And What If I Were You

Chapter 1 - Part 12

Sunday, March 20, 2022

The Dining Room

Pandanus Palms Retreat

7.30pm. The welcome dinner...

"And that's how I found my true calling. Scents," Becky says from across the table, her thick Australian accent drawing out the vowels and shaping her words.

For the last fifteen minutes she's been regaling Louis with an obviously well-honed story of how her condition manifested—a car accident that had left her completely blind in both eyes—and how she'd found the retreat through an online forum. She's a lovely, bubbly woman in her mid-sixties, full of life and joy and Louis could honestly listen to her talk for hours.

"That's amazing," Louis says genuinely. "Sounds like you've really embraced your new creative outlet."

"I definitely have. Never been happier too. Metalwork is great and everything, but damn, it's inconvenient. Hot and dirty and expensive and it doesn't exactly fit nicely into a small space."

Louis chuckles, shaking his head. "No. No, I suppose it doesn't."

He'd woken to the bleating sound of his alarm, immediately alert as always and no dreams to reclaim to try and pull him back into his slumber. His sleep has been empty since he lost his sight, a blackness devoid of subconscious imaginings. It's not something he's spoken to anyone about, preferring to just chalk it up to another change in his life that he's had to take on the chin.

Liam had arrived at Louis' villa right on time and they'd meandered through the gardens over to the main house for the welcome dinner, taking a brief tour of the therapy rooms and other communal facilities before making their way into the dining room.

He'd been greeted by Becky first who had pulled him into a warm hug without hesitation, his body moulding around her generous curves as she'd rubbed circles into his back. She smelled of lavender and frangipani, her effervescent personality making her seem much more than her small, barely 5-foot stature.

New Zealand born Danny and Jim had been next to introduce themselves, twin-brothers who shared everything in life, from their love of painting to their genetic condition which had left them both blind from birth. He learned that bizarrely Danny is 6 foot 5, while Jim is 5 foot 6, just a bit shorter than Louis, which is odd for brothers, let alone twins. They'd just celebrated their 50th birthday last week and all accounts were that the party was an event to be remembered, complete with a skinny dip in the ocean at sunset. They're hilarious and bounce off each other, finishing each other's sentences and providing punchlines to the other's jokes with an ease that only two people who have such a close relationship can.

Penny is as LA as a person can get. She's brash and quick witted and seems to enjoy nothing more than riling up Danny and Jim and poking at Liam's more staid demeanour. It's all done with a good nature though, and Louis feels like they're going to get along well once he settles in a bit more. She's younger too, closer to Louis' own 32 years he guesses based on the way she's been dropping various pop culture references into the conversation. Penny had been born fully-sighted, but after a severe case of encephalitis as a child, she'd lost most of her sight, but can still see light and dark and some shapes, not dissimilar to Louis' field of vision. Her medium of choice is clay, proudly revealing that she has a burgeoning online business selling her pieces all over the world.

But it's definitely Zayn that Louis is most intrigued by. Liam's prediction had been right and Louis had felt an instant connection with the Bradford-born lad. For one, Zayn's journey to becoming visually impaired had been almost identical to Louis' with migraines for his whole life and then angle-closure glaucoma. He'd had the same emergency surgery at the same eye hospital almost six years to the day before Louis had found himself in that very situation.