Blind Fools

Blind Fools: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ophelia stared at him. If crickets had taken up squatting rights in her bookstore, they would have been chirping. He faced her, but he couldn’t see her. Which was a good thing, actually. She didn’t know if she could have hid the shock fast enough. As it was, his niece eyed her curiously.

“I beg your pardon?” Maybe she didn’t hear him correctly. He was blind, and she could be going deaf. Oh, they’d make a great couple.

His lips twitched. “Should I ask if you are able to have dinner with me, then?”

“Huh?”

“Are you married?”

“Um, no…”

“Boyfriend?”

“Well…”

“That’s a ‘no’ on the boyfriend,” he said, confidently. “Girlfriend, maybe?”

Ophelia palmed her coin and pressed it between her hands. The cool weight gradually warmed, comforting her. She could use Lucky’s dark corner to crawl into. “Wh-what?”

He smiled. “Did I embarrass you again? It’s okay if you play for the other team. I was just hoping that you batted for mine.”

Owl-eyed and blinking, she turned to Mira, who astutely rerouted her attention to the biography section. So much for female bonding, and ganging up on the male chauvinistic attitude, and all that. Where was Tiki when she needed her? Tiki would know how to respond to a lesbian insinuation. Tiki, her best friend whether Ophelia wanted her around or not, would probably have bashed him over the head with the 1708 version of the King James Bible, worth thirteen hundred dollars. Tiki had a thing for austere satire and painful irony. She was an in-your-face kind of girl...tiresome, too.

Ian’s head angled toward her. “Ophelia? You still with me here?”

Ophelia jerked to attention. “Um, yeah…”

“So, is that a no on the dinner?”

Her fingers undulated as Lucky rolled across her knuckles, a trick she learned in seventh grade science class. A girl can get fairly bored when she'd already read the textbook. But back to Ian. Gracious, how to answer his question?

“Ophelia?”

“Um…well, it’s nice of you to ask, but…” Crap! What could she say that wouldn’t insult him? She had a decent understanding of persuasive vocabulary, due to her vast experience behind the pages of books, but that didn't mean she knew how to use a lot of those poetic phrases and sentimental idioms. Everybody in the world had at least one good talent. Hers was to lodge her size sevens in her mouth sideways without chipping a tooth.

“Is it because I’m blind?” he asked softly.

Bingo! “Y-yes…and no,” she said, faltering her words. “It’s just that I’ve never known a blind person – oh, dear! Is that okay? For me to call you a blind person? I don’t know the P.C. term, I’m afraid.”

Something similar to agitation flared around his mouth. “It’s fine. Just continue.”

Taking a deep, calming breath and running her thumb around Lucky’s edge, she said, “Well, I, uh…It’s not that you’re, you know, blind…but…”

Mira was shaking her head at the two of them. Ian’s posture snapped upright, but he managed to still lean casually on his cane and waited for Ophelia to finish stammering through her explanation. Gathering her courage, she said, “Listen – Ian, was it? – you seem like a nice enough man, but we don’t really know each other and…” She trailed off, leaving her sentence unfinished and hoping he'd catch the hint.