Running Blind

14. The Cure...?

“If you stop drinking, and stop the drugs and pick up your grades, this little meeting between us can stay between us.”

My mouth was dry, reminding me to close it. “What’d you do?” I asked.

“Well,” Miss Tate said as though it were hard for her to tell someone this story. “I took him up for his offer. I worked hard on all of my school work, and applied myself harder at the gym. It wasn’t easy at first, but once I got into the routine, it became more of something I enjoyed doing. Towards the end of the school year, I realized I was passing all of my classes with A’s, and I actually felt smart. I felt like I understood things and that I could apply them to other aspects of my life. That year I got a special award in gymnastics for having the greatest improvement for academics and gymnastics.”

“Do you see that now, I’m not trying to yell at you, but help you get on the right track?”

I nodded my head. What had pushed her to do that for me? She was just a teacher and I was just a student. There was nothing special about either of us. “Why’d you do that?” I said.

I heard her shift slightly. “Because we’ve got similar stories, Brie. Now lets get back to class.”

*                                                          *                                                                      *

I was sitting on the couch in the living room, waiting. Just waiting. For what? Ian. He said he was going to come over and we’d have our race too! It was almost 4:30, and I was getting very impatient. Finally, I just got up, went to the front door and put my boots on. I grabbed a riding jacket and walked out the door. I would tack the horses up so that he couldn’t say that we didn’t have enough time.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve been wearing down a nice solid path for the last few months, making my way down to the horse barn. I had walked the same way every day, and my body now had the steps memorized. Well, something must have gone wrong today, because around the time I should have been walking through the barn doors, I was slamming my face on the wall.

I stumbled backwards, touching my forehead and cheek bone. They were hot, and getting rather fluffy. Fantastic. Oh, well. I continued on, this time, holding my hands out in front of me, preventing anymore of those scenarios. When I reached Ila’s stall I heard her give me a soft welcoming nicker, and so I smiled.

“Oh! What’re you doin’ here?” I jumped at Callis’ voice. He was in her stall.

“Huh?” I said stupidly. “Um, I was gonna ride her! What are you doing?”

He chuckled, and then abruptly stopped. “Did you—what’d you do to your head?!”

Suddenly my face was being cradled in two callused cowboy hands, gingerly touching my goose-eggs.

“I ran into a wall.” I said flatly.

“Brie, really, what happened?”

“Callis,” I said. “Really. I ran into a wall. I’m blind; remember?”

I got no reply, but I could tell he didn’t like it when I kept reminding him about that. I thought about our kiss right then. Had I liked it? Well…maybe. Okay, yeah. I did. My face began to feel hot, and I was almost positive I was blushing. Callis just had to confirm my beliefs.

“What’s the matter?” He said. “You’re getting red.”

I shook my head. “Nothing. My head is just burning!” Nice coverup.

“Oh.” He said quietly.

I cleared my throat. “So what were you doing with Ila?” I said.

Callis dropped his hand from my face and took a step back. “Just making sure she’s good and healthy. She had two ticks, but I took care of them for you…”

I smiled. “Thanks Callis.” I stepped forward, completely guessing where he was, and attempted to hug him. Right on; my arms folded around his midsection, and I felt his warm arms retaliate with their own hug.

But the hug was short-lived. Suddenly Callis stepped back, slightly pushing me away. “What are you doing here?” He said, his tone a little offensive.

“Brianna and I were gonna go on a ride.” Ian’s voice echoed through the barn, as did his footsteps. Crap. I hadn’t even heard the car come up. This probably made me look really bad.

“Brie?” Callis was making sure this was part of my plan, but I could detect the hurt in his voice. I nodded sheepishly. “Alright. But if she comes back with so much as a scratch—“

“Why do you care?” Ian asked, his voice a lot closer now, and challenging Callis.

“What do you mean? She’s the boss’ daughter! She—“ Ouch. That’s what I was? Just the boss’ daughter?

“Yeah sure, something tells me that ain’t no look you’d give the boss’ daughter…” Ian countered.

I let out an irritated sigh as Callis tensed up beside me. “Ian, shut up.” I snapped. “Callis, cool it down.”

There was a long pause where no one said or did anything and then Callis took a deep breath. “Whatever. I’ll be out fixin’ some fence in the South pasture if you need me—“

“We won’t need you.” Ian said.

“—Brianna.”

“Yep. Thanks Callis. See ya later.” I piped up.

“That’d be a miracle…” He muttered, walking away.

It took me a moment to understand what he had said and then when I figured it out, I couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright,” I said to Ian. “You wanna go tack up your filly and I’ll tack up mine?”

I moved to go to the tack room, but Ian stopped me. “Wait, don’t you need help with that…?”

My brow furrowed in confusion. “Why would I…”

“Uh, well, you’re blind and…”

I put my hands on my hips. “Ian, I can horserace blind, and you think I can’t tack her up? This girl is insulted!” I laughed a little and continued my way to the room.

All in all, I beat Ian to tacking up his own horse, but he kept telling me that it was because he kept coming and checking to see if I needed any help.

“Bullhonky.” I retorted.

I grabbed a riding vest and helmet and led Ila out to the practice track; this route I also had memorized, and I didn’t hit any walls!

“So, I wanna know what this surprise gift thingy is…” I said, as Ian and his horse entered the track.

“First I gotta ask you a few questions.” He said.

“Okay.” I said, a little uneasily.

“You know when I was here that first time and you claimed that you were able to see everything around you? When Callis didn’t believe you?”

“Yeah.” I said, not appreciating that last bit that he added in.

“And it was very painful because of the sunlight?”

“Yes, Ian. Get to the point.” I snapped impatiently.

“What if you had something to block that? What if there wasn’t any pain and you just could see? Do you think you would continually get your sight back?”

This confused me. “Well, Ian. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think about that. There’s no point in getting my hopes up if I know they’ll just as readily get crushed.”

“But this,” He said, putting something in my hands. “Could potentionally cure it…”