The one with the blind man

this story tries to be a glimpse at an emotional conversation between two people. One of them is blind.

I will never forget William. He was a very interesting man, not gonna lie. Unlike many other people, he was blind. He was born blind, but that wasn’t an issue for him. He was about my age at the time we first met. I couldn’t even tell that he was blind, I just thought he was staring at the sun for no reason. I had forgotten my watch at home that day, so I went to him and asked if he could tell me the time, and even though he had a watch on his wrist, he told me no. I pointed out the fact that he had a watch, but he moved his head towards me, took out his glasses, somehow stared me in the eye, and said “I’m blind”. I had never met a blind person before, and we started talking about how it’s like, how he manages to survive like that, but he was not annoyed or anything. He was very patient with me, actually, and answered all my stupid questions.

A few months later, while I was looking at his beautiful face, I just asked him what I wanted to ask for a long time ”Do you know how you look like?” he said no. And silence fell for a minute probably, until he said “Describe him to me”. I was speechless. How can I describe his face, to a man who has never seen a face in his life, actually anything in his life.

“Well” I started, “your skin is very pale.”

“Pale?”

“Yes. It’s very light” and I stopped talking to analyze his features.

“Go on” he encouraged me.

I looked around his mouth.

“You have a sharp chin, and thin lips, that hide a perfect pair of white teeth” I stopped again to look a little more. “You also have a sharp nose, which I think fits with your face perfectly” and I don’t know why, but my hand moved on his face, and it was on his cheek, then it shifted for in between his eyes, my fingers moving gently down his nose. He didn’t say anything. “And your eyes… they have a beautiful shade of blue… and are so big and bright all the time… but they-” I did not even know what I wanted to say, and I stood silent as he placed his hand over mine, on his cheek.

“You know, I am grateful for these eyes, because if they weren’t like this, I would have never met you. It is true that sometimes I’d like to see things, but it is the way God wanted, so I just accept my fate. Now describe your face” this took me by surprise. His beautiful words made me tear up, and I was a little confused.

“I’m not sure I can do that” I replied, making sure to hide the fact that my voice was shaking from the tears.

“Nonsense. Okay, let me try to describe it” I was a little confused by what he said, so I just replied a whispered “okay”. He took his hand and planted it on my cheek. He moved it down to my jaw, and with his soft fingers he got to my chin. He then moved his fingers a little higher, to my lips. He had stopped there, just feeling my mouth with the tip of his fingers. He leaned in, his face getting closer and closer to my face, his lips coming for mine. He kissed me. He kissed me with passion, and I felt the love in his empty looking eyes. He had moved his hand on my cheek, where warm tears were still falling. He removed his lips from mine, and I was looking at him, but his face was turned just a little away.

“I did not mean to scare you” his face turned red now. “If you hate me now, I will understand.” He almost started crying too, but I reached for his hands. I closed them in mine, squeezing them hard.

“I do not mind” I answered him. “I could never mind what you do.”

His hands came back on my face. He put it on my cheek, moved it down to my jaw again, moved towards the chin, up again, but this time it did not stop. I went up to my nose, he was touching it and said “It’s not like mine. Yours has another shape. It’s curved, and more round” and his fingers moved from my face.

“What is the color of your eyes?” his hand was kind of moving back and forth very fast, more like shaking.

“They are dark brown” I said. “Almost black”

“At least I know how that color looks like” his chin moved down, his face was no longer red, but it seemed gloomy. I felt bad for him, but I didn’t want him to know. I looked at him, and I felt lucky at how I can see the world.

“You said my eyes are blue. How does that look like?” the question took me by surprise. I had to think of an answer that would sound good… “please”. It sounded so desperate. I think he just wanted to change the subject.

“Well… it is a very calming color… just imagine you are floating” that was a poor description, but I could not think of anything else. At that moment he just sat himself on the bed, with his hands on his chest, and his eyes closed.

He let out a sigh, and a moan, and said in a very soft voice “I can’t see it, but I can feel it” and for some reason, they were the most beautiful words I had ever heard him say. “Describe me another one”

“Another color?”

“Yes” and we sat there for hours, just talking about colors. 

THE END

Author's Note

english is not my first language. I would like to know how this story feels for others, not the structure. Also, if there are any mistakes please point them out