Train// Zonah

16

The short days of eyesight were slowly deteriorating for Zach who spent them staring at things he loved, taking in every curve, wrinkle and colour, embedding them deep into his memory. He longed to be able to see the details and imperfections of the things he loved most.

And the people. How he wished he could see each freckle on Corbyn's face, each individual curl of Jack's hair, the resemblance between Jonah and his daughter.

But there was one thing he longed for. One thing he wanted to see for the last time before he lost the remainder of his rapidly deteriorating eyesight and that was his home.

He wanted to go back to his hometown in Texas and he wanted to see his grandparents and his favourite aunt and uncle for one last time, so here he sat, fantasising over the Internet about his little trip, he realised that there was another thing he wanted to do.

Go to Jonah's farm.

...

"what do you mean, exactly when you say that you're going on a trip?" Jack says as he munched on his half-eaten carrot stick in the school canteen.

It was break time, and Zach was telling him his plans for the holiday which was slowly approaching.

"what I mean is that I wanna go back to the states for one last time when I can see," Zach shrugs, fiddling with a loose thread on the hem of his shirt.

"well that's great, isn't it?" he says, getting a sigh in return from the boy. Jack's eyebrows furrow, confused by the reaction.

"Well, not really. Aparrently the blind kid is not welcome there, I mean all anyone did was try to avoid me," Jack puts his last carrot stick down and looks up at his friend.

"Zach, look. It's going to be fine. You are going to be fine."

"But what if they don't let me say goodbye?" Zach replies, desperate forsomeone else's perspective other than his highly optimistic and overbearing parents.

Jack Placed his hand on the fear-struck boy's shoulder. "well, if that happens then you know that they never really were your family in the first place."

Zach nodded, whispering a small "thank you," under his breath before the pair finished their food (and the rest of their day) in almost complete silence.

Before Zach knew it, he had arrived at Jonah's house and told him about his radical plans.

Jonah said yes and they sat talking about the trip and baby Lila for a while.

But Zach had yet to ask about going to Jonah's farm, too nervous to bring it up, incase he said no, but it slipped out of his mouth as they were movi g from one subject to another.

"Can I visit your farm?"

"I'll try and pull some strings, baby. I'll see what I can do."