Pick up the receiver, but there's no dial tone. Scream into the speaker; prayers spitting from your lips that someone will hear you. Scavenge for a piece of string and two hollow cans. Test it out with your mouth forced into one and your ear desperately pressed to the other. . . . _ _ _ . . . Learn every language, study forms of communication, cry and yell until you can't breathe. Are you mute? Why can't the people around you hear your pleas?