What the Blind Girl Said

1.) At one time I had normal vision. I had sight that was 20/400, which means that what you can see at twenty feet looked like it was four hundred feet away to me. But because of my retinas, I had to face total blindness by the time I was fourteen. At first it was rough. But then I tried to tell myself, Hey! You’re going to go blind. You will have no sight. You better get ready. So I did.

2.) I lived in Columbus until my Mom and Dad split up. My Mom moved to Florida and me and my Dad went back to Dayton. He also fell in love there, so we stayed. But then my Step-Mom was killed in a car accident.

3.) I got my spine screwed up in the accident. My sister had the vertebrae dislocated from her neck. It was a terrible accident.

4.) After the accident we weren’t allowed to go to church because Dad kind of blamed God for it. Then after almost ten years of never going into a church, one Sunday six months ago he went. Boy, was that a shock to the family.

5.) I still get bad coughs because I had a serious lung infection two years ago. They had to put me in the hospital. The Director of the Blind School visited me and said I hope the Good Lord decides to heal you. I said I hope he does too, because I want to get out of this bed! He got a real laugh out of that. Keep ‘em laughing, I say.

6.) I can’t wait to play the drums again. I’m a drummer in the band at the Blind School. I also sing in Glee Club, which isn’t too good because I have a cold right now. I’ll be very rusty on the drums. But I love music: Gospel, Blues, Folk and Rock. My hero’s Stevie Wonder. I figure if he can do it, so can I.

7.) My best friend was born with cancer. He had it in his head, so they had to remove his eyeballs. He wears sunglasses all the time.

8.) But he disappointed me so much recently. He got busted for marijuana. I warned him to stop his excessive indulgence in that area, but it didn’t work and he got busted. I don’t do any of that stuff myself, drugs or anything. I like life, and I figure why mess it up with drugs.

9.) I’m real sensitive to bright lights though. Boy, I guess I go to bed nearly every night with a splitting headache.

10.) I can’t go on airplanes either, because my eyes would pop out of my head on account of the pressure. I just found that out a year ago.