sucked, a lot. But Austin was there for me every step of the way, even learning sign language with me. 
 
 I looked at every person in the diner. I focused on their faces, their mouths mainly. Almost everyone's was moving. Their lips forming words that I would never hear. Their vocal chords vibrating at frequencies that my ear drums would never pick up. I saw random words being mouthed: love, pizza, mom, remodel. But I could n't hear any of them. Then I heard the laugh again. 
 
 My head whipped sharply to the left, almost spraining my neck. It came from the doorway. There was a girl, probably around 26 years old, walking out of the diner, using her back to push the door open. Her long brown hair obscured her face until she shook it away, revealing a beautiful smile on her lips as she looked down at her smartphone. I got out of my chair immediately and tried to push my way past the tightly packed tables and the people who were leaving or being seated. I assume Austin was yelling out for me, but I would n't hear it anyway, and I would n't have stopped if I did. I still had my eye on the girl, and, just before the door closed, I heard the laugh again. Her face lit up more than before, if that was at all possible, as her mouth opened in a `` ha!'' I heard it, loud and clear, and it came, unmistakably, from her mouth. 
 
 I was only halfway to the door. Austin and I had decided to sit in the back of the diner that day because the cold Autumn wind came in the door each time it was opened by a patron. It felt like forever, but I finally made my way through the crowd and reached the door. I pushed it open and immediately felt the brisk October chill wash over me. My coat was still draped, forgotten, over the back of my chair. The wind and cold air did n't faze me, though, as I frantically searched for the girl and her bright purple pea coat. I spotted her quickly in the sea of black and tan jackets. She was just about to step off the sidewalk to cross the street to the next block. I ran after her but got caught up by a group of businessmen about to walk into the diner I had just escaped from. 
 
 When I got past them, I managed to catch sight of her across the street and was just about to start running towards her once again when I felt a hand on my arm. I turned around, about to give this annoying person a hell of a telling-off, and realized it was Austin. He was looking at me with that same concerned and confused look. I ignored him once again and turned back to look for the girl, but she was gone. I walked further ahead then stopped, resigned that I would never see her again. I looked back at Austin, who had followed me those few further steps. He urged me to take my coat and I noticed he had put his on hastily, the collar was half inside and half out. He immediately signed `` what's wrong? what did you see?'' I put on my coat in a slightly annoyed fashion, probably sporting an angry look on my face. He cocked his head to the right and signed `` what's wrong?'' again. 
 
 I did n't know how to explain the last few moments to him. It was bizarre... and exhilarating at the same time. I felt amazing from the adrenaline in me, but also severely depressed that it may have been some kind of hallucination. No... I heard her laugh. I know I did. But how?
