• Chapter Three: Candy Cane

    BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Dang what is that noise? BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Oh...phone duh, I should probly answer it. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Thank goodness the phone is on the dresser next to my bed so I don't have to find my way though my own room to get it. "Hello?"

    "Hey!, It’s Lily, you up yet?"

    "Um..." I couldn't help but yawn. "Now I am thanks to you."

    "Well get ready I'm gonna be over there in a few minutes to pick you up."

    "Why?"

    "So we can start to get you to see" That’s right Lily was going to help me see today. Still have no idea what she means, but oh well. “Greg said yesterday while I was at his house that he was gonna help too, so we’re gonna pick him up on the way to the park.” The park? I guess it’s better than being stuck in this room. Good thing Lily is 16, that way my mom doesn’t have to drive me. Because I know if she did, she would be sticking around the whole time, and that would suck.

    “Okay, let me get dress and I’ll be ready, bye.”

    “Bye” After a few attempts I finally hung up the phone. Next up, getting dressed. In the few days I’ve been blind, I have learned how to get dressed. It was actually quite easy, I just remember where all my clothes are, put them on making sure all tags on shirts and shorts are in the back, then ask mom if I match colors or not. That part never changed because I have horrible color coordination.

    DING DONG! There’s the doorbell, which means Lily is here. I felt my way down the hallway, only running into a few walls, and finally made it to the door. I opened ever so gently, just to make sure I didn’t hit myself in the face with it. “Lily?”

    “Yup” That seemed to always be her favorite word to use, I don’t really know why, but she could always answer a question with “yup” never with “yes”. “You ready?”

    “Ready as I’ll ever be.” This is gonna suck, I haven’t been out of my house since I could see my house, I wonder if anything would be different. As I walked to her car she insisted on holding my hand to get there, might as well. After a few steps I sat down in the back seat, I only know that because I got in on the left side of the car, and I really didn’t think Lily was gonna let me drive blind.

    A short 5 minutes later, the car came to a halt. Lily got out of the car and walked somewhere. We must be at Greg’s house, that’s the only place I know that is this far from my house. I felt around for the window button so I could roll down the window. Almost there, my hand sliding up the side of the door. Bingo, found it! I stuck my hand out the window to make sure it was down, I probly look like a retard if someone sees me doing this. But what else would people think if they were walking by and someone’s hand was twisting randomly out of a car window?

    “Hey Scott! What the ******** are you doing?” That was Greg, its easy to know who he is because he has a bad habit of cussing a lot, I hate when he cusses but he never listens to anybody so there isn’t any use arguing with him.

    “I wanted to see if the window was down.” I had to yell back at him. “Just get in the car so we can get to the park already.”

    “Ugh, fine, that blindness sure has made you less fun.”

    “Well once you teach me to SEE, then maybe I WONT BE.” I am BLIND, he needs to have a little sympathy. Lily finally gets in the car and speaks up.

    “Will you two knock it off, now Greg apologize.” This is gonna be funny, Greg actually apologizing, where’s a camera when I need it?

    “Why doesn’t he have to apologize?”

    “Because, well, he’s blind, Just do it.” I could tell Lily was getting annoyed already between him and me, but finally, some sympathy from someone.

    “Fine, I’m sorry, there you happy?”

    “Whatever, just remember your here to watch, so just stay quiet. Hey Scott when we get here your gonna learn to walk. That way you won’t run into a million things.” Walking, that’s nice. At least I don’t have to do brail. Brail would suck. We finally got there and got out of the car. Lily held my hand and walked me into this spot next to this tree, the tree shade felt very good because it is freaking hot outside. “Now take this.”

    I moved my hand around in the air until Lily held it still. She placed this handle in my hand. I felt it up and down to try to get a picture of what it looked like. Long, slender, but made of metal. Like a candy cane, but it didn’t smell as good. I had to ask. “Um...Lily, what’s this?”

    “That is a seeing eye cane, you hit it across the ground, that way you know if there is anything in front of you.” Sounds simple enough, so I started hitting against the ground walking in a (hopefully) straight line. Minute after minute passed and I didn’t run into anyone. It worked as good as I thought it would. I was out walking for at least an hour, I could hear many people around me, a dog barking, but I didn’t run into anyone that whole time. Lily came and led me back to the tree and Greg. “Now this cane can also help you know if your about to go onto something else, like whether the ground is higher or lower.” She held my hand and led me somewhere else. “Walk onto a straight line, and whatever you do, try not to fall.”

    I walked slowly and carefully making sure to hit the ground once before each step. I could hear the cane hitting the grass and making a subtle SWOOSH sound. That kept repeating for a couple more steps until I herd a SMACK. I stopped and hit the ground again. SMACK. That second time I could tell the ground was lower. I carefully stepped down. Then kneeled down to find myself on a concrete step. I took another step, and went down another row. Finally I reached the end. Then I heard Greg’s voice.

    “Congratulations, as much as I am sad you didn’t fall, You’ve passed lesson one.” Then suddenly from behind two arms wrapped around my waist. Must be Lily, I highly doubt Greg would do that.

    “Good job! I told you it wouldn’t be hard. But you still have to practice, so were gonna do this everyday, same time, same place. I‘ll call just like I did today before I pick you up. Now lets go home.” She led me back to her car, and we were on our way back to my house.

    Now I know what she meant when Lily said she’d teach me to see. All I have left now is to go home. Which is gonna be fun, because I get to show my new cane to mom. Of course it is harder to show something when I can’t even see it myself. I wonder how many more times I am gonna have to go to the park this month. Oh well, things can only getter better now, even though I still have a long way to go before I get back to my old self. That is, if I even can get back to the way things used to be.