Love Is Blind

Pickoff

I wake up and see eight texts from Augustus:

Wake up.

Five minutes later:

Wake up.

Five minutes after that:

WAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKE UUUUUPPPPPP

Another five minutes:

Up you shall wake.

And again:

Wake up wake up wake up wake up

Then again:

Awaken! I command you!

Three minutes later, this time:

You suck.

And lastly:

Just kidding. Goodnight, my friend.

I examine my destroyed room. I pick up the shattered glass and pillows. I go upstairs and turn on the TV. Might as well, tomorrow's my surgery. I turn on The Walking Dead. "GO DARRELL!" I yell after he goes all badass with his crossbow like normal. Shooting a crossbow would be fun. Graham joins me and as if on cue, my mom comes in.

"Isaac, I know tomorrow you won't be able to watch this, but how many times do I have to tell you, no watching gory shows in front of your brother." She scolds. I groan. "Go take in real-life scenery." She says.

"The Walking Dead was real-life scenery." I reply. She shoots me the look. I sigh and walk out of the house. I walk around until I see a car that's driving all over the road. Augustus.He pulls over beside me.

"Get in the car. Don't ask questions, get in the car." He says. I follow his instructions. He hands me a cigarette. I put it in my mouth. He drives to the local ice cream place. I get cookie dough and he gets hard-serve chocolate. We start to eat in the car until he asks: "What do you want to do?"

"Shoot a crossbow." I reply jokingly. His eyes light up and he starts to drive. He drives to a house that isn't his, goes up, and knocks on the door. A man-probably in his late 40s-answers and he talks with Augustus. Eventually Gus has me get out of his car and go to the backyard. There are hay bails with targets leaning against them. The man comes out and hands me a crossbow. He tells me how to shoot and I fire. The very edge of target. I fire again. Right next to the first one. I adjust my aim gradually. It hits the center. I fire again. Just above that one.

"There we go!" Augustus shouts encouragingly. I fire a few more times, each right around the center one. I hand the crossbow to the man. "Thanks Bill!" Gus yells at the man (who's name apparently is Bill) as we drive off. "So," Gus starts, "how was it?"

"Pretty awesome." I respond.

"What next?" He asks.

"Uhh...laser tag pickoff?" I suggest, "I don't have a lot of ideas." He nods and drives us to the arcade we've gone to for laser tag pickoff since we were nine. It's actually the place we met. At a laser tag birthday party. We both have disadvantages, him being slow with only one leg and me only having half my vision, so we normally go with a bunch of strangers, sit together, and pick off everyone else. Hence laser tag pickoff. We are with a bunch of seven, eight, and nine year olds. This should be interesting. The game starts and we sit like we always do and start shooting the little kids. One of them gets mad and storms off. After more picking-off, the little boy comes back with the woman who set up the game.

"I've been told you have sat here and just shot people who pass by?" She questions. We nod. "Okay, so now, he can shoot you, but you can't shoot him." She says. After some struggling, Augustus and I stand up.

"Ma'am we're sorry to have caused a disruption. You see, my friend Isaac here has eye cancer and has already lost one eye, but tomorrow he gets the other one cut out and I wanted to take him to the place we met. Unfortunately, though, I also lost a limb from bone cancer, so I'm not that fast. We've played laser tag like this since I lost that part of my leg." Augustus says.

"It doesn't say it's against the rules, I suppose." The woman says and walks out.

At the end of the game, we leave the arcade. "I guess I should probably go home." I say. Gus takes me home. I walk into my house and work on setting up my new blind-guy video game machine. I fail. I try a few more times, until I set it up. I flop on to my bed and moan. I check my phone. Hazel texted me.

Hazel:

Hey how are you?

Me:

I've been better.

Hazel:

Yeah. It must suck.

Me:

You are correct.

Hazel:

Just was checking in. Bye.

I set my phone down and fall asleep.

•••

I wake up at 5:00 AM. Normally I sleep later, but I'll wallow in darkness the rest of my life, so why not? I sigh as I look at my pictures one last time. Eventually my mom gets me and drives me to the hospital. We get there and they make me go unconscious for the surgery. Goodbye world. Goodbye sight. Hello blackness.

•••

Black.