Sightless

Amy and Andrea Harrison

~ Today ~

It didn't take long for Max to pack up, like I said, he's a precocious little boy and being organized had always been his strong-suit. 

"Mom, I can't drive us to Atlanta." He grumbled, handing me clothes to fold and put in my suitcase. I had packed up all the perishable food already into a cooler, since I didn't need to see to know which drawers those were in. But I couldn't see my clothes, and since Max had been old enough to know that he wanted Mommy to look nice, and not like a blind lady had picked out my clothes, he had been dressing me. So I had no clue where my clothes were anymore. 

"Maybe... maybe Uncle Dale is still here? Maybe he can take us." Max offered, and I could hear him begging me to accept his suggestion. 

"Maybe he is. My phone is on the dresser, can you get it for me?" I asked as I folded a pair of what felt like jeans and placed them into my suitcase that I hadn't ever used. It was a gift from Dale from ten years ago, on my sixteenth birthday. Three months before I found out I was pregnant, and ten months before Dale's wife was diagnosed with cancer. 

He had been planning on adopting me, pulling me out of the system. He said that he and his wife were finally financially stable and could support me, but when I became pregnant, I was kicked out of the system anyway, and then his wife got cancer and there was no point. They had to leave to get her treatment, and I had to take care of a newborn. So, I got an apartment, a seeing-eye dog from the state, and the suitcase gathered dust in the back of my closet. Until now. 

Max pressed the phone into my hand, and then the loud sound of the phone ringing screeched through the room. I placed the phone on the bed and continued to fold the clothes Max gave me while we waited for Dale to answer. It didn't take him long, two rings and then the breathy sound of his voice fell out of the speaker. 

"Hello? Meg?" He rasped, and it sounded like he had been running, or something else cardio related that I didn't want to think about, but he sounded very out of breath. 

"Dale? Hey. Where are you? We just saw the news, saying to get to Atlanta? What's going on?" I asked, trying to hide the frantic-ness that I knew he could probably hear from Max, but it didn't seem like I did well since Max spoke up. 

"Can you pick us up?" He blurted before Dale could even answer, and I heard a breathy chuckle form the speaker. 

"I'm already on my way. I should be there in about five minutes. Are you both packed?" He asked, and I realized that maybe he sounded breathy because he was driving and he gets stressed when he drives sometimes. 

"I am, and mom's getting there. Do we need to bring anything? Mom already packed up some food." Max answered, and I flinched as he threw the rest of my clothes in my suitcase without folding them and slammed the lid shut, almost hitting my fingers but he bumped me out of the way before the lid could catch me. 

"Max!" I scolded, but he was moving away from me, suitcase and phone both with him as he walked out of the room, with Dale's words echoing down the hallway. 

"Food is good, got any canned stuff? We'll need that. Maybe tents, camping stuff, you two have anything like that?" 

"No, we never did stuff like that." 

"Right, well I have some extras I can give you. Okay, I'm pulling onto your street, I'm in a big RV, can't miss me. Make sure you bring some food for Hendrix, I'll see you in a second." I had grabbed Hendrix's lead and was letting him lead me down the hallway after Max, who I could hear was frantically packing things up. 

"Max, calm down." I tried, but he either ignored me, or didn't hear me because the noises of him bouncing around trying to get everything rang in my ears. 

"Max!" I said sternly, trying to get his attention, but nothing, and a moment later a handle was shoved into my hand, and something pulled the door open. Where'd the couch go? Did he move it all by himself?

"Hendrix, car!" Max ordered, and Hendrix pulled me out, down the steps with his normal two bark signal, and then I was being led. I could hear Max fumbling around behind me, but I couldn't tell what was going on around me. I could hear growling still, and some bangs, and then I was pulled to a stop by Hendrix, and the sound of metal against plastic met my ears. Probably the RV door being opened, and something grabbed my arm. 

I screeched, and yanked my arm away, thinking that it was whatever Mrs. Albright had been turned into, but a warm feminine voice met my ears. 

"Meg? My name is Amy, I'm a new friend of Dale's. I just want to help you get in the RV. Step forward, and then lift your leg up about a foot to get to the step. Then there are two more steps. Okay?" She said, and I nodded, and let her pull me forward and hesitantly lifted my leg up. Hendrix gave a short bark, so I lifted it higher, and then he nudged my heel with his nose. I gave him a second to pull away, and stepped down, up onto the high step, and then rose my other leg up to step, then another, and I was finally on flat ground again. 

I could hear Max talking behind me, but not what he was saying, and I knew there was another person, but I didn't know who. I decided to let it go, and let Hendrix and Amy lead me over to something, and I sat down. A moment later I was being hugged. 

"God, it's good to see you Meg." Dale voice rang in my ear and I let a smile take over my face and hugged him back. 

"It's good to see you too. Now can we get going? And you can tell me what's going on?" Dale nodded against the side of my head and pulled back, and then I felt a small hand grab the hand that had been holding the handle of what was probably my suitcase, and I realized it was Max and sighed with relief. 

"You're safe." I mumbled, pulling him in to give him a hug, and to my surprise, he didn't pull away. I let go of Hendrix's lead and cradled my son to my chest for the first time in a very long time. The door shut, and I heard footsteps but neither of us moved. 

A hand met my shoulder and I jumped, but a different woman spoke before I could panic. 

"My name is Andrea, I'm Amy's sister. It's nice to meet you." She said stiffly, and I forced a smile onto my face as the banging on the side of the RV was starting to freak me out, but Dale must have started the RV because we rocked for a second and then the banging was stopped so we must have pulled away from the house. 

"Now... what's going on?"