Shopping Trip Back Home

We’re back from another trip to my hometown (2 hours away) to pick up Brandt’s repaired hearing aid.  He has now had both hearing aids completely rebuilt in less than a year!  His iCom was sent off for repairs (the fifth time) and he was given a loaner.  Then in 6 weeks, Phonak is going to give him their new, updated and upgraded version of the iCom for free—that was the good news.  The bad news was that his Dry and Store hearing aid dryer still hasn’t arrived, 2 months after the clinic ordered it, because there were electronic glitches in the current batch of dryers that have to be repaired.  It’s ALWAYS something!

My mom’s apartment is getting renovated, and she needed help recycling her old computer and picking out a new kitchen light.  That meant a trip to her two least favorite places, Best Buy and Lowe’s, which she calls “big, loud stores for men.” 

Brandt lugged the computer into Best Buy and asked the employee guarding the entrance/exit where the recycling program was.  He pointed us over to Customer Service, and Brandt headed towards it.  He got about 5 feet away when the employee remembered that he needed a sticker for the computer, and yelled at Brandt, which went unheard.  “Sir!  You need a sticker for that computer!” he yelled louder.  No response.  “SIR!” he screamed.  “He can’t hear you!” I said.  I ran over to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and told him he had to go back and get a sticker.  “Why didn’t he tell me that?” Brandt asked.

After unsuccessfully trying to talk my mom into buying a Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit, we headed off to Lowe’s, remembering that we needed a new thermostat for our house in addition to mom’s kitchen light.  There were employees standing at the end of almost every aisle, and each one asked Brandt if he needed help finding anything.  The problem with this was, the store is noisy, with near-constant loudspeakers, paint shakers, lumber cutters, and all the other loud machines whose names and functions I don’t know.  And the tall ceilings and concrete floors certainly don’t help with the acoustics. 

So when Brandt walked by all these helpful employees, he was on a mission to find the thermostats and not paying attention to them.  This means that as he walked through the store, four employees in a row asked if he needed help, and he only responded to one.  The last one looked rather insulted.  My mom and I were walking a few feet behind Brandt pushing the cart, and when the accidental snub happened, the Lowe’s guy looked at me expectantly.  I pointed to my ear, shook my head, and whispered, “He can’t hear you…”  He looked a little embarrassed and nodded, then asked if we needed help finding anything.  By then, two more employees had been ‘ignored’ and I hurried to catch up.

We got to Aisle 15 and there were no thermostats to be found.  “They’re supposed to be on Aisle 15, why aren’t they here?” Brandt asked.  “Are you sure they’re on Aisle 15?” I said.  “That’s what the guy told me back there!”  “Are you sure he said 15?” I asked.  Mom and I had been talking and hadn’t heard him ask anyone.  “I am positive,” he insisted.  Almost immediately, another employee showed up to help, and told us the thermostats were on Aisle 16.  I know it’s possible that the employee told him the wrong aisle, but I have a feeling the problem was with his ears.

Brandt went through the checkout line first, and said he would go get the car cooled off.  As he walked through the exit, he set off the electronic security alarm.  It flashed and beeped, but he had already walked through it and didn’t see or hear it.  Mom was still paying for her light, and we were at least 30 feet away from the exit.  I watched, waiting for someone to politely tap him on the shoulder.  Instead, the employee standing at the self-checkout in front of the exit starting yelling at Brandt to stop, and when he didn’t, the guy called over two other employees.  “Who was it?!” one of them asked.  Several people pointed towards Brandt, and one lady yelled, “The man in the blue shirt!  He just kept walking!”  The three employees all took turns yelling “Sir!  Stop!  You in the blue shirt!  STOP!” 

I was already on my way towards the door, and starting yelling, “Hold on, he’s deaf, I’ll get him!”  They ignored me and kept screaming at him.  “He’s DEAF!  I’ll get him!  He can’t hear you!” I yelled again.  As I walked through the exit, two of the employees started to go after Brandt.  I started running, yelled “HE CAN’T HEAR YOU, I WILL GET HIM!”, and grabbed Brandt by the arm.  He swirled around and asked “What’s wrong?!”, confused at why two employees were running towards him in a panic.  I told him he’d set off the alarm and had to go back inside.  “But, I paid for it,” he said.  “I know, but the alarm got triggered.  Just let them look at the receipt.”  The employees apologized and let him go without any trouble, but there were a dozen pairs of eyes staring widely at us as we walked out of the store.  I really wanted to snap at them, but I stayed silent.

As we walked to the car, my mom whispered to me, “What if that happened with the police?”  I whispered back, “I’m worried about that.  I’ve heard of several cases where Deaf people were tasered and beaten by cops who thought they were resisting arrest.”

It’s times like these that I wish Brandt already had Cochlear Implants...