Prologue
Instantly. That’s how quickly it can happen. That’s how quickly your world can change, explode in your face.
That’s what happened to me.
It was the fourth of July, exactly one month after our graduation from High School. We were out on the beach, the beach rumored to have the coldest waters in the United States. It was called Sand Beach, but it was hardly a beach by normal standards. Just a patch of jagged sand that tiny cold waves crashed upon.
Kids from the island who were there to work on school vacation would flock to Sand Beach, which rested within the confines of Acadia National Park in the warm evenings of summer on Mt. Desert Island. That night, the boys had brought fireworks smuggled in from their cousins in South Carolina. Eric, a skinny blonde boy who had been a friend of mine since my Freshman year, had been bragging about them for weeks and could hardly contain himself when we got to the beach. We all busted open one of our 24 packs of Milwaukee’s Best and cranked our stereos that played Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots.
Eric sent one of his rockets off and it flew into the air, spewing flames and lights all around. Then he sent out another and another. Soon, they began landing on the beach. One actually landed right next to me. I approached it, my beer in my left hand. I would be beginning college in only 6 weeks; riding on a full scholarship to Wellesley. I was going to major in medicine. I had plans to practice in Africa, perhaps in the Peace Corps. I had my entire life laid out in front of me.
And then, everything exploded.
Thank God I don’t remember the actual explosion or the way it felt as the rocket went off in my face. There are only small segments that I recall. The way it was all red in front of my eyes, the way things would come in and out and then blur up and finally there would be only stars, the way it felt as if a thousand tiny needles were sticking in my pupils over and over again and then I would faint from the pain or the revulsion or just the fear. I remember my friend, Bill, who we all called Bull, a large boy who wrestled but was the cuddliest and sweetest of most of my male friends, carrying me to the road where we waited for the ambulance. I remember the sound of the sirens and of the soft hand of the EMT on my cheek telling me, “It’s alright, darlin’, everything is gonna be alright…” as I whimpered.
A day later I woke up. And in an instant my world had changed. In an instant, I was blind.
Chapter 1
Blind
NinasFiction
NinasFeet
