Everywhere we go we see colours, every person, every house, every stick and stone has a colour, the shades merging and blending to create a beauty that we take for granted. But I am not included in the royal ‘we’, for I was born blind. I was born in the colour of black, and these colours, these incredible colours that I have only ever heard from the lips of my companions are something that I do not comprehend. How can you know what red is if you have never seen it? How can you understand yellow if your unfortunate eyes have never gazed upon the hue. I cannot miss what I have never experienced. But like any human, I can yearn, I can wish with all my heart. This is what I ponder as I sit under the willow tree on top of the hill, just behind my house. It is a location that I find refuge, after all I would rather the peace of solitude than non-existent, pitying friends and fussy, hovering parents. While idly pulling grass beneath me like every other day, I hear the gentle patter of footsteps. Figuring that my mother had skuttled over to check on me I was startled by the unfamiliar voice
‘Oi, you the one that cant see?’
It was a girls voice, I felt her plonk down beside me
‘And before you ask, I’m Molly from down the road. I've been watching you come up here, every morning, sit down, stare in the distance and go home just before sunset. May I ask what you are doing? ’
I blinked, trying to process this. I had never come across Molly-from-down-the-road before, if I did I would have remembered. I figured I’d just tell the truth, send her reeling backwards with pity and awkwardness like everyone else.
‘trying to see the impossible’
‘and the impossible is...?’
‘Colours’
I fully expected a retreat, I was wrong.
‘What do you mean impossible?! Don’t talk rubbish of-course you can see colours!’
shock quickly turned to anger
‘Oh really? Well if your so clever give me insight, show me green’
I waited, triumphant through the following silence. Then I heard her rustling around and she pressed something into my hand.
‘Whats this?’
‘Just feel it’
‘Wha-’
‘Oh just do it will you!’
Curiosity got the better of me, I ran my fingers over the paper like object. It was the size of my hand and roughly the shape of a heart, it had a sort of solid ridge that ran down the middle with other smaller ridges fanning out.
‘A leaf’ I murmured
‘Yes. Do you feel it? The veins running through it? The incredible detail in such a small form of life? The fragile strength?’
‘Yes’ I whispered
‘That’s green’ said Molly-from-down-the-road, a smile in her voice.
Warmth, incredibility and uncertainty spread through me, was this possible?
‘Okay. What about blue?’ I asked, waiting through her thoughtful silence.
‘close your eyes’ she answered
I sent a black look in the direction of her voice, but did what I was told, why close eyes that can’t see when open?
‘Good, now focus on the atmosphere around you, the air, your mood, the sounds. Tell me how you feel.’
I huffed, focusing like she said on my surroundings. I felt the early morning air bite my skin, the silence echo in my ears the way no sound can, the distant calls of swallows, the grass beneath my hands and the rustle of leaves above. It was like nothing else existed.
‘I feel.... Cold. Cold but.... Calm.’ I said, still half emersed in the broken silence.
Molly took my hand,
‘That feeling, like nothing but you and the world exists, your cold, calm feeling? That’s blue.’
I answered her smile now
‘show me pink’ I demanded, yearning for my impossible. There was no hesitation this time. I felt the air shift as she leaned closer, I made a startled noise as something soft brushed my cheek. Her lips. I put my hand on the spot where she kissed me, blushing, wishing I could see her face.
‘This-’ she gently poked my flaming cheeks ‘that-’ she pressed her hand to my rapidly beating heart ‘ is pink.’
My hand slowly drifted back to the ground. I could feel I was on the brink of something so unexpected and so incredibly wonderful that I almost felt afraid.
‘Okay’ I said slowly ‘Okay, show me red’
I heard the scuffle of her feet as she scrambled upwards
‘Comeon’ she said, yanking me to my feet, once we were both upright I felt her move behind me. She placed her hands on my shoulders and shifted me about 90 degrees to the right.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Well-’ she answered, ‘remember when I told you I’ve been watching you? And that you always went home before sunrise?
‘Yes...’ I said, wondering where this was going.
‘well we’re about to change that’ she said, a note of excitement in her voice
‘Just wait’
‘For what?’ I wondered out-loud
The Innocent certainty of her voice rang clear
‘you’ll see’
So I waited. Molly-from-down-the-road beside me, I waited. And then I felt it. The slow caressing heat that pierced the morning calm like the blade of a knife. It rapped around me like a snake, sliding through my skin into my veins, veins that carried the glow straight to rest in my beating heart. The glow, the red glow.
‘Do you feel it?’ whispered Molly, the weight and hope of the question a tangible thing
‘I don’t just feel it’ I said, the blackness of my vision suddenly a meaningless thing,
‘I see it’. And the tears that ran down my cheeks marked it to be true.
YOU ARE READING
Blind-Sight
Short StoryIf you cannot see, colours are impossible right? I disagree.
