CHAPTER 5
A New Horizon
∞
Whitney woke up early Sunday morning. She wasn’t brought out of her sleep by an
alarm clock, or the sound of a car horn, or by the morning cry of a
rooster. None of these things were
capable of reaching the neurons of her brain.
What did bring her out of her sleep were the aching pains of her
muscles. Nearly every muscle in her body
felt the way that a tree sounds as it is slowly falling over when someone cuts
it down.
But the pains she felt as she laid in bed were nothing
compared to those she felt as she swung her legs over the side of it. Those pains were as if a thousand tiny
firecrackers were exploding throughout her entire body. The pains, however, were worth it.
For the first time in her life she felt like she was
something. She wasn’t sure what that was
yet exactly, but she was something.
Before that she didn’t feel like she was anything but her thoughts and
imagination. She wasn’t a student at any
school. She wasn’t an athlete like
Tommy, or a cook like Carol Anne, and she wasn’t a real-estate agent like
Blake. The only words that could be used
to describe her were a blind and deaf couch potato. Other than that she had nothing.
It didn’t mean that she wasn’t smart. She was and she knew that. They lived close enough to the school so that
she could piggy back with Tommy and she would spend most of her days during the
school year in Tommy’s head. She would
listen in on the lectures, study his books, and would often give him the
answers to the test questions that he didn’t know. Her memory was immaculate.
Whitney forced herself to get out of bed. She cringed against the aching pains in her
muscles and she had to walk very slowly through the house. She had no idea of what time it was, but time
really didn’t have much meaning to her anyway.
She made her way through the house, through the back patio door, and to
her favorite lounging spot—the reclining lawn chair.
Whitney’s memory was so immaculate that she could navigate
her way through the house without the use of any kind of aids. She didn’t use a seeing cane, didn’t wave her
hands through the air searching for walls, and she didn’t scoot her feet like a
robot. She could imagine the layout of
the house so clearly that she could visualize every nuance of it as if she was
seeing it. Of course it helped that she
had seen it so many times through Tommy’s eyes.
Without that original visualization from which to draw upon, she would
just be guessing.
Whitney sat on the lawn chair and leaned it back. It must still be fairly early in the morning,
because she barely had any sense of the sun.
It was definitely out there, and definitely coming over the horizon, but
it was still early enough that there was no real heat coming from it. That meant that Tommy probably wouldn’t be up
for a while. That was just fine with her, because she was in no shape to do
much anyway.
Oh my God I feel like
I’m gonna die, she thought to herself.
She had made fun of Tommy a million times before for complaining about
the pains he felt after a really hard work out.
She had been smart enough to separate herself from feeling those pains
of his herself, but she didn’t have that option with her own pains.
Pinky, ring, index, middle, pinky, ring, index, middle. Whitney touched her thumb to her fingers in
this pattern. It was something she did
whenever she was feeling anxious about something. She usually did it just after separating from
Tommy because she often had separation issues after leaving him. Spending time in the seeing and hearing world
and then suddenly being shut out from all sources of light and sound was
usually a difficult task. Touching her
thumb to her fingers somehow made her feel better. It calmed her and centered her. She did it as she lay on the lawn chair
because the screaming pain of her muscles was deafening.
She imagined the pain going away as she repeated the finger
dancing pattern and the faster her fingers moved the less her muscles seemed to
hurt. Whitney paused her fingers on her
lap. Hmm,
she thought. Am I imagining this? She
moved her arm in a wide, sweeping circle.
It still hurt, but the firecracker, creaking pain was less than it had been
before. She began her finger dancing
again and again she focused on the pain receding. She imagined the pain draining from her body
as if it were rainwater washing down a gutter.
It did feel like it was working, and before she knew it she felt as if
she hadn’t strained her muscles at all.
Sweet! She
thought. They say no pain no gain, but maybe they didn’t know what they were
talking about!
She was relieved that she wasn’t going to have to walk
around all day like a rusted robot, but it still didn’t answer her original
question. She had something that was
personal and specific to her. She had
finally found something that she was actually good at, but what she hadn’t
found, or didn’t know, was what she was going to do with it?
And she still didn’t have an answer for that, because
ultimately, it didn’t make sense to her.
She had no idea how she was even capable of doing the things that she
had done in the arena. Common sense
dictated that Tommy should absolutely dominate her in everything they did or
tried together. Tommy was the one that
could see. Tommy was the one that could
hear, and Tommy was the one that was athletic and active. She was just a couch potato (or a reclining
lawn chair potato--whichever way you wanted to look at it).
But from the very start of their mock battle she had felt
very comfortable. Having swords in her
hands had felt as natural to her as a slice of pizza would feel to a fat
kid. And what to do with those swords
seemed to be a natural instinct to her.
It was as if she had spent the first twelve years of her life as a
penguin that was born in the middle of the desert. Suddenly she was thrust back into the arctic
and suddenly she was surrounded by water, but that was no big deal because
surviving the cold and swimming were not activities that she needed to be
taught. They were hard wired into her
brain. But only the discussion wasn’t
about the arctic cold or swimming. The
discussion was about swinging a sword and using it to either deflect and
offensive blow, or to deliver one of your own.
She could do both.
But to who? She
asked herself. I’m blind and deaf and
just because I can fight an opponent (my brother) in a world that he creates in
his mind (the arena) doesn’t mean that I could do it while I was stuck in a world
in which I cannot hear or see anything.
So what did it mean?
Why could she do it then? It had
to mean something. Didn’t it?
She wanted it to mean something, but reality kept stepping
its way into her mind. The reality was
that the world had no place for swords.
Reality said that bringing a sword to a gun-fight was a stupid idea and
the modern world had cast swords away a long time ago. So, good at it or not, her talent seemed
pretty unspectacular.
The morning sun began to smile its rays down on her and she
was able to feel the beginning of the warmth from it as a cloud kissed its way
by it. Whitney returned the smile of her
own to it because, finally, she had something to smile about. She may not have a reason to keep up with the
sword fighting in the arena—at least not a logical one—but that didn’t mean
that she was going to stop. She knew
that much for sure. As a matter of fact
she was looking forward to the next time that she could give Tommy another good
thrashing.
CHAPTER 6
Learning a Lesson
∞
Whitney laid on the recliner until the eventual tap from
Tommy came to her forehead. The moment
that her family had started getting up and around she had known it, but she was
enjoying the morning sun so much that she felt no compunction to get up and around,
nor did she feel any immediate or urgent need to piggyback with Tommy. She knew that they would be spending the day
in the arena because that was the plan.
Good morning sleepy
head, she said to Tommy as soon as the piggyback was completed. She noted through Tommy’s eyes that the sun
had made its way more than a quarter of the way up in the sky and that meant
that it was about ten in the morning.
“Good morning,” he answered back, but there was something
about the way that he said it that Whitney didn’t like. The tone of his voice reminded her of when he
told her he was planning to spend a day with Jacob. His voice was riddled with guilt.
What? She asked
him.
“Nothing,” he answered her out loud. “I just wanted to see if you were up to
fighting today. I know I’m sore as hell,
and I figure that means that you’re probably miserable.”
Language! And I’m fine!
I’m ready to go!
“Huh? You are?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she answered back out loud—giving up on just
thinking to him. “Whenever you’re
ready!”
Tommy stood straight up and slowly put his arms onto his
waist. “You’re full of crap!” he
said. “There’s no way! You’re completely out of shape! I can barely move!”
Whitney could feel that he was telling the truth. She could sense that same creaking muscle
feeling in his arms and legs, but his wasn’t nearly as bad as hers had
been. That didn’t mean that she was
going to let him off of the hook, however, she got her body up from the chair
and did ten jumping jacks in front of him as Tommy stood in front of her with a
slack jaw.
“Let’s do this bro!” she said after she finished. “I think you’re just trying to make up an
excuse so that I don’t kick your butt again!”
“No I’m not! That
doesn’t even really bother me,” he said.
“That much.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Not ‘that much.’”
“I guess we don’t have any choice anyway. I guess Blake wants to see what happens when
we fight in the arena himself. I think
mom freaked out to him last night about how hard you breathe and pant and now
he wants to see what she’s so worked up about.
They want us to try it while he’s here.”
“Let’s go then!” Whitney said. She started walking toward the patio
door. She paused when she got there,
opened it, and walked inside. Tommy
followed behind her.
“Are you really not feeling any pain?” he asked her.
“Look for yourself,” she said. “If I’m lying I’ll let you beat me today.”
Tommy didn’t have to try very hard to sense that Whitney had
none of the pains that he was feeling.
If she had been he would have had to work at not feeling it.
“I’m so jealous of you right now,” he said as he followed
stiffly behind her. “My legs aren’t too
bad, but my arms feel like there are a thousand people throwing darts at them.”
“Sit down,” Blake said when the two of them got into the
living room. He had a serious look on
his face, which meant, that he meant business.
Blake was almost never serious.
Whitney and Tommy both sat on the couch, but only Tommy’s
gaze was directed at Blake.
“Your mother …”
“Aunt Carol,” Whitney interjected.
Blake’s gaze was momentarily shifted to Whitney’s body, but
quickly turned back to Tommy. “You’re
Aunt Carol is concerned about what you two are doing. We both love the overall effect that it seems
to be having on your temperament Whitney, but we have to make sure that it’s
not having any bad side effects.”
“What side effects?” Whitney asked in a defensive tone. “It’s exercise. Of course I’m breathing heavy! I’m out of shape!”
“It’s not just that Whitney,” Carol Anne said. “Both of your temperatures go way up! I monitored both of your temperatures and
they both got up to 102° before you guys came back out of it. And that brings up another point. What if you guys can’t come back out of it
for some reason. Neither of you seem to
know anything about what’s happening in the ‘real world’ when you’re in
there. I tried getting you two to come
out of it because I was worried and nothing I did seemed to get through to
either of you. I even slapped you both
in the face and I mean hard, but nothing happened. You just kept going!”
“You’re not going to make us stop are you?!” Whitney asked.
“That’s not what we’re saying,” Blake said. “At least not yet. I want to see it for myself. And I don’t want you two turkeys to take it easy
just to get the go ahead either. I want
you to run as fast this time as you did yesterday.”
“That might be a problem,” Tommy said. “I’m really sore from yesterday.”
“That doesn’t’ make any sense Tommy! You weren’t running for real. You were both running in your heads,” Blake
countered.
“Somehow it must still work the same I guess. I can’t really explain it, but you know how
they say that if you die in your sleep that it’s possible to die for real. I think this kind of works the same.”
Blake and Carol gave each other questioning looks and then
shrugged. “Well just do the best you can
then,” Carol said. “All we’re saying is
that Blake can’t make an accurate judgment call if you two go in there and take
it easy.”
Blake and Carol made both Whitney and Tommy agree to do the
best they could not to minimize their little ‘experiment.’ They both promised that they would and then
positioned themselves on the couch.
Whitney withdrew from Tommy while he set up the arena. When she came back they were no longer in
Burnsville.
The crowd seemed excited, as usual, when they appeared in
the arena. They were both dressed in
their usual attire and they both had two swords in the scabbards on their
backs, and they were both facing each other.
“What do you think this means,” Whitney asked Tommy.
“I think Blake and Carol are just being their normal
over-protective selves.”
“No. That’s not what
I’m talking about Tommy. Why do you
think I’m so good at this? I mean, I am
… right? I’ve been thinking about it all
day and I can’t come up with an answer.”
“You are good at it.
No question, but I don’t think it necessarily means anything.”
“But it kind of has to, doesn’t it? Tommy this feels so natural to me. When I’m fighting you I barely even have to
think about what I’m doing. It’s like I
was born to do it, but at the same time in the real world I wouldn’t be able to
do it at all because I can’t see or hear.
It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Tommy thought about it for a second. He crossed his arms in front of him and
really sunk his mind into the question.
“Maybe you could,” he said. “If
we worked together on it. You know like
left hand and right, but only for real.”
“I’m not getting you,” she said.
“Do you think you could fight while you were looking through
my eyes? You know the same way that you
can walk while you look through them?” he asked her.
“Fight who though!
That’s the other part I can’t answer.”
“I don’t know. Bad
guys,” Tommy said.
“Tommy you’re not really making any sense right now. We don’t know any bad guys. At least I don’t and unless you are living
some kind of double life then you don’t either.
How in the world would we ever find a ‘bad guy’ to fight,” she said
raising her fingers and giving him the quote sign as she said bad guy.
Tommy knew the answer to that, but he couldn’t tell her
without being forced to show her his dreams.
He shrugged and said, “I don’t know right now, but they sent us in here
for a reason so we should get started before we run out of time.”
“We’ve got all day.
We won’t run out of time,” Whitney said.
“Well …” Tommy began.
His shoulders drooped and guilt poured over his face like warm syrup.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WELL!” Whitney yelled. She instinctively drew both of her swords and
took a step toward him he reacted by taking a tentative step back.
“The Festival starts today.
Jacob begged me into going,” he said.
The words came out quick and mashed together and he raised his hands in
front of him defensively and cowered away from her as if he expected her to
start using her practice swords on him.
“You’re not going,” she commanded through gritted
teeth. She raised her swords at him as
if they had the final say.
“I’m going,” he returned.
“Draw your swords Tommy,” she said. “If you beat me you can go!”
“What if I said I wanted you to go with me? Would that change your mind?”
“You know I can’t Tommy.”
“I don’t know that. I
don’t know that at all,” he answered.
Whitney lowered her swords.
“I can only piggyback so far Tommy--one or two miles at the most.”
“I’m not talking about piggybacking,” he said. “I’m talking about you coming with me.”
“Blake and Carol would never allow that, and you know it;
they’re too worried about protecting our secret.”
Tommy’s eyes narrowed.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that Whitney and I’m not so sure that
protecting the secret is such a good idea.
Look at what it’s been doing to you.
Up until yesterday you were miserable and like you suggested yesterday;
you have no life! You have no potential
to develop a life. You sit at home and
that’s it. Maybe it’s time to change
that.”
“And what would my life be like if people figured out what
we can do huh? What would our lives be
like? We’ve been over this a thousand
times Tommy. We’d end up running from
God knows who for God know why!”
“Screw it Whitney. If
we have to run then let’s run together.
Left hand and right! Now that I
know what you can do I think we could pull it off!”
Whitney turned from Tommy.
She thought about it for a second and then started to pace back and
forth. “They’d end up catching us. They have guns and Tasers and sleeping
darts. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Put your swords away and hold out one of your hands,” Tommy
instructed.
Whitney gave him a questioning look, but did as she was
instructed. She sheathed her swords and
held out her right hand. A pistol
appeared in it.
“Shoot me,” he said.
“That’s ridiculous Tommy.
I’m not going to shoot you.”
“It’s not a real gun Whitney. It’s a dart gun, but there’s no sleeping
dart; just a regular one. I’ve been
experimenting this morning and I think I can pull something off. I want to try it. Just shoot me.”
Whitney looked down at the weapon and considered it. A part of her wanted to shoot him for even
suggesting that he leave again. Even if
whatever he had in mind worked, she still wasn’t going with him. She raised the gun toward his waist.
“Go ahead,” he said.
“Are you sure? This
seems stupid.”
He braced himself and nodded. She pulled the trigger.
The gun made a hissing noise and Whitney watched as a dart
splattered against nothing two feet in front of Tommy and dropped to the mat.
“How’d you do that?” she asked.
Tommy gave her a big smile and bent to pick up the
dart. “I got the idea from the arena;
from the force field that I put around it.”
“Yeah, but that only works in here.”
“Nope,” Tommy said.
“I can do it out there too,” he said nodding his head to the side. “I just use my invisible fingers. I already tried it by bouncing a super ball
against the wall and I can block it every time.”
Whitney had seen Tommy do some pretty amazing stuff with his
telekinesis. In the beginning he could
only manage to float a quarter and make it spin, but as his skill with it
improved he was able to pick locks and manipulate computers. Apparently blocking projectiles was the next
phase of his development with his talent.
“We’re still not going,” Whitney said. “I’m not going and neither are you. Too risky, and Blake and Carol would never go
for it anyway.”
“I’m definitely going,” Tommy informed her. “Jacob’s cousin is coming and I’m not missing
out on seeing her again.”
Whitney knew who he was referring to. She had seen the girl through Tommy’s eyes
once. She was a little bit older than
they were and Tommy had a huge crush on her, but Whitney could also tell that
Jessica Miles had no interest in someone younger than she was. Her brother was wasting his time with her.
“Over my dead body,” Whitney said drawing her swords
again. “Now let’s get this over with
before Blake and Carol start wondering what we’re doing in here.”
“Is your offer still good,” Tommy said drawing his swords.
“You know you can’t beat me,” Whitney responded.
“I couldn’t yesterday, but today you’re giving me something
to fight for,” he replied.
“Sure,” she said.
“But no force fields. If you beat
me I’ll let you leave without an argument.
If I win … you’re not going.”
“Deal,” he said and he didn’t hesitate. He spun and delivered his first blow. Whitney blocked it, spun dodged to the side,
and countered. Tommy kept his eyes on
hers and was ready. He brought his sword
up just in time to deflect her counter, and he even got there in time to
deflect her second.
“Not bad,” Whitney said.
“But I’m just getting warmed up.”
Whitney delivered a series of blows to him. It wasn’t just a one-two set. She gave him a flurry of attacks and she put
some speed on them. Tommy deflected
them, but on this day he decided to use the only weapon he had against his twin
sister. He used his strength and, every
blow that he deflected, was deflected hard.
And every attack he gave, he gave with every ounce of strength he had.
Whitney scored the first point. She was thrown a little off of her game with
the intensity of Tommy’s attacks, but she was able to recover every time he
knocked her off balance and was still able to get her swords to where they needed
to be in time.
“Man you must really want to go,” Whitney said. “You’re doing much better today than
yesterday.”
“Losing is not an option today Whitney. You made the first point, but I can tell that
I’m already wearing you down. Don’t get
cocky.”
Whitney squared off, bowed, and went right into her next
series of attacks. She delivered two
blows, which Tommy deflected, spun once with another blow, and then twice more
with two more blows. Tommy met them all
and then countered. He knocked her back with
his first strike and her balance was off enough that he was able to land one
against her.
“Point,” he said and the crowd roared their approval.
Whitney was already beginning to show signs of wear. Tommy’s strategy of using his superior
strength and endurance to his advantage was working. She was starting to pant and she was losing
her timing.
“Wait,” she said.
“Let me rest for a second.”
But Tommy didn’t wait.
She was hunched over trying to catch her breath, but Tommy went into his
next set. Whitney blocked his attacks,
but he didn’t let up. He continued
swinging his swords and attacked her aggressively. She deflected and tried to counter, but gave
Tommy an opening and he saw it in time.
He swung his sword quickly to the inside and struck her in the thigh.
“Point!” he said.
“That’s two to one.”
“This is not fair Tommy.
I get tired faster!”
“Is that what you would tell an enemy that actually wanted
to kill you?”
“No, but you’re my brother.”
“And I’m not trying to kill you. But we are fighting for something and I’m
going to win.”
“You don’t have a shot with her you know,” Whitney said in
between pants.
Tommy must have realized that Whitney was trying to
stall. She knew she needed time to
recuperate and she was trying to distract him long enough to catch her breath a
little. It didn’t work. Tommy went into another series of
attacks. Whitney hadn’t let her guard
down, however, and she ducked under one, spun, and delivered a point to his
back before he could turn around.
“Point!” she said.
The crowd booed in disapproval.
“What? Did you pay
them off or something?”
“They’re rooting for the good guy,” he said with a
smile. “Two-two. Next one to score is the victor.”
Whitney’s eyes furrowed with determination. She had underestimated Tommy which allowed
him to score two points. She wasn’t
going to make that mistake again. Out of
breath or not, the last thing in the world she was going to let him do was beat
her—not at this. Fighting was her
thing. It was the one thing that she
knew she could do better than him and she wasn’t going to let him take that
away from her. She was going to make
sure that he stayed home for the day and she was going to make sure that he
knew she was the better sword fighter.
Whitney fought past her fatigue and attacked Tommy
ferociously. Tommy had been using his
strength against her and that had taken her off guard. The day before his deflections were tentative
and he had countered her but when he countered her there was no heart behind
it. This time had been different. He was fighting her with passion and with
vigor and even though she hadn’t been prepared for it she still liked it. Having an opponent that was willing to fight
as if their life depended on it was better.
Whitney attacked him with every ounce of speed that she
could muster. Tommy had his strategy and
she had hers. She couldn’t out power
him, but she could out maneuver and outpace him. She didn’t let up on him and she gave him
everything she had.
Tommy deflected her blows but his deflections came awkwardly. He was able to get his swords to where they
needed to be, but barely. All she had to
do was keep it up and eventually his timing would fall behind enough for her to
get that last point in. All she needed
was one more and she knew she would have it.
Her body didn’t agree, however. She delivered seventeen
blows before her vision began to blur.
Her breathing became so labored, and her muscles so tired, that she
couldn’t maintain the pace, and it was Tommy that scored the final point.
Both of them collapsed to the mat after he scored and both
of them could barely breathe.
“Point-set-match,” Tommy said in-between breaths.
FINAL CHAPTER
Tommy Leaves Again
∞
Whitney sat on her bed brooding over her loss. She still couldn’t believe that Tommy had beaten
her. But his victory had ultimately been
her fault. She had allowed herself to
become weak and out of shape. Her
instincts were great, her speed was great, but those things would only get her
so far. Ultimately she needed to get her
body into better shape. She needed to
increase her stamina, and she needed to build stronger muscles. If she didn’t do those two things then that
would keep happening.
Blake hadn’t been too impressed when they came back to the
real world. The look of concern on his
face was just about as intense as Carol Anne’s had been. At first Blake was adamant about not letting
them continue, but eventually the twins convinced him that they would tone it
down and let Whitney get into shape in steps.
He agreed, but was still very reluctant about it.
Both of them had excused themselves for showers, but Whitney
still wasn’t piggybacking with Tommy.
His shadow was still in his room which meant that he was still getting
ready to leave. He was going through
with it. He was going to leave her again
and she had agreed to let him go without giving him a hard time about it. She was regretting that decision.
Tommy’s shadow moved from his room and headed for the living
room. Walls were not boundaries for
Whitney. She could sense a person’s
shadow despite her physical separation from a person. His shadow moved to the living room which
meant that he would be leaving soon.
Whitney stretched her consciousness around Tommy and piggybacked with
him.
Please don’t go, Whitney
pleaded. I really hate it when you’re not here.
Come with me Whitney, he
answered. You know they’re going to keep asking me to go all week and I really
want to go. Just come with me! Let’s start living our lives!
Whitney got up from her bed and walked into the living
room. Doing that during a piggyback,
while Tommy was in another room, was more difficult. She felt her way through and into the living
room, looked toward the peg on the wall which her seeing cane hung from, and
thought about it.
The idea was terrifying to her. It wasn’t that she never left the
house—sometimes she did, but those occasions were rare. Most of the time, when she did leave the
house, it was only a quick trip to the grocery store with Carol Anne, or to a
party store with Blake. Tommy was usually
there too, and Whitney usually just sat in the vehicle and piggybacked with
Tommy while they went in.
This would be entirely different. Tommy was asking her to go and she knew that
it meant that she would be out there, in the real world, the entire time. She would be spending who knew how much time
standing next to people that she didn’t know herself for who knew how
long. She would have to walk around in
the middle of crowds if she actually did go to the festival and there was
always the chance that she would lose her footing and trip over something. That was the most terrifying thought out of
any of her thoughts. The idea of falling
in the middle of a group of strangers and having them laugh at the poor blind
and deaf girl would be humiliating.
I can’t Tommy, she
thought to him. A part of me wants to, but I just can’t.
Tommy walked up to Whitney’s body as she stood there in the
living room. Blake and Carol were both
standing there and it was apparent that they were wondering what the conversation
they were having was about. They
probably thought Tommy was just consoling her over him leaving again. The expression on Carol’s face said that she
wasn’t happy about him leaving again, but she wasn’t harping on him about it
and that was probably because Blake’s opinion was that Tommy should have a life
even if Whitney couldn’t.
Well they’re here to
pick me up Whit! You sure I can’t change
your mind. I know you’re scared, but I
would be with you the entire time, he thought to her. I saw
what you’re afraid of and if that happened, if you did fall, you know I would
pick you up Whitney. Falling might be
scary, but sometimes you gotta fall.
It’s a part of life.
Whitney heard a horn honk through Tommy’s ears which meant
that they were waiting for him outside.
She knew that he wouldn’t back down.
The car in the driveway was the point of no return. She was going to have to spend the rest of
the day without him. There was no way
around that.
Just go Tommy. They’re waiting for you.
Tommy wrapped his arms around his sister and gave her a
hug. She hugged him back but her heart
wasn’t in it. He turned from her and
walked away.
Whitney didn’t withdraw from him right away. She stayed with him as he walked to the car
in the driveway. It was filled with people
that were happy. They wore smiles on
their faces and their smiles were easy.
They were laughing and joking because that’s what normal people do and
because they knew that they were on their way to have a great time with each
other. What that kind of thing would be
like was a mystery to Whitney because she didn’t have that for herself.
Whitney took a step forward.
How easy would it be to take a second?
She knew that her cane was hanging there next to the door. She couldn’t see it but, if she chose to, she
could still navigate her way over to it even without Tommy’s eyes there to
guide her.
Outside Tommy paused on the sidewalk and looked back toward
the house.
Do it Whitney! He
thinks to her. Grab your cane and let’s go!
Whitney took another step toward the door. Carol Anne asked what she was doing because
she has a funny feeling she’s not going to like what was coming next, but
Whitney can’t hear her. Her eyes and ears
have left the building and her world is dark and silent. At least the world that exists inside of the
house, but there’s another world waiting for her outside and its calling to
her. She takes two more steps toward the
door, grabs her cane and reaches for the screen door. It opens easily for her, but she knows that
not everything that will happen to her that day will be so easy.
She doesn’t care because sitting on the couch all day is no
way to live and Tommy was waiting for her on the sidewalk.
The End.
