A very short story i wrote for my freshman english class. tell me what you think
Life, as I knew it, was only darkness. Only a large sea of smell, touch, taste and sound. From the day I was born I was not able to see, I never saw a baseball game on a hot summer’s day, or a sunset on a chilling fall night. I’ve never seen the face of my one true love, but the one thing I dreaded every day was I never saw the face of my daughter. I didn’t have to see to know she was beautiful; I’ve known that since the day she was born; when I held her tiny, fragile body in my arms. The way her soft skin touched my rough hand the first time she held it. Or the way she cooed when I rocked her back and forth in my arms that first day of her life but never seeing her precious face.
When I was young, I had many brothers and sisters. I was the second youngest and the only one stricken with the curse of blindness. I was always the nerdy kid but mother always said I was the smartest. Because of my differences I was given a lot of special treatment and it went all but unnoticed by my older brothers and sisters. My brothers would mercifully pick on me as my sisters stood back and laughed. From those days forward I vowed to myself that when I was an adult I would only have one perfect child and raise her without hatred.
As a young man it was extremely difficult to find a job a blind man was capable of doing. And finding a partner I’d want to be with my whole life was even harder. Until I heard that sweet, angelic voice; her name was Adelia and she was a new waitress at a bar I spent most of my late twenties in. When I met her I was about twenty-seven. It was her first day on the job and she came over to me to take my order. As she set her soft, beautifully smooth skin on mine and it was as if an explosion occurred inside of me and the rest of the time was a blur. My life went into ecstasy. Adelia was mine. Our hearts beat perfectly in time, and she helped me with all the things I was incapable of doing alone with impeccable patience. I knew she was the one. Three years after we met we officially sealed our love with marriage and just over a year later we celebrated our first and only child, Nora Jane.
Nora Jane grew older and older as Adelia and I grew closer to our end. I never saw my Nora’s face or the faces of her children or her husband. I never saw the faces of those who picked on me as a child, the strangers I’d pass in the street, or the face of my parents before they passed away.
Knowing my time was soon, I sat on a swing in the front yard of our country home; she told me it was baby blue with canary yellow shutters, just the way she imagined it as a child, of course I didn’t mind the color. It was the end of the day and the night’s shivering air was slowly threatening. As we sat here in silence I thought about my life. I realized there were so many questions I’ve wondered about in my life; and to everyone else they have just known those answers since birth. What is baby blue and canary yellow? What is a rainbow? Then I thought of one question I wanted to know more than any other. I turned in my swing and slanted my body towards my wife, “Adelia darling, what does the night’s sky look like?” She turned a little, uncomfortably, “Well, I don’t believe I understand what you mean, Henry,” She said with slight but obvious confusion.
“I was just wondering, I’ve always admired the night’s sky, the way the darkness made me seem just like everyone else, and I was just wondering how you would explain it, since I can never see it.” She turned again; this time I could feel her thinking of how she would explain it. “Well, you see Henry, there’s a giant white crescent that gives off light, we call this the moon, then there are the stars, which are just like the sun but very far away and we can only see a glimpse of,” she stated with a voice that hoped that was the right answer. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. I’ve never seen any of those things,” I said feeling a little dumb and uncomfortable, hoping I hadn’t given her a question she didn’t know how to answer. “I understand.” She said then stood up off the swing and I heard her pace in the grass a few times, each blade swooshing with every elegant step she took, and then she sat back down.
“Do you remember the night you fell in love with me? Well for me, this is the moon. It is the thing that shines above all the rest and guides you when you feel you have no other hope. It is the thing that matters the most to you,” she said and seemed satisfied with her answer. She put her delicate hand to my cheek, “The backdrop or the darkness of the sky is just like the pain you feel when someone has treated you with hatred, or the feeling you get when the chilling winter air come rolling in and you have to cover every inch afraid that you might freeze. This is the empty space.” I was beginning to get a slight idea of what the night looked like, the moon and the darkness, but there was one more thing. What about the stars? “The stars are like any burst of happiness or joy in your life that are trying to cover up the darkness and fill your sky with beauty and love. This is your night’s sky.” I put my other hand on her cheek as well, and almost simultaneously we smiled.
Suddenly my body became weak and I fell into Adelia’s arms. My heart rate quickened, and I began to feel myself stop breathing, and as if in an instant my world lit up. I saw the night’s sky with the moon and stars covering almost every square inch; I looked down to see a beautiful woman maybe twenty-five and knew it must be my Adelia. She looked just the way I thought of her the day we first met and her eyes twinkled with a beauty I’d never seen before and then I noticed the person in my arms. It was a newborn baby with eyes sharing the same beauty I’d just seen with my Adelia, the baby cooed and had a gorgeous head full of curls. Her soft hand held mine and she looked up and gave me a huge smile, my Nora Jane. And in that moment, I knew this was my heaven.
Life, as I knew it, was only darkness. Only a large sea of smell, touch, taste and sound. From the day I was born I was not able to see, I never saw a baseball game on a hot summer’s day, or a sunset on a chilling fall night. I’ve never seen the face of my one true love, but the one thing I dreaded every day was I never saw the face of my daughter. I didn’t have to see to know she was beautiful; I’ve known that since the day she was born; when I held her tiny, fragile body in my arms. The way her soft skin touched my rough hand the first time she held it. Or the way she cooed when I rocked her back and forth in my arms that first day of her life but never seeing her precious face.
When I was young, I had many brothers and sisters. I was the second youngest and the only one stricken with the curse of blindness. I was always the nerdy kid but mother always said I was the smartest. Because of my differences I was given a lot of special treatment and it went all but unnoticed by my older brothers and sisters. My brothers would mercifully pick on me as my sisters stood back and laughed. From those days forward I vowed to myself that when I was an adult I would only have one perfect child and raise her without hatred.
As a young man it was extremely difficult to find a job a blind man was capable of doing. And finding a partner I’d want to be with my whole life was even harder. Until I heard that sweet, angelic voice; her name was Adelia and she was a new waitress at a bar I spent most of my late twenties in. When I met her I was about twenty-seven. It was her first day on the job and she came over to me to take my order. As she set her soft, beautifully smooth skin on mine and it was as if an explosion occurred inside of me and the rest of the time was a blur. My life went into ecstasy. Adelia was mine. Our hearts beat perfectly in time, and she helped me with all the things I was incapable of doing alone with impeccable patience. I knew she was the one. Three years after we met we officially sealed our love with marriage and just over a year later we celebrated our first and only child, Nora Jane.
Nora Jane grew older and older as Adelia and I grew closer to our end. I never saw my Nora’s face or the faces of her children or her husband. I never saw the faces of those who picked on me as a child, the strangers I’d pass in the street, or the face of my parents before they passed away.
Knowing my time was soon, I sat on a swing in the front yard of our country home; she told me it was baby blue with canary yellow shutters, just the way she imagined it as a child, of course I didn’t mind the color. It was the end of the day and the night’s shivering air was slowly threatening. As we sat here in silence I thought about my life. I realized there were so many questions I’ve wondered about in my life; and to everyone else they have just known those answers since birth. What is baby blue and canary yellow? What is a rainbow? Then I thought of one question I wanted to know more than any other. I turned in my swing and slanted my body towards my wife, “Adelia darling, what does the night’s sky look like?” She turned a little, uncomfortably, “Well, I don’t believe I understand what you mean, Henry,” She said with slight but obvious confusion.
“I was just wondering, I’ve always admired the night’s sky, the way the darkness made me seem just like everyone else, and I was just wondering how you would explain it, since I can never see it.” She turned again; this time I could feel her thinking of how she would explain it. “Well, you see Henry, there’s a giant white crescent that gives off light, we call this the moon, then there are the stars, which are just like the sun but very far away and we can only see a glimpse of,” she stated with a voice that hoped that was the right answer. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. I’ve never seen any of those things,” I said feeling a little dumb and uncomfortable, hoping I hadn’t given her a question she didn’t know how to answer. “I understand.” She said then stood up off the swing and I heard her pace in the grass a few times, each blade swooshing with every elegant step she took, and then she sat back down.
“Do you remember the night you fell in love with me? Well for me, this is the moon. It is the thing that shines above all the rest and guides you when you feel you have no other hope. It is the thing that matters the most to you,” she said and seemed satisfied with her answer. She put her delicate hand to my cheek, “The backdrop or the darkness of the sky is just like the pain you feel when someone has treated you with hatred, or the feeling you get when the chilling winter air come rolling in and you have to cover every inch afraid that you might freeze. This is the empty space.” I was beginning to get a slight idea of what the night looked like, the moon and the darkness, but there was one more thing. What about the stars? “The stars are like any burst of happiness or joy in your life that are trying to cover up the darkness and fill your sky with beauty and love. This is your night’s sky.” I put my other hand on her cheek as well, and almost simultaneously we smiled.
Suddenly my body became weak and I fell into Adelia’s arms. My heart rate quickened, and I began to feel myself stop breathing, and as if in an instant my world lit up. I saw the night’s sky with the moon and stars covering almost every square inch; I looked down to see a beautiful woman maybe twenty-five and knew it must be my Adelia. She looked just the way I thought of her the day we first met and her eyes twinkled with a beauty I’d never seen before and then I noticed the person in my arms. It was a newborn baby with eyes sharing the same beauty I’d just seen with my Adelia, the baby cooed and had a gorgeous head full of curls. Her soft hand held mine and she looked up and gave me a huge smile, my Nora Jane. And in that moment, I knew this was my heaven.