From The Mind of an Author: A Short Story Collection

Seeing in a Blind World

    It seemed like just the other day. It was any other day - until it wasn't. Until my world turned upside down and inside out. That is going to be one hell of a story to tell my kids. I wonder if they'll get it too... no time for wondering about the future. Only now matters.

    It might sound strange, but from the day I was born, I never saw color. Not the tiniest tinge of tan or the smallest speck of seafoam green. Nothing. All I saw was black, white, and, on good days, different shades of gray.  If I was lucky, I saw a slightly darker shade of white, but that didn't happen too often. It was monotone in my world. It was like being stuck inside a TV in the 50s and you couldn't get out of it.

    Don't feel bad for me. It wasn't just me who has what I've come to call "monotone madness." If you're going to feel pity or sorrow or anything along those lines, feel it for my whole generation. Scratch that. Feel it for the whole world. Every single person out of the eight billion on this planet can't see any sort of color. Like me, their eyes have a limited palette of the most boring shades known to man.

    All this time, I've been speaking of this "monotone madness" in the present tense. That would be right if I was speaking on behalf of every other person on the planet. When I talk about my story, I use the past tense. Why?

    I use the past tense because injuries can be the best medicine. No, I'm not delusional. I said injuries can be the best medicine. In my case, they can. Believe it or not, they were.

    My hand swung down on my plastic alarm clock, filling the air with a violent crack sound. I rubbed my eyes and grabbed my phone to check the time. I cussed under my breath as I realized I was fifteen minutes behind my morning schedule.

    I jumped out of bed, pulling on my button-up shirt and blazer. I ran around my room, frantically trying to find my dress pants for the meeting today.

    "Found them."

    I put them on, like the feeling of the soft fabric sliding over my skin. I jerk my head around and look at my bed, wondering if I should make it before I go to work.

    "Oh, screw it. I'll do it tonight."

    I slip myself into my vanity, wishing my makeup could do itself. I pull out the foundation, concealer, eyeshadow, bronzer, blush, and highlight and throw them onto my face - somehow ending up with something that I think is socially acceptable. I grab my phone off of the charger and make a beeline for the door. Then I realize that I forgot shoes. Out of everything I could've almost forgotten, I almost forgot shoes.

    This time, I curse audibly as I pull on the stiletto heels that apparently have a mind of their own. After wrangling with them for what seemed like a hundred years, I walk over to my kitchen counter, eyes fixed on the plastic jar that stores granola bars.

    I whip off the lid, not caring where it lands, and snatch a breakfast bar from inside it.

    "I guess breakfast is to-go this morning."

    Unwrapping my very healthy breakfast, I run through my checklist of things I need for the day.

    " Phone, purse, binder, money - " and glaring at the prepackaged junk in my hand, "breakfast."

    I walk out of the door, biting my granola bar as my heels softly click against the striped hallway carpet.

    I arrive at the elevator and realize that it's out of service. I groan. Can this morning get any worse?! The next one is maybe five to six hallways down - if I'm being generous. I'm not walking to that. This carpet is so soft that my heels sink into it. It's like walking on quicksand that can break your ankles.
No way, no how am I walking on this carpet any more than I have to.

    I turn my head, glaring at the metal door leading to the staircase. Ugh. There are no other options. Is this morning trying to make me go crazy?! 

    Putting aside the aggravation, I push open the heavy door and deal with the fact that this isn't going to be the best day ever.

    I start the walk down the concrete stairs, my shoes clicking loudly against them.

    "Let the day begin," I think glumly, realizing I had only descended a few steps.

    Oh, how clueless I was to what was about to happen. It was adorable, really. How adorably clueless, past self. How adorably clueless.

    Phone in one hand and food in the other, I continue my unplanned morning workout.

    How stupid were you, past self? Really.

I check the time in the top right corner of the screen.

    "What the hell? I have a half an hour before I have to be at work!" I say out loud, expressing my exasperation to the layers of dust that coated the walls like a thick blanket.

    My heart is beating faster than the spastic "click"s my shoes make as they hammer the ground.

    "Wait...are things spinning? Why do I feel like I'm going to pass out? Why do I feel so -"

    And just like that, everything changed.

    I wake up in a room with walls so vibrantly colored that it - wait. I shouldn't be able to see that.

    I reach up to my forehead to see if I'm feeling okay, and I'm met by the scratchy texture of the gauze wrapped around my head.

    "Yay for me. A brain injury, a missed work day, and apparently I'm freakin' high because I'm seeing color," I think dryly.

    A round, pudgy nurse walks in with a clipboard and smiles at me. It's the nice thing to do, so I smile back. I wish I hadn't. Almost instantly after I force a smile, she starts to stab me with needles like I'm some kind of interactive museum exhibit.

    In the midst of trying not to snap, I compliment her bracelet. "Your bracelet is a really pretty shade of blue."

    "What...the...hell...," I think to myself.

    She stops dead in her tracks and looks at me. The eyes that were once fixated on the needles giving me fluids are now fixated into mine.

    "Blue? Excuse me, but I don't know what you're talking about. I've never heard of that word. What is it?" she asks, a confused look flashing across her face.

    "Nothing...," I say. "Blue is nothing. It's just a word I made up. This monotone madness is driving me crazy!" I force a stiff, nervous laugh.

    She laughs back like I had just told the funniest joke ever known to man.
"Oh! Okay! I thought you could see color for a second! If you need anything, let me know!" With that, she walked out of the door.

    If only she knew. Poor little thing. Stuck in a monotone world for the rest of eternity. I turn over, trying not to mess up what they thought was a head injury. I have to play along.

    As I drift off to sleep, I mutter, "Mission accomplished. Dimension #3-D has been conquered. I shall return home tomorrow."

    If only they knew. Poor little things. Stuck in a monotone world for the rest of eternity. I turn over, trying not to mess up what they thought was a head injury.

I have to play along.