Those Pretty Blind Eyes

Chapter 1: What She Sees.

(TANYA)

The world is beautiful, everything in this world, the green trees that is swaying, the colourful flowers that smells nice, the calm clouds in the sky, the smiles of the people in the park, just everything. That’s how I wanted to see things however I started to like the bad scenery too. Like the smelly garbage truck, the graffiti in the wall of the dirty street, the scary old abandon house or the homeless street children. Being desperate like I am you don’t have a choice. Whether it is a good thing or bad, just to fill the emptiness within me, you’ll be desperate.

They say that if you don’t want to see the things you don’t like just close your eyes. I want to laugh on that because for me I’ll give to you all I’ve got just to see what you don’t want to see. In my life, darkness is always with me.

“Hey hon,” a familiar deep voice said as he kissed my forehead.

“Good morning Dad,” I replied with a small smile.

I’ve been living with my Dad alone since my Mom died in a car accident when I was ten years old and the evidence of the tragic accident was still fresh in me. Since I am the only child, it’s just always been me and him. My mom was a great musician and my father is great in repairing instruments so they decided to make a business about selling and repairing different instruments just in the other part of our house. See, even their habits are compatible they are my favourite love story. My Mom used to teach me how to play the piano, she was not the best teacher but I love her.

“Hon, could you please hand me the ketchup? It’s in your right beside your glass of water,” my Dad said.

“Sure,” I agreed and moved my hand to my left I felt the coldness of the water from my glass and I carefully took the ketchup beside it then gave it to my Dad who was on my left side.

“So, I’ll be going to Mrs. Lakey later to repair her precious grand piano, are you going to be fine alone in here?” Dad asked.

“Yes and Olivia said that she’ll drop by. Mrs. Lakey? You’re going to repair her piano again?” I questioned as I finished my breakfast.

“Yup, her old grand piano,”

“Hey, don’t talk like that to her piano. It was given to her by her deceased husband, it is very important to her,” I scolded him a bit.

“I’m not complaining,” he defended, “I’m actually thankful because I got money from it,” he continued and I just chuckled. I felt that he moved and it looks like he is cleaning the table.

“I’m going now so that I’ll be able to go back early and I already opened the shop,” he kissed my forehead again and I felt his presence being gone.

I already mastered our house. It’s not really big. It has three bedrooms one for me, for my Dad and the other one is just when my relatives or friend of ours decided to stay in our house. Most of my time I am in the shop or I’ll just sit in the big hammock located at our back porch. I walked with familiarity in our house and opened the door that connected to the shop.

I sat on a chair on the counter and started to read the Braille book, not literally reading it because all I do was touching it. Then I heard the bell rang, means someone entered the shop.

“Good morning Tanya,” a cheerful voice said.

“Same to you Olivia,” I smiled and she started to babble about things that I don’t really pay attention to. I just let her do that because I need the noise to keep me away from the emptiness I’ve been feeling. Olivia Marie Smith is her full name and we are childhood friends and she didn’t leave me after the accident, when everyone does.

“Really Tanya, you’re always in here why don’t we go to the mall or somewhere?” she said.

“You know I’m not comfortable to the places that I’m not familiar with,” I answered.

“I’ll be with you! Come on Tan, sometimes you need to get out from the shell,” she insisted, “Please?! Please, please, please, please, please!”

“Okay, okay, I’m going to ask Dad about it,” I agreed in defeat.

“Good! I know David will say yes. He definitely going to say yes,” she confidently stated. Suddenly our conversation was interrupted by the bell.

“Good morning,” a male voice said.

“Morning,” we greeted.

“I’m looking for some nylon strings for a guitar,” the male said.

“Oh, I know where it is, I’ll just get it,” Olivia chirped and I felt that she walked away, definitely going to the string section.

“This place is nice,” the man complimented.

“Thanks,” I replied, “We also repair instruments.”

“Really, that’s great! Actually I don’t know how to replace those strings in the guitar,” he admitted, “I’m just learning how to play a guitar.”

“If you want we can change it,” I offered.

“Yeah, I like that. Then I’ll just wait here while you do it.”

“Actually, it’s my Dad who repairs the instruments and unfortunately he’s still not here,” I said.

“You don’t know how to change it?” he inquired.

Well, this is the part where I don’t really like. “I’m blind,” I confessed and there goes the silence. I think he was in a state of shock. I felt a movement just in front of my face.

“You’re waving your hand in front of me,” I stated.

“Ah- I-I’m sorry,” he apologized.

“It’s okay, I always get that,” I gave him a small smile.

“I’m really am sorry. I was hoping that I could buy you lunch,” he said.

Okay, that’s something that doesn’t usually happen, “How old are you?” I questioned.

“Eighteen,” he answered.

“Well, I’m twenty two,” I said, “I’m blind and older than you. Do you still want to buy me lunch?” I asked softly.

“Okay maybe this is awkward,” he sighed. “But maybe we can be friends?”

“Is that out of pity?” I bluntly asked.

“Do you always get that a lot too?” he asked and I replied with a shrugged, “I just want to be friend of you. Believe it or not I’m a good guy.”

I smiled. People wouldn’t like to deal with my disability, “I’m Tanya Rose Santiago, I’m the daughter of the owner of this shop, I’m blind and I’m twenty two years old. If you really want to be my friend, you have to deal with it.”

“I’m Darren Brown, I’m eighteen years old and just learning how to play the guitar and it would be a great honour to be your friend, Tanya,” he said.

“And the girl who is eavesdropping to us is my best friend, Olivia Marie Smith,” I said.

“Hey! I’m not eavesdropping, I just overheard your conversation,” she said cheerfully.

“Darren, what is her face look right now?” I asked him.

“Hmmm, her smile meets her eyes. It’s very scary,” he answered jokingly.

“It’s not! I’m just thinking that if there’s a romance in the air,” her voice sounds like she is using her wild imagination again.

“I don’t like to hit with older women,” Darren defended.

“And I don’t like to go out with a child,” I defended also with a hint of teasing him.

“Hey! I’m not a child! I’m an adult, I’m eighteen!” he countered.

I just laughed at him then they started to chat. I could feel that Darren is a good guy and I started to like him in a brotherly manner.

“So, I’ll just leave my guitar here and I’ll come back tomorrow to get it,” he said.

“Okay, we’ll take care of it,” I confirmed. He said his goodbye before he decided to go home. After that Olivia kept on teasing me about him and she only stopped when I told her a piece of my mind. Happily, she accepted that Darren and I are only friends.

Olivia went home when my Dad came back. The first thing that she said to him was about the mall thing and as she predicted Dad was greatly happy about it. I’m not really fond of going outside my comfort zone. I mean when you’re blind you can’t do anything especially to the place you are not familiar with. You can’t move freely because you can bump into someone or something. And also people will stare and talk about you, I can’t literally see them staring at me but when you’re blind, your sixth sense is stronger that I can feel their piercing and intimidating stares.

Dad is the person I love most besides Mom, of course. He’s always there for me and he doesn’t make me feel like I’m different. He let me do things alone even though he’s very worried. Although he doesn’t show it I know that he’s tired to have a blind daughter. Well who wouldn’t be, you have to check on her every time every day, you have to be on her side, you have to do all the things like cooking, washing, cleaning, working and everything that I’m not capable of doing. So I didn’t let myself be a burden and made myself to be useful. Like I always said, “I’m blind, not a cripple.”

It’s always been like this. I always thought that it was my punishment but I already accepted things and I am thankful that I’m alive so that Dad wouldn’t be lonely. Dad has only me and I know he is very devastated when Mom died. He is trying to be strong for both of us. Even though the darkness surrounded me I’m still trying to see the brightness for everyone.

***

Beware: grammar may be bad.

Thank you for reading. Please comment!