Eyes: The Story Of A Blind Heroine

Chapter 12

The clunky, rattle of an old car roused Leilo from her silent reverie.

"Oh," Brigid said, "that must be my lift. I would recognise that sound anywhere! Seriously! I can hear every gear turning in that engine!" She got up and waved in the direction of the car with a precision that, even though she should have been used to this by now, surprised her.

Leilo watched as the old Toyota crawled onto the parking lot and squealed to a stop. The driver's door opened and a tall red-haired girl stepped out with an easy grace that seemed so out of place in this environment. She noticed how well-dressed the young woman was, her long, flowing dress matching the emerald of her eyes. Leilo recognised Elise from the previous encounter in the café, as she chatted with Brigid and a willowy, dark-haired young woman, whom she remembered was Amelia Ionidis.

"Hello!" Elise called out, clicking towards them on her spiky heels, "hey, Bridge, are you ready to go? I'm sure your mother is freaked out about  what happened earlier!"

"Yeah, I'm ready," Brigid replied, surprisingly calm after all the events and Leilo's revelations.

"Okay, then," Elise said, "come on, let's go. Oh, hello, miss Leilo. Thank you for waiting with our Bridge." Her smile was so brilliant, that Leilo wondered for a second whether she was a daughter of Apollo, rather than Brigid.

"It is no problem at all," Leilo replied, offering a smile of her own. Something about the beauty of this girl made her awfully self-conscious. There was something about the deep copper of Elise's hair which caught the sunlight, and the way she stood, upright and ladylike, that seemed familiar somehow. She had not looked at Elise so closely, but something itched at the back of Leilo's mind. This girl was, or at least looked like, someone familiar. But how? 

"No, Lizzie," Brigid said in a mockingly dry tone, "she's screwing with you. I am dreary this time of day."

"I am most certainly not screwing with you," Leilo protested, laughing, "now, off with you! No longer need for you to linger here, young lady!" She snapped her fingers, still chuckling to herself. Two can play this game, she thought mischievously.

Brigid just sighed and shook her head, a faint smile creeping onto her lips.

Just then, the passenger's side window rolled down and the dark-haired Amelia poked her head through. "Hellooo! I get it, Leilo's awesome, but can we get this show on the road? Places to be, people to please! Doctor Angelos can be an asshole to late-comers!"

Oh, boy, Leilo thought as the two girls linked arms and started walking away, Brigid turning her head one last time. Her blue eyes seemed so real, she thought. They seemed to convey empathy somehow, emphasised by the soft almost-smile that crept onto her lips. She nodded at Leilo, then turned her head away.

Leilo watched sadly as Elise led the petite blonde to the car. She watched as Brigid put her cane inside first, then get in, shutting the door behind her.  The car coughed back to life, letting out a puff of black smoke from its exhaust, then rolled away through the open gate, growing smaller and smaller, until it became one with the restless sea of city traffic and disappeared.

She sat there for a  moment longer, then forced herself to stand up. She should probably secure this place. She fished the remote control from her dress pocket and pressed the red button, starting the heavy gate's lazy task of closing, securing the premises. She then turned and headed into the building, surveying the chaos around her. Looking at the pieces of fine china and porcelain doused in darkish puddles of spilt coffee, she felt like she was about to cry. The stainless steel coffee machine lay in the middle of it all, a single red error light blinking feebly on the screen  which, by some sort of miracle, stayed in tact. It seemed to be the centre piece of all this mess, as though all this was arranged to seem like some messed-up mockery of a ritual.