I am going to preface this story by telling you that I have a 50% hearing loss in my right ear. My left ear, I am told, is perfect. In fact, my left ear probably hears better than any of you hear with both ears. That being said it is this imbalance in the abilities of my ears to hear that causes me to be unable to tell where a sound is coming from.
We discovered this when I was little, I guess about five or six. Mom would be calling me from some place in the house and I would be running around searching for her frantically. It always seemed like it took me hours to find her, when in reality I'm sure it was more like minutes, or seconds. As you may or may not be able to imagine it was all very scary for someone that small. The whole time I was looking I would be yelling, "I'm coming! I'm coming!" Mom took me for my check up (maybe it was the 5 year old check up, or the six year old, I don't know, one of the standard ones.) and our pediatrician told us to see a hearing specialist.
Since that time I have figured out how to logically place where someone calling my name would be. Simple things like if the T.V.'s on they're probably in the living room, or the blow dryer's running so they're probably in the bathroom, or the pipes are running which means they're in Mom and Dad's bathroom. Or I just saw them two seconds ago they said they were going to take care of the laundry, laundry room. I saw them walk around behind me. All very simple reasoning devices, so simple I don't even realize I'm doing it anymore. The whole thing could take place in a split second and I know where to turn to look, or head to in order to find the speaker.
(This is the place where I begin my story) One afternoon I was in my room reading. It was a very good book (Twilight), consequently I was totally immersed in what I was doing and had no idea what was going on around me. (I do this quite frequently when reading. The real fades away into oblivion, and the unreal becomes real.) All of the sudden I heard my Mom's voice calling for me, and the 'real' slammed back into focus. I jumped up with a start, and ran out of the room. Only to pull up short with the realization that I had no clue where to find her. My heart leaped, and than began to race. THIS had not happened to me since I was seven. I started to begin the frantic search when...(picture a light bulb blinking on over my head). Du-uh! "Mom where are you?"
"In my bedroom."
The whole thing took place in a matter of seconds, but it was enough to make me pause and think. Maybe I should start learning sign-language NOW.