This story is about a girl. This girl was five years old once. She was an innocent, joyful young little girl. ThIs girl was eight years old once. She was a pretty, petite little girl with shining blue eyes and an adorable smile. This eight year old girl always looked like she was an angel that fell out of heaven. She always wore a yellow dress because she thought she looked like Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Then, one day this beautiful, joyful little girl's life changed forever.

That's when the accident happened.

That's when her beautiful, radiant smile turned into a mournful, depressing frown. That's when her beautiful, shining eyes turned into shiny eyes that sparkled with tears. That's when her beautiful, loud voice became not a voice at all.

After the accident, this girl decided never to speak again.

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This story is also about a boy. When this boy when just seven years old, he noticed that he started to hear people's voices differently. Their voices became muffled, and his head felt like it was  full of water. Every time he walked, he heard water swish around in his mind.

"My head feels funny," he said to his Mom one day.

"Your head feels funny? What's wrong? Did you accidentally bump your head into the wall again?," she said, laughing her sweet laugh. "I'm sure you'll feel better soon." She gave him a reassuring pat on the top of his head

"No, Mommy, my head has been feeling funny for three weeks. It feels like I'm underwater or something."

His mother's brown eyes widened so much that the boy thought that her eyes might pop out of her face.

"Mom? Mommy, what's wrong?"

His mother let out a long sigh, "My dear little boy, why haven't you told me about this?"

Now it was the boy's turn for his eyes to widen. Somehow, he knew that whatever his mom was going to tell him was something that he would remember for the rest of his life.

"Baby boy, your grandfather-my dad- was hard of hearing. He went hard of hearing when he was about seven or eight. When he told me about becoming hard of hearing, he described it the same way that you just did right now: it felt like he was underwater," Mother said, sighing a long sigh.

One day, both the boy's and girl's paths collide, changing their lives forever.