Stripes

No one believes me when I tell people that my husband could truly see life for what it was. Nathan could  just see through anyone and anything. It was the most beautiful gift anyone could ever have. As cliche as it sounds, I knew that I was in love with Nathan when I first met him. There was just something about him. Almost like his puzzle pieces fit right into mine.

I was working at a popular cafe in a small town that I had just moved to. A tall brown haired, muscular man walked towards the counter as smile spread across his face  “Hello, um, can I have a non-fat soy latte?” His voice was deep and smooth. Almost like chocolate milk on annoa hot summer day. “Of course you can. Anything else?” I smiled shyly and typed his order into the cash register. “Yeah, can I also have a date to the jazz concert on Friday?” He raised his eyebrows and me and smiled a little wider. I giggled and ran my fingers through my hair. I noticed that he had closed his eyes and my giggles turned into awkward nervous noises. “Ummmm, sir?” I tapped his shoulder and his eyes slowly opened. His grin was ridiculously large and he was giving me this strange look, like we had known each other forever. “Stripes. Beautiful Stripes.” At this point, I was more than confused. I looked around to see if anyone else was around. “Uhhh, what are you talking about?” I asked. “Your laugh. When I hear it I see the most remarkable stripes. I can’t really describe it in words. It’s just.....beautiful.” A warm feeling filled my body and I knew he would be someone special. “So, about that concert...”

That night I went to the concert with Harry and we had a wonderful time. The whole time he was giving me the same look that he gave me in the cafe shop. Of course, I slipped him my number ebefore I drove myself home. A day or two later, I got a call from my oh-so-captivating friend Harry. We talked for hours and in the blink of an eye I found myself going out with him everyday for a straight month. By then it had been established that these were romantic dates. About two months after that glorious day in the cafe, I invited Harry to have dinner at my house.

I heard a knock on the door and I sprang up to open the door, knowing it was Harry. Instead of cooking a meal together like we had planned, he told me to wait in my room until he called me down. Despite my pitiful begging and pouting, he still insisted that I stay upstairs in my room. For about an hour I sat in my room and stared at the ceiling. That was all I could do to keep myself from exploding with excitement. Finally, he called me downstairs. To my surprise there was a beautiful dinner laid out on my dining room table. “Wow, that looks amazing.” I blurted out. Harry smiled and sat down at the head of the table. I took my seat at the opposite end of the table and began to eat. “Oh my god this is absolutely amazing! I don’t kno-” I was cut off by the ear splitting noise of glass hitting the floor. Harry had accidentally knocked his cup over. “Oh no!” I rushed over to the glass and started to pick it up. “No, no, I got it.” Harry dropped to the floor and moved his hands around on the floor. I noticed that he was gathering the glass oddly. Instead of just picking it up, he was running his hand across the floor like he was feeling around for the glass. The more I looked, the more I realized that he WAS feeling for the glass.  My voice was so soft that I could barely hear it myself “Oh my god, Harry. Are you-” Harry sighed and turned his head towards me. “Blind? Yes, I am.”

I was completely frozen. How could I have missed this? He seemed like a normal guy. There were absolutely no signs that he was blind. “W-why didn’t you tell me?” I could feel the hot tears streaming down my face. My voice must have cracked because he immediately stood up and wrapped his arms around me. “Sh, sh, don’t cry.” His large hands softly stroked my head as I silently cried. Any normal person would think that I would be crying out of sadness. I mean, most people would assume that my next move would be to break things off with him. My tears and my plan were the complete opposite. I was crying out of happiness. I was almost ecstatic that someone who was blind could still see the beauty in life. As for my plan, I planned to stay with him as long as I possibly could. It was obvious that he could navigate his life without little to no assistance. I sniffed and built myself up to speak again. “One more thing, why aren’t your eyes light blue like other blind people?” In the back of my mind I knew that was a stupid question to ask but I had to know. Harry chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno. I didn’t even know what color they were up until now. That’s pretty cool though.” He paused to think for a moment. “Oh, to answer your question before, I didn’t think that you would continue to go out with me if you knew I was blind. Blind is NOT the new sexy.” We broke into hysterical laughter because we both knew that for me, blind was and always would be the new sexy to me.