The doctor looked at

me in the eye and

smiled wanly. "Are you ready,

Charlie?"

Her voice was smooth

and calm, yet strictness

was curling in a blanket

at the corner.

I nodded and she handed

me a pair of headphones.

She let me stay in the room,

laying on the cold bed as

the monotonous voices of

recorded alphabets and

sentences began to repeat itself,

over and over and over.

Three months later—almost

2,232 hours later—almost 8,035,200

seconds later.

Phonation, resonance; intonation,

pitch; voice, language, phonology,

morphology, syntax, grammar,

semantics, pragmatics,

communication.

"Charlie?"

"Y-yes?"