Show Me a Sign

Eleven-year-old Mary intends to describe dark events that happened a year earlier. She lives in the town of Chilmark on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Mary says, “Every small village must think itself perfectly unique. I now know there was not another like ours in America, in the Year of Our Lord, 1805” (1). A stranger comes to the island and changes Mary’s life in important ways. She tells the reader, “I warn you, there are accounts of great wickedness along with hope in these pages” (1).

In November, Mary is walking on the beach with her best friend, Nancy. Mary explains that Nancy is hearing, and Mary has been deaf since birth. A large percentage of the island’s inhabitants are also deaf. The two girls stumble across the carcass of a whale. When the townsmen are summoned to dispose of the sea creature, Mary is sad because the whale reminds her of her late brother. On the way home, she avoids visiting his grave.

Back at her own house that same morning, Mary converses with her mother in sign language. Her mother is hearing, and her father is deaf. Her late brother George was also hearing. Mary tells her mother that she saw a wave on the beach that looked like a lion. Her mother discourages Mary from being fanciful, but Mary loves to use her imagination to make up stories. Mary’s mother sends her off to take some muffins to a retired seaman named Ezra.

As Mary walks along the road to Ezra’s, she passes the place where her 15-year-old brother George died. The two were playing in the road when a carriage approached. Mary couldn’t hear it, so George pushed her out of the way and was struck down himself. It has only been eight months since his death, and Mary is still grieving. Further down the road, Mary encounters a neighbor who says that a young scientist is coming to the island, but nobody knows why.

When Mary arrives at Ezra’s house, the old seaman is sitting on the porch, drinking rum. He happily accepts the muffins and learns Mary’s news about the scientist. Ezra says, “Outsiders […] Never give them credence at first. Only welcome them after they’ve proved themselves trustworthy” (24). At Mary’s promptings, Ezra then signs a story about the village’s original settlers. Mary’s great-great-grandfather arrived in 1692 and was the first person who was deaf to settle in Martha’s Vineyard. He came from the Weald in Kent, England, where deafness was common, so the people worked out their own form of sign language. The one used on the island has been modified to suit the needs of the local villagers. Ezra says that nobody knows why some people are born deaf while others in the same family are not.

As Mary walks back home along the high road, she notices that a shadow is following her. Without hearing, she needs to depend on her other senses. Mary knows that this is her friend, Nancy, stalking her for fun. Both girls are fanciful and artistic. Nancy pulls Mary off the road behind a wall because someone is coming. It is Reverend Lee with the rumored visitor, who is carrying a black satchel. The girls speculate that he plans to stay.

Nancy confides that when her grandmother died, her ghost appeared to Nancy with some parting words. Nancy suggests that the girls should hold a dance for the dead in the woods to honor George. Perhaps he will come back to speak to Mary. The two girls climb an apple tree to make plans for their ghost dance the following day. Then, Nancy plays her recorder because she is an accomplished musician. Mary says, “Watching her play, I am experiencing the music in my own way. The way I imagine birdsong when I see birds soaring in the sky” (37).