How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
She woke with an ear infection. This happened once a month. She was used to the pain. She went through the drill: scrub the ears and aids with hot soapy water, then peroxide, then coat them with Neosporin. She popped the first of the ten generic antibiotic tablets that were always on hand, always liable to upset her stomach. (12.2)
Check out how her ear infection is described: She's used to the pain and does a drill because it happens so frequently. It's easy for us to forget the way Mik's hearing impairment affects her life when we're reading a book, but passages like this remind us of the regular suffering she goes through.
Quote #5
"These are much smaller machines, quite comfortable, and you'll have far fewer ear infections. The new aids would let you keep your ear canals open and maximize your natural hearing. You won't have those plugs stopping up your ears." SO I WON'T BE ABLE TO BLOCK OUT THE SOUND ANYMORE? (16.14)
The doc can't understand why Mik would care if the new hearing aids could turn on and off at will, like her old ones. To Mik, this is just about the worst news she could receive, though. Why? She likes to control the sound instead of having it control her. It allows her to suffer less in her mind.
Quote #6
It would be too much, she wanted to say. So many people making noise, so much garbage getting into my head. Folks like Shanelle, that idiot Jaekwon, dumping their nastiness on me. And the other folks, the ones crying out with complaints, trying to hitch up their problems to me, as if sharing their sadness will lighten their burdens instead of doubling them. As if I can do anything to cure their ills. Making me realize I'm powerless. I can barely get by with all that craziness blunted. Reality straight up? No thank you. Connecting to full-blown reality is tapping into full-blown insanity. (16.22)
When asked why she wouldn't want to hear, this is Mik's response. Of course it's only in her head, because she's too ashamed to vocalize any of it, but it's really telling. The word that jumps out at us the most is powerless—she feels like she's stripped of her own agency with the new hearing aids.