A young woman, about 20, sits on a bus peering ahead through the crowd. She stares intently at something several seats ahead of her: it's the back of someone's head. After a moment, she makes a decision, gets up and makes her way over to the person. When she arrives, we see that the object of her attention is a man, about 65, reading a newspaper. The young woman begins to speak:
“ Sir I’m so sorry to disturb you, but I had to ask, you have been intently staring at the newspaper for the longest time, excuse me for being so blunt, but I noticed that you, well, I noticed that..” The man interrupted her, “You noticed that I am blind, and you are wondering what I am doing with a newspaper not printed in braille”
The young woman, a little embarrassed, but also quite excited, replied, “Well yes. I was most fascinated, because you didn’t seem to pretend to be reading, you also made no efforts to show that you are not, umm…visually impaired, instead, it seemed like you were actually reading!”
“You are most observant indeed. Well things are not always what they seem,” replied the man, with a mysterious smile.
“Does that mean that you weren’t reading, or that you aren’t blind?”
The man chuckled and said, “Why does it have to mean either of those things dear?”
The bus came to a halt, and the man left. The woman, unable to contain her curiosity, followed him, even though her destination was nowhere near. Chasing after the man, she said, “Sir please, you must tell me how you were reading”.
“You again miss. Do you live nearby?” The man turned to cross the road. “Do you need any help”, the woman asked, feeling stupid even as she said those words out loud, because for some reason she was engulfed by this intuition that he could probably cross the road better that she could. And right she was, as the man expertly whizzed by the speeding traffic, in perfect control. She couldn’t contain herself any longer. “You aren’t really blind are you”, she asked accusingly. The man, not at all offended, merely amused, quietly turned around and looked directly into her eyes, as if he could see right through her, but anyone who had seen his eye sockets right then could guarantee, that he couldn’t see anything at all, let alone her. She may have doubted his impairment once, but there was no way she could do it a second time around. It was undeniably clear, that he was blind!
This confirmation, instead of helping her in anyway just intensified her curiosity. She had to know the secret behind the man. He was definitely blind, yet the way he walked, seemed to read, was not something a blind man could do. It wasn’t even like an experience, which came after an adjustment to this way of life. It was, for lack of better words, simply as if he could see.
She followed him relentlessly, determined to get answers, and he would just throw her a mysterious smile, with one riddle after another. Furiously planning on a way to get him to respond, she almost lost him, as he went across another road, in a desperate attempt to catch up, she ran. She almost didn’t notice a speeding bus, she clutched her eyes close, rooted to the spot with fear, when a hand pulled her forward just in time.
The man had saved her! “ If people didn’t know any better, they would say that you were the blind one between the two of us young lady”, said the man. They halted at a residential building. “This is where I live, would you like to come in?” he asked. Normally very apprehensive of strangers, she hesitated, but then realizing that he had just saved her life, and more so because she couldn’t suppress her curiosity, she accepted.
“My name is Rita Wilson”, she offered, “ I am a studying to be an ophthalmologist at the state owned local university” “Aha! Now I understand the reason for your curiosity. My name is Jacob Matthews, I am a janitor at the state bank”, he quipped.
“Well now that we have introductions out of the way, I am sure you can tell me how you do it. And please do not respond in another riddle” she warned. “But I do nothing.” “No, you can see, how I do not know, but then that is what I am here to find out.” “That is most absurd. I obviously cannot see, and one such as yourself, studying to be an ophthalmologist should know better.” “Is it some sort of training you have given yourself? If yes, kindly share it with me, it would greatly help many like you!”
“No it isn’t any form of training, its just a heightened awareness of other senses” “But that cannot be, there must be something more to it. No one with other senses so heightened can do what I saw you doing.” “Well seeing as you aren’t going to leave me alone till I tell you, here you go.”
He guided her to a chair, blindfolded her eyes. She protested, but he told her to relax and lie back. He then took her finger and placed them in a shallow bowl filled with some bright red liquid. He then said, “Now open your eyes” “But how can I? You have me blindfolded”. “That is the major problem today, eyes are but a medium to the soul, and the brain, I mean open your inner eyes, clear your mind”
He moved a step away, picked up a tennis racquet, “Ready?”, he called, but before she had the chance to reply, he waved the racquet with great speed, stopping just short of her face. She screamed loudly, and moved violently, causing her to topple over the chair. Still quite ruffled she quickly removed the blindfold. “Are you crazy? Did you want to crack my skull?” she yelled. “I was merely giving a demonstration for which you pestered me this entire afternoon”
He gestured towards the sofa, and she sat down. After five minutes, when she was again collected and calm she asked, “ what happened? That was most extraordinary. I was blindfolded, and everything was black, but then you waived that racquet at me and I could’ve sworn that its image formed in my head, the colours were fuzzy, and the picture was detailed as if made from many vibrating particles, but the outline of the object was amazingly sharp and clear! How did that happen? Are you a miracle worker of some sort? The liquid! Did you mix something in that? Is that why I could see? What is in that bowl?”
“That’s too many questions at once! And I am not sure I have the answers to all. But I will tell you; yes the liquid is one of my inventions. It heightens our sense of touch so much, that even a gust of wind can create a shape and an image.“ that’s incredible! Did you say it is one of your inventions? Then what are you doing as a janitor sir? You could easily have become rich and famous!”
“The usual question. I had hoped you would be smarter than that. I don not desires riches or fame. I lost my eyes in a tragic accident, but I never see that as a curse, for only when I lost my eyes, did I begin to see more clearly”
“You do talk in awful lot in puzzles, don’t you? How did you lose your eyes, what happened?” “I am not sure you want to hear it. Why would you be interested in an old man’s tale? It is neither entertaining nor instructive” “Tell me anyway”
“Well then here goes. About fifty years ago, when I was just a boy, and maybe even your parents weren’t born, I lived in place called Marsifica. You may have never heard of it, hardly any one has. It is but a village with a largely tribal population. In fact you might be surprised of the absurd traditions and practices still followed there. Well I was a victim of one such practice. Every year, to appease the storm God they would offer a blood sacrifice of crow’s eyes. Year after year the place was protected, it never faced any storms, and then in the winter of 1962, when I had just turned 15 we had the worst snowstorm ever. It persisted for weeks at a stretch, and at least 30 fit men perished in its fury. The entire village was extremely worried, and went to the head seer for advice. The seer suggested that the only thing that would now appease the god was to be sacrifice of human eyes; the eyes of someone who was good hearted, and genuinely appreciated the gift of vision. It so happened that I fit all the criteria. So ….”
“Oh dear lord! You were right. I absolutely shouldn’t have asked, that was most brutal, does that mean that you were the object of a superstitious sacrifice? That is most outrageous. What about your parents? Didn’t they protest?” “Of course they didn’t protest, they were honored to offer their son, and be of service to the Gods”, he replied. “You say that so calmly, I would have been enraged at them, at the whole lot of them. You truly are a wise and evolved man! They were idiots for doing this to you” “Well not really. I forgave them once I realized that my contribution helped save so many lives.” “But that is outrageous, surely you don’t believe that sacrifices actually appease Gods, and prevent disasters? You have suffered so greatly at the hands of this how could you possibly` back the concept? I am sure you are pulling my leg, someone as wise as you, cannot support such nonsense.”
The smile returned on Jacob’s lips, possibly the brightest and widest up till now. “I see that smirk! So you were joking! Of course you were” she quipped. In her excitement she didn’t notice that Jacob had walked into the kitchen and emerged with a sinister looking instrument, with two points facing forward. She just barely managed to look at him, before he plunged the two nails with great force into her eyes. “Was I really joking?” Jacob said. The last thing she remembered was Jacobs sinister smile, before she was engulfed in darkness forever. .
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