the first bid back out of muteness: asking for a pen — "He makes such a big slow…"

The figurant's first move toward getting his voice back: unable to speak, Gately spends real pain lifting his arm to mime writing in the air — asking, without words, for the means to make words. It's a tiny, enormous thing, a mute man requesting the instrument of requesting, and the whole exchange is doubled in difficulty because the veil hides Joelle's eyes, so he can't even confirm his signal is landing. A bid for a channel, transmitted across two barriers at once.