Love at Last Sight

Love at Last Sight: Extra.

            Biting my lip, I slowly started taking a few baby steps forward. It really sucked not being able to see. I knew I looked like an idiot when I walked— slow, hesitant, barely making a half a foot per step. Even with Chace holding my hand, it took me three minutes to get out of the house.

            But, and I hated to admit it, Chace forcing practice onto me was actually helping a lot. I now knew where the sharp edges of the tables in the hall were, or where Jack’s food and waters bowls were in the kitchen, or where the coat rack in the hall was. Before, I’d spilled the water bowl every time I’d entered the kitchen, and jabbed myself in the hip with every sharp surface available.

            After we mapped out the house a few times, Chace allowed me to lead us to the door. “Where are we going?” I asked, cautiously reaching out to find the door handle. “Where’s Jack?”

            “You don’t need Jack, I’ll be right beside you,” Chace assured me, taking my hand for emphasis. “And secret.”

            “If it’s the movies, I won’t be amused.”

            Chace tsked. “I’m not that mean, Rosie.”

            I smiled. “I know you’re not… but seriously, where are we going? You know how I feel about driving now…”

            “It’s not a long trip, don’t worry,” Chace responded, giving my hand a squeeze. “And I know.”

            Driving was terrifying when you couldn’t see. It wasn’t like I didn’t trust Chace or my friends or my family when they drove me— I trusted them fine. Well, maybe Kate I didn’t trust, but she’d been in four accidents since she’d gotten her license, so it was acceptable. But I just didn’t like not being able to see what was going on around me. Two pairs of eyes were much better than one while driving.

            The trip only took about forty minutes. I tried thinking of anything fun that was twenty minutes from Chace’s house, but nothing came to mind. Maybe an ice cream parlor, but it was a bit cold out for ice cream.

            “You’re not allergic to anything, right?” Chace checked with me as he helped me, unnecessarily, out of his car. “Only your dad’s allergic to animals?”

            “Nope,” I responded, smiling a little bit. Chace had a pretty great memory. I couldn’t even remember any time I’d told him my father was allergic to animals. It didn’t seem that important to me, but the thought it was important enough to him to remember in the first place made me happy.

            “Awesome.”

            “I don’t like ducks though.”

            Laughing, he tugged me forward. “Hey, you don’t have a reason to hate them. They attacked me, not you.”

            “Well, maybe if you hadn’t offended them by your awful quacking…”

            “It wasn’t awful!”

            I grinned. “Sure, Chace. Sure.”

            “Whatever,” he muttered. “Let’s go inside. It doesn’t look too busy today, so I think it’ll be okay.”

            “Where are we?” I asked curiously. Chace’s kindness always surprised the heck out of me, so I assumed we were somewhere a blind person would enjoy just as much as a person with regular eyesight. By his question I would assume some kind of petting barn, but I knew there were none around our area. There were no green houses either, so we weren’t going flower smelling.