AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I winced, seeing where this was going before she’d even recounted the eye witness accounts.
“Yeah, I was thrown across the carport and my head struck the outside brick wall. I don’t remember anything past that terrifying moment when the bike sped forward and we hit.” Viddy explained.
“So Viddy hit the wall and got a concussion, while I was thrown into the old 5-speed motor under the carport.” She grimaced.
Trance groaned, and I had to swallow the bile that was threatening the back of my throat. “You were impaled.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement. I was waiting for confirmation.
“Right. I woke up in the hospital lying on my side with the arm of the shifter sticking out of my lower chest.” Adeline confirmed.
“Fuck,” Trance and I said at the same time.
“Yeah, daddy was frantic. He wanted to yell and scream at us, but we were both so hurt that he couldn’t. The yelling didn’t come till later when we were released from the hospital. He’d gotten rid of the bikes, the motor, and anything else hazardous in the house after that day. We didn’t even drive until we were eighteen and moved out of the house because he refused to teach us.”
“And what about you, Viddy?” Trance asked.
“Viddy was diagnosed with a severe form of Cortical Visual Impairment after our accident. The doctor’s and specialists she saw had high hopes that Viddy would gain some of her vision back, like most do, and she did gain some back, but not enough to make anything easier on her. She can make out the difference between bright and dark. She can see a very narrow field through her peripheral vision, but only such a minimal amount that it only does her more harm than good.” Adeline explained.
Viddy nodded her head with the explanation.
“So this was your first time riding on motorcycles since?” I asked Adeline.
She laughed. “Oh, we were little devils in high school. It was our father’s fault though. He was so freaking strict after that that we barely got to go out of the house without him following us. Viddy in particular. He hated the fact that she was out there with a disability, but Viddy didn’t let anything stop her. Hell, she even competed in track in high school.”
Viddy snorted, drawing our eyes to her. “I competed in the high jump because it pissed my dad off. Nobody even knew I was blind until I completely missed the bag one time and fell flat on my back after jumping into the air.”
Silence hung in thick waves before Adeline’s tinkling laughter broke it.
“Oh, God. That was the funniest thing in the world to see.” She giggled.
“That’s kind of morbid that you find it funny that your blind sister fell,” I said to her just before I took a drink of my water. “I kind of like it.”
“It’s either you laugh or cry, and we made a pact ten years ago that neither one of us would cry about our disabilities.” Viddy confirmed.
“Disabilities?” Trance asked with a raised brow.
“Yes, I’m blind and Adeline’s stupid.” Viddy said with a straight face.
“I am not stupid! I’m a science teacher; how much smarter do I have to be?” She laughed and threw a chip at her sister.
Trance caught it and popped it in my mouth, while Viddy smiled at him, knowing he’d done something to thwart her sister’s attack.
“Do y’all have family?” Viddy asked Trance and me.
“No,” Trance answered. “Kettle has a sister, though.”
I was saved from having to talk about my eccentric sister when the food arrived, causing the table to lapse into silence.
“Damn,” Viddy said as she felt her food. “They didn’t cut it up like I asked.”
I looked at her plate of parmesan chicken and realized how truly hard it would be to be blind.
I’d never thought that being blind meant you couldn’t see to cut up your food. It’d never occurred to me.
Sure, the usual about not seeing where you walk and not being able to drive had occurred to me, but it’d never struck me how hard just simple everyday tasks, such as cutting your food up, could be.
“I got it. Here,” Trance said as he started cutting up Viddy’s chicken.
