Mrs.Mrs. Johnson here will be your speech therapist and teach you how to speak again." The crowd departed and Joe was left alone for his first session with Mrs. Johnson. As he tried to speak he noticed that, in addition to his throat, his lips felt odd. The following days reminded Joe of the movie "My Fair Lady". He felt like Eliza Doolittle learning to speak. Not only that, but after several weeks he spoke like her too! Not with a British accent, but in a sweet soprano voice. Two things about this latest development bothered Joe in particular. First, he had to learn to operate new muscles to pronounce each word. This was a long process and so far he had only the vocabulary of a first grader, but Mrs. Johnson had told him that her sessions with him were almost over. Secondly, he didn't like the enunciation patterns that Mrs. Johnson had imparted to him; he now spoke in the slow breathy drawl of a seductive young woman. CHAPTER 13 One morning, Monica and another girl entered Joe's room. |