Her Eyes Can't See Her

Her Eyes Can’t See Her

     Kimberly Morrison walked down the light gray haze of a hallway in her Middle School, looking at the other students milling around there. Mostly, she was looking at the other boys. Especially, the ones who were either all alone or with one or two other boys.

     Only Gannon Middle School didn’t look like a school right now. Not only was there a light gray hazy mist making it hard for Kimberly to see the other students talking to each other, couples holding hands, and a few kissing, but some of the walls were missing.

     So, Kimberly could see both students and teachers in some of the classrooms. She could also see there were no lockers for the students to use. Except for the students with their school supplies and the teachers, it didn’t look like a school hallway at all.

     When Kimberly saw a boy her age alone after walking away from a couple of other boys, she went up to him. A few seconds after she started talking to him, he shook his head no, then said something and walked away. Within only a few more seconds, Kimberly talked with about twelve other boys. The results were the same.

     Suddenly, Kimberly was in her bedroom getting ready for bed. The almost white-gray mist was still there as she closed her closet door and looked at herself on the door where her full-length mirror was. “No wonder none of the boys want to go with me to the Sadie Hawkins dance.”

     “Look at me. Except for my height that looks normal for a girl my age, I look more like I’m nine or ten, maybe eleven, instead of twelve.”

     Kimberly turned away from her mirror and walked over to her bed. She barely got under her covers and closed her eyes when she sat up in her bed. The haze was now gone. Slowly, Kimberly started looking around her bedroom. Only she wasn’t looking. She started screaming. “What happened to me? I can’t see. I’m blind.”

##

     “That sounds like a very bad dream,” said Dr. Pamela Stanton. “Only it wasn’t just a dream. Was it?”

     “Unfortunately, it wasn’t,” said Kimberly. “Well, it was sort of, but at the same time it wasn’t.”

     Kimberly continued squirming in the chair across from Pamela. Trying to keep her face facing Pamela from where her voice was. “There is a Sadie Hawkins coming up, and I did ask a lot of boys to it, but I didn’t do it as fast as I did in my dream.”

     “I have been trying to get a date to this dance for almost two weeks,” continued Kimberly. “Unfortunately, they have all ended the same. They look under my chin, and they come up with an excuse for not taking me.”

     “What kind of an excuse have they been coming up with?” Pamela asked.

     Kimberly leaned forward in her chair too. She adjusted her head to face Pamela again. “Most of them said they already had a date for the dance. I know a lot of them weren’t telling me the truth.”

     Pamela kept writing down everything she and Kimberly said. Plus, a few things she thought needed writing down. “Why do you think they have been doing this?”

     "Look at me,” answered Kimberly as she gestured with her hands to the top half of her body. “Isn’t it obvious why they did it?”

     “Do you really think that’s the reason?” Pamela asked.

     Kimberly smiled. “Of course, I do. What else can it be? I know I’m not very pretty, but I’m not ugly either. I’m just like all the other girls in my grade except for one thing.”

     “How long have you been coming to see me with this problem you think you have?” Pamela asked.

     “It has been almost two years,” answered Kimberly. “Why are you asking me that now?”

     Pamela leaned back in her chair and put the notebook she had been writing in down in her lap. The top half of her body didn’t have much there either. “I know you can’t see me right now, but do you remember what I looked like before you became blind?”

     “Don’t understand,” answered Kimberly. “What are you talking about?”

     “I’m talking about what I looked like when I was your age,” answered Pamela. “I looked a lot like you do now and see how I turned out.”

     Kimberly opened her eyes as wide as she could, and her jaw dropped. “What are you saying? That I’m going to look like you when I get old.”

     “No, that’s not what I’m trying to say. What I want to say is that it’s okay if you turn out to be more like me.”

     “Your parents selected me as your psychiatrist because of the way I look. They thought you might relate to me better. At first, I disagreed with them, but after meeting you I agreed.”

     Kimberly shook her head sadly from side to side very slowly. “I have been coming to see you twice a week for almost two years, and I still look the same. Wait, I have changed. I’m blind now.”

     “You finally mentioned your blindness. Are you ready to talk about it?”

     “What’s there to talk about? I went to sleep last night, and when I woke up this morning, I was blind.”

     Kimberly leaned forward again in her chair. “My mom took me to my doctor just before she brought me here. I didn’t want to come here today, but my mom thought it would be good for me to do it. Besides, they pay you whether I come here or not. So, I might as well come.”

     “After my doctor checked me out, she said she didn’t understand why I was blind. She said it was called Sudden Temporary Blindness. It didn’t happen too often, but it did, and it could happen at any age.”

     “Since it’s only temporary did your doctor say how long it would last?” Pamela asked.

     Kimberly shook her head slowly again. “She said it could be hours, days, weeks, or months before I got my eyesight back. If I do ever get it back. It doesn’t happen too often either, but it can also be permanent too.”

     "The eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend," said Pamela. “Do you know what this means? I think it means you will get your sight back once your mind comprehends why you have lost it.”

     “I think it’s stress. You had a bad dream that hit too close to home, and your mind couldn’t comprehend it. So, it took away your sight. Once you calm down, I think you will get your sight back.”

     Just then the little alarm clock on the coffee table beside her went off. Pamela turned it off. “Our meeting is over for today. I will see you on Thursday. Hopefully, your eyesight will be back by then. If not, we can talk more about it then.”

     Pamela got up at the same Kimberly did. Kimberly extended her left elbow. So that Pamela could take her arm and escort her out of her office. Just before getting to her office door, they stopped. Pamela took her hand off Kimberly’s arm so she could open the door for her. Her mother, Jessica, was on the other side of that door in the Waiting Room waiting to take over the escorting.

##

     Jessica turned her head slightly so that she could look at Kimberly too. “How did your meeting go today?”

     “It went okay,” answered Kimberly. “We mostly talked about my problem.”

     “Did you talk about your blindness?” Jessica asked.

     Kimberly didn’t look at her mother. “A little bit toward the end of my meeting.”

     “What did she say about it?” Jessica asked.

     “I’m not exactly sure,” answered Kimberly. “I think it was something about my mind not accepting what my eyes were seeing. Something like that.”

     Jessica drove in silence after that. A few minutes later she pulled their family car into their driveway. Jessica got out of her car and went to the other side to let Kimberly out. They had barely started walking toward the front door of their house when they heard Patrick Connelly shouting from down the street as he ran up toward them.

     “There you are. I’ve been looking for you. Where have you been? You weren’t in school today.”

     “Isn’t that your friend Patrick?” Jessica asked.

     Kimberly stopped walking toward their house. “Haven’t seen him in a while,” said Jessica. “He’s kind of cute. Have you asked him to the dance yet?”

     “No, I haven’t. I’m not going to either,” answered Kimberly. “Not only is it because he’s a friend but because I’m not going to this stupid dance. Especially, not now that I’m blind.”

     Patrick stopped running after he finally got to their driveway. He had to catch his breath before he continued. “Where have you been all day?”

     "You already asked me that,” answered Kimberly. “I think the whole neighborhood heard you.”

     “Sorry, but when you didn’t show up for school today I got worried. Worried about you the whole day. Couldn’t wait for school to get over with so that I could look for you. What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

     Kimberly didn’t look in the direction of Patrick’s voice. “I’m fine. At least I think I will be in time. I don’t know how to say this. So, I’m just going to say it. I’m blind.”

     “Your what?” Kimberly couldn’t see the shocked look on Patrick’s face. “How did that happen?”

     “I don’t know,” answered Kimberly. “When I woke this morning, I was blind.”

     Patrick didn’t say anything for about a minute. He just stared at Kimberly. “Sorry about that too.”

     “No need to be sorry,” said Kimberly. “It’s not your fault I’m blind.”

     “I know,” said Patrick. “I’m just trying to be kind about what has happened to you.”

     Kimberly smiled. “Thanks.”

     “Thanks for you being worried about me too,” Kimberly continued. “Is that the only reason you have been looking for me?”

     “You know me so well,” answered Patrick. “No, that’s not the only reason.”

     Patrick fidgeted around for about a minute before he spoke again. “I know you are the one who is supposed to ask me to the Sadie Hawkins dance, but since you haven’t done it yet, I wanted to ask you to ask me to it.”

     “I thought about asking you.” Kimberly lied. “Decided not to because I’m not going to this dance.”

     “Why? It’s not because of your blindness, is it?”

     Kimberly shook her head ‘no’ slowly. “That’s one of the reasons now, but it’s not the only one. It’s not even the main one.”

     “The main reason I’m not going is because of the way I look.” Kimberly continued after a few seconds.

     “You look good to me,” responded Patrick. “I know what you’re talking about, and I’m not interested in that. Well, that isn’t exactly true. Of course, I’m interested in that, but I’m also not interested in it.”

     Patrick was getting tongue-tied again. “At least not when it comes to you. I want to go to the dance with you because it’s you, and not because of the way you look.”

     Kimberly smiled at Patrick. “I think you mean that. Especially, since you are smiling too.”

     “Of course, I mean it. Wait a second? Did you say you saw me smiling?”

     “Yes, I did. I’m not blind anymore. I don’t know why, and I don’t really care, but I got my sight back.”

     Patrick took Kimberly’s hand and started walking into Kimberly’s house. Not because she was blind, but because he wanted to do it. He couldn’t stop looking at her. “By the way, you still haven’t asked me to the Sadie Hawkins dance yet.”

The Word Count = 1,971