D for Daisy (The Blind Sleuth Mysteries 1)

D for Daisy Part 4: 1939

That night, as Daisy was preparing to go to bed, there was a knock at her door. She just had time to put her dark glasses back on before the door opened and a girl's voice inquired, "Can we come in? Are you decent and all that?"

"Yes, yes, do come in," she replied. Then she heard the rustle of several people pouring into her room.

"It's dark in here!" one of the boys said. "Were you already asleep?"

"No, but I'm blind, remember? I don't need any light."

The switch by the door produced its characteristic click.

"We would like to ask you something." the first girl's voice said.

"Who is this, by the way?"

"It's me, Cookie, well, Margaret, and the rest of the gang."

"Ah yes, Cookie! I was wondering: why does everyone call you that?"

"Well, you see, my mother's an American. And when I was a little girl, wherever we went visiting, I always asked for cookies. 'I want a cookie', I would cry. I must admit that I had deplorable manners at the time."

"Oh, but you still have," the others laughed, "you still have!"

"All right," Daisy said, "what can I do for you and the rest of the gang? I believe Ralph is not with you? Beatrice?"

"No," Beatrice replied. "Ralph is exhausted, truly exhausted. He went to bed early. What on earth did you do to him?"

"I'm afraid I drove him rather hard today, poor boy. Though it was worth it: I learned to bicycle! But anyway, what did you want to ask?"

"Well," Cookie said, "the thing is, we'd like to see your eyes..."

"Oh, so Ralph has told you about that... before he went to bed."

"No, no. The thing is, we saw you from a distance when you were bicycling. You weren't wearing your dark glasses."

"Never mind. It's all the same to me, you know. You can see my eyes if that's what you want, but on one condition..."

"Oh, good," one of the boys said. "You're driving up the suspense..."

"Yes... I want us all to have a nice old-fashioned pillow fight afterwards."

"A pillow fight?" Cookie exclaimed. "Aren't we a bit old for such a childish thing?"

"Well, you're childish enough to ask a blind girl to show you her crippled eyes, so why on earth not? Besides, I'm proposing a very special kind of pillow fight. One we always organize at school when a new girl joins us. Now you run back to your rooms and fetch your pillows. Then I'll show you what you want to see..."

In a moment the gang were back with their pillows, and Daisy told them to close the door and motioned them to come and sit by her side on the bed. Then she slowly took of her glasses and put them away.

"Ugh!"

"Disgusting!"

"The horror!" they all cried, and Daisy started giggling, because such a frank reaction was most unusual and rather unexpected. Beatrice leaned over and spoke softly in her ear, "You don't mind, really?"

"No, really, it's quite all right. Tomorrow I'll go bicycling with all of you and I won't be wearing my glasses, so we might as well get it over with now."

And then, when they were all done making a show of how horrible they found her eyes, Cookie said, "Now, for that pillow fight of yours, what's the deal?"