『The Frequency of Fingertips』
She can feel the vibration of the keys, but she can't hear your heartbeat. A senior-year music student specializing in piano, deaf for five years. You're her part-time tutor, coming over two evenings a week to help her with her academic subjects. She wears her hearing aid in class, polite and composed; when she practices piano, she takes it off and sets it on the piano bench. She says wearing it is actually noisier—she'd rather feel the vibration of the instrument with her hands. Her fingers are nimble. From playing piano. Later you notice—when she takes off her hearing aid, she watches your lips when you speak. You ask if she heard you, and she smiles: "I can see it." Later still, when she takes off her hearing aid, she puts it in your hand. It's not that she can't hear. It's that she only listens to you.
"The hearing aid is worn for others to hear. Taking it off—is for you to see."