Through My Eyes

Chapter 4

"Adelaine."

I feel someone shaking my shoulder and I lift my head off the desk.

"I'm totally awake. Photoelectric effect is the phenomenon in which light of energy greater than work function falls on a metallic surface and liberates a photon", I rattle. I'd taken particular care to memorize the first definition before falling asleep.

"I actually didn't ask you the definition to photoelectric effect", Ross says sounding amused. "But it sounds right."

I mumble something that sounds like an apology. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night since a nightmare of the same old had cut through my sleeping pills.

"Anyways, you can't fall asleep today. It's Wednesday", Ross informs me.

"You mean there's three more days till Saturday when I can sleep?" I clarify as I rub sleep out of my eyes.

"No, it's Wednesday", he repeats. "Nobody told you about Wednesday?"

"Someone might have mentioned that it comes between Tuesday and Thursday", I say, confused.

"Every Wednesday we're supposed to do an independent task", Ross explains to me.

"A what?"

"Just a simple task that we need to learn how to be able to do in our life. Last week I had to go to the bank and deposit a check. Simple stuff like that."

It didn't sound that simple to me. How can you deposit a check blind?

"What are we supposed to do today?" I ask him apprehensively.

"We won't know till after school. Katie drives us some place and gives us our task", Ross says.

This should be interesting.

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"All you need to do is go into the supermarket and buy a can of tomato soup", Katie tells me and Ross as we sit in the car in the parking lot.

That sounded impossible.

"We can't see tomato soup. We can't find it in an enormous store", I point out.

"Which is part of the challenge!" Katie tells me sounding oddly excited. "Out you go now."

I reluctantly step out. I hear Ross do the same.

"How is this humanely possible?" I ask Ross.

"Oh trust me, this is one of the easier tasks she's given me. Come on."

I take two steps before I trip over a curb and nearly fall flat on my face.

"Oops sorry, I forgot you don't have a seeing stick. Here, grab my hand", Ross says.

I grab his hand to steady myself. "A what?"

"A seeing stick. It's sort of like a walking stick that I poke in front of me to sense obstacles", he explains to me patiently. "Normally I have either Nate or Baelor so I don't use it much."

I open my mouth to ask him who Nate and Baelor are but we walk through the sliding doors of the supermarket and are greeted by a burst of cool air.

"So, umm, what do we do?" I ask, feeling uncomfortable. I wish I had sunglasses so people wouldn't notice my vacant blue eyes but I'd left them in my backpack in the car.

"Let's see", Ross murmers thoughtfully. "We entered through the main doors so we must be near aisle 7 or 8. Canned goods are on aisle 3, I believe and each aisle is approximately five steps wide so we need to walk around 15 steps to our left. Come on."

I'm still astonished at his insight as he leads me along.

"Careful, there's a display to your right", he informs me.

I try to make myself as small as possible. The last thing I wanted was to knock over a pyramid of cereal or something.

"Now", Ross continues after we walk our designated number of steps. "We call for help."

"We're allowed to call for help?" I ask, disgruntled. We could have just asked a sales lady to find us a can of soup the moment we walked through the door.

"We can ask for minor assistance if required. There's no way we can actually find a can otherwise."

"So we ask a saleslady?" I ask.

"We can, but I don't think there are any around and I really don't want to shout for them in the middle of the store", Ross says and I cringe at the thought. "Instead you just do what you always do when in doubt. Call mom!"

I blink, surprised. That was the last thing I expected him to say.

A second later, I hear the familiar sound of a phone ringing for Face time.

"Hi dear", says a voice from his phone.

"Hey mom. We're at the store looking for tomato soup. Is this the right aisle?" he asks. I assume he flips the camera around.

"Sure is."

Ross drags me down the aisle.

"Right there. To your left", his mom says.

Ross stops. "Here?"

"Next rack. A little to your left...there, that's it."

"Cool, thanks mom", Ross says. "Just make sure we find the register?"

Ross leads me back in the opposite direction after handing me the can.

"The check-out's a few steps ahead of you, dear."

"Thanks mom. See you soon", Ross says and I hear the sound of him hanging up.

"Hello, is that all I can get for you today?" the perky voice of the cashier pipes.

"Sure is", Ross says.

I hear the cashier suck in a breath and I feel uneasy. She must have just noticed our blind eyes.

I hear the beep of the cashier scanning.

"That'll be a dollar fifty, please." Her voice sounds like she saw a dragon with two heads.

"Here you go", Ross says.

"Would you two like lollipops?" the cashier asks.

I press my lips into a line, annoyed. This is exactly why I hated being in public. The sympathy drove me crazy.

"I think we're good. Thank you", Ross says politely, takes my hand and leads me away.

"How did you identify the bills when you paid her?" I ask him, perplexed.

"I keep them organized by rows in my wallet. You have to learn how to do stuff like that."

"Or I can just let my mom buy soup", I mutter.

"Who's going to buy soup in thirty years then?"

"Are you implying that my mom won't live till seventy?" I retort, but a new thought rolls into my head.

I would be single for the rest of my life. I would never find a boyfriend and fall in love and get married and have babies. I'd be alone. I could stay with my mom for a while but what about after? Worry fills the pit of my stomach.

"I never said that. Come on, now let's get out of here and get ice cream."

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