Never Too Late

Chapter Thirty Four

"What happened? When did you lose your vision?" Johan's mother pressed him. She was nearly white with worry, and her facial expression registered concern. Liz had gone home earlier and Johan was left to bear the questions his family had for him alone.

"My eye has been like this for as long as I can remember," Johan confessed to her and her face lit up with shock. He rarely spoke about his partial blindness because he was very self-conscious about it and preferred to ignore the affliction. However, he knew it wouldn't be easy to persuade them to do the same.

"I don't understand," Luke said visibly distressed. "Do you know what caused it?"

"No," Johan said as he shook his head. He hadn't thought deeply about it before and so he'd always assumed it was a birth defect.

"Why didn't you say something?" His father intervened with a mixture of anger and sorrow."

Johan didn't respond as he felt himself being suffocated by questions he had hoped he'd never be confronted with.

"Which eye are you blind in?" Rachel asked in a softer tone after sensing his reluctance.

"My right eye," he said resting his hand over it. "I only realized it was like this when I was around five and couldn't catch anything. Until then, I thought everyone saw the same as I did."

"And what is that exactly?" His mother asked, her voice lower this time as she took a seat next to him, trying her best to hide her devastation.

"I can see flashes and specs of light from time to time, but mostly, I see nothing," Johan confessed, and saw a look of horror come over his family.

"I took you to the doctor the day after your father brought you home! Why didn't the doctor realize your eye was like that!?" His mother cried with her hands over her face.

"I didn't let him check my eyes." He said before trying to comfort his mother. "It's fine, I've lived my life like this so far and I'm doing well."

"No, we have to find out what caused this," his mother said composing herself. "I'll take you to a different doctor and hopefully we can find out what happened to your eye."

***

"Can you lean forward please?" An elderly man in a white cloak instructed Johan." He did as he was told and saw a flash of light illuminate from a lens onto his eye while he tried his hardest not to blink.

They were at a private hospital, and Johan had been referred to the Ophthalmologist for an eye exam after seeing his family's doctor not long before.

He didn't know what to make of the tests he was doing but the attention it was drawing to his eye made him feel uneasy. He dearly wished they hadn't made a big deal about it but the cat was already out of the bag.

"Okay young man, can you tell me what letters you're seeing on the first and second line?" The Ophthalmologist asked, and Johan peered through the lens with his left eye and read the letters aloud.

"E, F, P, T, O, Z, K, L, H, W." He said automatically.

"Okay and now?" He said as he switched the lens to his right eye.

Johan remained silent as he felt a wave of sadness wash over him. He knew he was blind in his right eye but being confronted by it with undeniable proof made him pull back from the instrument the doctor was using to test him.

"I can't see anything!" He shouted angrily. Why did his parents want him to do this? What would this change?

"Johan, are you alright?" His mother asked concerned. She and his father had been waiting in the room, and he could see that his words had left them as equally distressed as he was.