Message in a Bottle [LGBTQ+] [ONC 2024]

Chapter Fifteen

Eli ran his hands over the green grass that surrounded him. The small, thin tendrils tickled the palm of his hand as the cooling water from the pond lapped against his ankles. He sighed, angling his head just enough to let the bright sunlight brush over his skin. A feeling of contentment settled itself into his chest, but it wasn't enough to stop the nerves settling themselves into the pit of his stomach.

When he woke up, Eli couldn't hide his excitement at venturing to the pond for the first time in weeks. He couldn't wait to feel the water on his ankles, the grass tickling his hands, and to listen to the birds tweeting in the trees. It was a day he'd dreamed of since his attack which was beginning to feel like a lifetime ago.

After his mother spent half an hour fussing over him, Eli and Victoria walked to the pond where she had left to get Samuel, who had never ventured to the pond before. The moment she was gone, the nerves crept in.

Although he wanted to meet Samuel, he didn't want to shatter the idyllic view Samuel had in his mind about him. Eli knew that the person in those letters, the person he pretended to be, wasn't who he was. He didn't want to disappoint someone else when he'd already let so many other people down.

Branches rustled to the left of him. Eli turned to look at the trees, watching Victoria emerge alongside a young man who Eli assumed to be Samuel. He looked sixteen with dirty-blond hair, and dark brown eyes, but he didn't look at Eli. Instead, he kept his arm looped around his sisters as she led him over to the pond to where Eli sat with his legs dangling in the water.

"Just sit down right there," Victoria said, loosening Samuel's grip on her arm and letting him lower himself to the ground. "Eli is sitting on your left."

Samel nodded. He sat down, placing his hands on either side of him to feel the same tendrils of grass Eli had only a few minutes before. "Good to know."

"I'll be nearby if you need me."

Victoria smiled at Eli before she disappeared back through the trees and out of sight, leaving the two of them alone. Eli looked at Samuel, knotting his hands together in his lap. He thought back to the countless letters they exchanged, the small details about how he didn't read as much as used to, or in the same way. He watched the way he stared ahead of him.

"You're blind," he said before he could stop himself.

"I am. I fell ill when I was seven, brain fever it was called, and I lost most of my sight in a matter of days." Samuel nodded, turning his head towards Eli. "I can see light, but that's about it."

"So that's why Victoria knew about our letters."

"She helped me write them and would read the replies. She was also the person leaving them at the stream since I don't know my way around yet. I know it sounds strange that she was reading them, but I don't think she cared too much about their contents."

"I'm surprised she could even read my handwriting. I've always been told I write too quickly, but it's usually because I have too many things in my head." Eli laughed, kicking his leg in the pond and splashing some water onto Samuel's hand.

"The sign of a good mind."

Samuel smiled, his hands still moving over the grass. He paused for a moment, as though listening to the sound of Eli's feet kicking the water in the pond. The smile grew and he pulled off his shoes and socks in the same way Eli had, placing them on the grass beside him. Eli watched him push his trousers up to his knees and sink his feet and calves into the cooling water that lapped softly against their skin.

They sat in silence, listening to the birds in the trees surrounding them and the slow movement of the water. Eli went into his meeting with Samuel holding a slew of questions in his head, but as they sat side-by-side, he realised he wasn't sure if he wanted to ask any of them. He already had most of his answer in Samuel's blindness as the pieces of what he thought was a complicated puzzle fell into place.

Eli knotted his hands together. "When you wrote that you wanted someone to see you for you was that because—"

"—I'm blind? Yes. Everyone always sees the blindness and it becomes their focus. No one wants to get to know beyond that which is why I decided to write the letters. I thought it would be a way of making a friend without them judging me beforehand."

"That makes sense." Eli nodded slowly. "From the letters I never would have known."

"Does it change your opinion on me? Knowing I'm blind?"

"No, of course it doesn't. Being blind is a part of you, but it doesn't define who you are."

"Exactly." Samuel kicked his foot against the water. "Now, enough about me. Victoria told me something yesterday about an exam, you never mentioned it in your letters."

Eli shrugged. "It didn't matter. Papa won't let me go, even now. It was because he wouldn't let me take the exam that I was even at the stream when—" Eli swallowed, unable to find the words. "Mr Fredricks will just send Emily Lewis in my place."

"If the opportunity is there, why not take it? It's your future, not his. I meant what I said in my letters about you being in control of your life and if there is something you want to do, then maybe you should take it."

"I wish it were that simple."

"A few weeks ago, I made a wish to make a friend and that wish was answered. Maybe yours will be too."

Eli frowned, turning his head to look across the pond and the bright light that reflected off the water. Beside him, Samuel reached his hand out and found Eli's, squeezing it gently, though Eli wasn't sure why. He made no move to take his hand away and the two of them sat with their feet dangling in the water and the sunlight on their faces.

~~~

First Published - April 21st, 2024