I lit up in a smile, watching as Magnus's hands moved, trying to memorize all the shapes he was making. It was going to be much more work than that, much harder than just memorizing what I was seeing, but it couldn't hurt, watching Magnus.

"There's a new girl living at the Home named Regan," I told him, then carefully signed her name. "She's deaf and she doesn't read lips and I thought it must be very lonely, living somewhere without anyone who speaks the same language. I'm not very good at it yet, but I've only been learning for about a week. I can sign 'hello, my name is Jamie'."

As I spoke, I did the appropriate signs, moving through them slowly and carefully.