Blind But Not, Another Short Story

“Julia, look out!”
Laura’s warning came to late. A snowball smacked right into my chest with great force. I looked over at the most possible thrower. The other twin, Lucy, who was more athletic. White sparkles erupted when the ball hit my jacket and I laughed.
“Lucy, better look out!” I scooped up a handful of snow and hurled it in her direction.
It missed. With a half smirk she ran around the house. Our dog, Dotty, suddenly came bounding across the yard, kicking up the snow with her paws, tongue hanging out like it didn’t have any muscle in it at all. With a SMACK she plowed through our snowman and then into our legs. But we laughed anyways. The snow was still falling like bubbles and as I looked around, nearly everyone had rosy cheeks. I smiled. The ground practically gleamed with pure whiteness and few cars were out, dew to the slushy ice conditions of the road. My brain quietly drifted to Alicia, one of my best neighborhood friends. However, she was blind. Unable to see the snow, I wondered how she could enjoy it. The snow squeaked under our boots as Laura and I made another snowman. Lucy took Dotty for a short walk and then came back. While rolling the snow I kept remembering how Alicia described the spring for me, which was really a project for her school. She never used colors, never said ‘the grass was green’; she couldn’t tell you if something was brown or black. Red or pink. She couldn’t see, it was impossible for colors to be in her mind. But the way she described it with her other senses now blew me away. I closed my eyes and listened to the squeak of my boots, the feel of the snow in my hand and the way my glove captured my fingers. Now I understood. She wasn’t really blind. I was blind with my other senses. My reports for school were never as life like as hers, without sight she depended on other things, which made everything imaginable. When my reports said ‘see the pink flowers in the town of all the old’ hers said ‘the soft velvet of bending shapes waved under my touch in a breeze as I heard the wiser conversing’. In reality. She wasn’t blind. I was blind, but not. It had been snowing for two days and now I heard a voice calling me.
“Julia!” I turned to the road and, to my surprise, saw Alicia waving from the backseat of her car.
“Alicia!” I ran over and gave her shoulders a hug. “Are you enjoying the snow?”
“Yes. Are you? It’s so soft, like fluff from a pillow. And cold, like the icy water from the hose. Remember how we stood in it last summer?”
I was about to nod my head yes, then remembered her blindness.
“Oh yeah.” My mind again drifted to the spring speech. “Ali,” As I affectionately called her, “Will you describe it to me? The way you see it.”
A smiled cracked her lips. “Of course.”
And so she began.
“The snow squeaks under your boots like new shoes on polished marble. Its soft, like the downy fluff in pillows and cold like ice water that you drink when it’s summer hot. The snowflakes are like softly frozen raindrops that fall very softly and land on your tongue and cheeks. It chaps your hands and makes you cold. My mom made hot chocolate when we came in. You have to wear a big coat, like a marshmallow and long socks to protect your feet from the rubbing of your boots.”
My mouth dropped open as she finished. She could not see it, but somehow that made me see it better then saying ‘it was frozen rain, white and soft’. She described it beautifully.
“Alicia.” I finally manage to say. “That was beautiful.”
Another smile cracked her mouth and somehow made its way onto mine.
“Thank you. I should probably get going now. Benny called and said he had a snowwoman for me. I can’t wait to see it.”
It was almost like a joke. Then she realized how it sounded and smiled with a laugh.
“Well, you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do. Bye.”
“See you around.” Then she realized it again and laughed. “I’ll stop by sometime. Is tomorrow okay?”
I almost nodded my head. I was blind, but not.

Wowsers! Please to space this out more evenly.

I'm liking this very much.

Thanks Stori! This is just one short story. There was another one, Blind of Nothing that I wrote from Alicia's (the blind girl) perspective. I went outside when it snowed and closed my eyes to feel what it was like to be blind in the snow. Cool, huh?

it's fantastical!!!!!!!!!!!!!!