Crescendo

Eyes Wide Open ~Sabrina Carpenter

3rd person POV

They had said it was his last day.

All six members of the family had filed into the tiny hospital room: the mother, the father, the grandmother, the daughter, and the twin brothers. The center of attention had been a white-sheeted bed, with a shriveled figure buried under the blankets. Only his head had been visible on the raised pillow.

The mother had held his liver spotted hand, clutching it like it was her own lifeline. Her mother, the wife of the man in the bed, had kept a supportive hand on her daughter's shoulder, though her own cheeks were stained with tears. The father had stood awkwardly to the side until the twins had gotten a bit too rambunctious, giving him something to do. The daughter had watched her beloved grandfather's face from the opposite side of the bed, no tears or muffled sobs, just a feeling of numbness.

Her grandfather had stirred and had lifted one of his wrinkled hands from the sheets. Slowly, very slowly, he had begun to make signs from the American Sign Language. He had been deaf for quite some time, so the whole family had learned ASL for his sake.

"Leave me with Naira," he had signed. The daughter had stiffened at her name, possibilities swirling in her mind. What did her grandfather want to tell her?

A silence had fallen, all the family members trading doubtful glances. Eventually, they had nodded and had left the room. After the twins had closed the mahogany door behind them, Naira had turned to her grandfather. Her hands had shook with fear and anticipation, but she had managed to sign:

"I love you, Grandpa."

He had given a sad, wrinkled smile at her statement and had replied, "I do too, Naira. Now promise me something."

Naira's pulse had quickened at the word "promise". She had been afraid, afraid that she wouldn't be able to keep it. But how could she refuse her grandfather on his deathbed? With a deep breath, she had given a quick nod.

"Don't stop learning. There is so much to see in the world; promise me you will try to learn all you can. Don't rely on others; see it for yourself."

At this point the grandfather had paused and had rested his tired arms for some time. Naira had been sure he wasn't done, so she had stood patiently by his side. After a moment, he had continued:

"Don't ever close your eyes."

Naira's grandfather had been famous for his international expeditions. Before he had lost hearing, he would tell fantastical stories at the dinner table about his adventures in the many places he had visited. A trek through the Amazon jungle, touching an iceberg in the Arctic, a desert safari in the Sahara. While the other adults would nod politely and continue their own conversations, the children would be fascinated by the tales her grandfather spun. Naira had been one of them, and now she had been tasked with continuing his legacy.

After a brief pause, not of hesitation but rather to absorb her grandfather's statement, Naira had signed, "I promise."

She had never seen such a smile grace her grandfather's face since he had been registered into the hospital.

He had died later that night, able to rest in peace at last.

......

12 years later

"Good afternoon, and thank you for choosing Lufthansa for your flight from India to Germany. We will be taking off in approximately 15 minutes. Now, please watch the safety video about to play on your monitors."

Immediately, a bunch of people all standing in a line on the monitor politely greeted the passengers on flight in different languages and launched into the safety rules and guidelines that Naira had memorized. Completely ignoring the video, she pulled out a silver HP laptop from her carry-on bag at her feet and opened it. After deftly typing her password, she opened Google Chrome and navigated to her blog, NairaInternational. True to her promise, she had managed to visit all her grandfather's favorite places on the planet and more in the last few years, and all her findings had gone into multiple journals and her online blog. Now she typed in: