Boarded Windows

Chapter 1

Annalee stopped and smiled, it was still a weird feeling when her lips tugged up at the corners of her mouth but she had seen others do it and it seemed…normal. She desperately wanted to be normal and tried it out herself, at first it was unnatural then it became more and more familiar to her as she practiced every chance she got. It still made her feel strange though so she had recently saved it for special occasions.

This was definitely a special occasion, she thought to herself, looking at the object she held in her hands. An old pair of glasses, the lenses amazingly still intact and the rims were black and square; nothing too gaudy. Annalee was afraid to try them on, to ruin her special moment, afraid that they wouldn’t be the right kind of glass to make her see clearly. Desperate times called for desperate measures however and she wasn’t about to let her treasure go to waste. Slowly she brought them to her face and slid them up the bridge of her nose. By some act of God everything around her came into view in near perfect clarity. Of course she wouldn’t find glasses to exactly match her eyesight but this was the closest she had ever been in her life. The buildings around her took on their sharp edges and brick shape as the flowers in the park across the street became very vivid with color. All the colors shapes and depths you could ever imagine and it scared her. Everything was too clear, too sharp, and too threatening; she quickly whipped off the glasses and stuffed them in the pocket of her ratty jeans. She felt safe again once her surroundings returned to soft blobs with muted colors. A sigh escaped her lips as she pushed a lock of stringy auburn hair behind her ear and resumed rifling through the dumpster in front of her. She found a few hair bands the elastic almost worn out yet still usable and a kid’s addition workbook. She stuffed the hair bands in her pocket next to the glasses and hugged the workbook to her chest deciding that she had found enough treasures today.

Stepping from the alleyway, Annalee looked both ways on the sidewalk and seeing it was clear began the long trek to her house. Over the past three months she had learned ten blocks around her house at first she had walked down the street, then after the shock had ceased she tried walking down her street and the next. Slowly she progressed and week after week she explored block after block, tentatively of course. The sweet scent of flowers had irreversibly drawn her to the park where she found the good dumpster in the alley across the street.

As she walked she turned her thoughts inward and let memory cloud her vision entirely. It was the first day she had stepped foot out of the house and a sweet smell enveloped her. It was such a strong contrast to the old mildew and alcohol scent that was deeply imbedded into all the furniture, carpet, and walls. That was what she had been following when she stepped off the porch and started down the street. Everything was so new so horrifyingly real that she cringed at every sound and walking without shoes down the sidewalk pained her too-sensitive feet but she needed to find the source of that sweet smell.

At the end of the road a car screeched to a stop when they realized she wasn’t slowing down and the sound grated at her ears sending her fleeing to the only refuge she had ever known. Day after day she crept out of the house so smell the sweet aroma and be dragged down streets until her fear overcame her and she ran back to the house. Until one day she had been strong enough to make it to the paragon of her desires the source of the seductive scent that she dreamed of whether awake or asleep. In spite of the fact that they were blurry, the sight of the flowers entranced her made her weep and the thought of such beauty terrified her, and she quickly crossed the street to find the dumpster.

Her first find had been a child’s coloring book half used and discarded laying lonely on the ground. She snatched it up and ran back to the house hugging it tightly to her as if afraid her treasure would disappear. That night as she flipped through the pages colored and blank the thought of the dumpster kept itching at the back of her mind. It intrigued her why anyone would toss out a good coloring book and she couldn’t help but wonder what else people would throw away half used even new.

A car horn pulled her out of her thoughts and Annalee realized she had crossed the street without looking. With eyesight as bad as her own it was imperative that she remained focused, it was hard for such a daydreamer. Quickly she scurried to the other side and the woman drove by angrily throwing out nasty comments as she passed. The words she used made her flinch and his face loomed in front of her but she quickly pushed it aside and walked on remembering that was unnecessary she scolded herself. He was dead. He couldn’t hurt her anymore. The thought calmed her slightly but never the less her heart was pumping animatedly. Once she got back to the house she thought, she would try on the glasses again. Maybe she could use her newfound sight to re-arrange the house to make it feel more like her own and lose some of the old memories that haunted her there.