The Hearing Test

Short Story Day 78 of 365

Randy Colbreaker went in for a hearing test because his wife asked him to. Seems after he turned 50, his hearing wasn’t what it was when he was 30. For a while she had suspected it was selective hearing on his part, but he was having trouble hearing some of his friends too. 

Dr. Beane took him through a series of manual hearing tests, and finally led him to the automated test in an isolation booth. There a technician would turn on a machine and monitor Colbreaker’s responses.

Sound heard in right earphone, press the right button. Sound heard in left earphone, press the left button. Sounds heard in both headphones, press both buttons.

The technician started the test in an adjacent office and began monitoring and recording Randy’s responses. Someone pulled the tech away to another part of the building. Randy steadily pressed buttons when he heard the sounds for as long as he heard them. The sounds were getting fainter and fainter with each beep. In the middle of one such beep, the isolation door swung open and the technician motioned for Randy to remove his headphones.

“Sorry about that, Mr. Colbreaker. I was called away and then forgot all about you here.”

The technician was reviewing the tape on their way back to the examining room.

“Mr. Colbreaker, do you know the exam stopped about 15 minutes ago, but the machine continued to record your responses up until I came to get you?”

“Uh, yeah, I knew that.” Randy said chuckling.

“Appears you did better on the test after it was finished even though the machine was no longer generating any sounds,” the technician said.

“Story of my life, my friend, story of my life.”