I'm Blind Not Fragile

Chapter 17

"Did you sleep well last night, Gertrude?" Howard asks from my right. I turn my head slightly toward him and send him a bit of a nasty glare. He sounded both smug and nonchalant. "Careful with those looks dear, its probably best that you stay out of my way on your visit here. That's a nasty bruise on your face, wouldn't want any more do we?" He asks in a not so veiled threat. I do the wise thing and keep my mouth shut. Talking will only get me into more trouble. When the server brings out the food, she quietly tells me that there are eggs on my plate at 2 o'clock with sausage and English muffins on my plate at 6 and 10, respectively. I don't say anything as she walks away. Howard continues to try and raise a response out of me for the next couple of minutes before he gets frustrated by my silence.

"So now you choose to be silent? How much I would have paid for you to be mute instead of blind, my dear Gertrude. Well, no matter I like your silence. Finally got you to be obedient, haven't I? if I'd known all it took was a little violence to control you, darling, I would have done it much sooner." He starts to say, and I can't hold my response in any longer

"Maybe if you had been maybe a decent father, you wouldn't have such a disobedient daughter. I hope this deal falls through so you can see how much a failure you are. Hell, the only way you can control a teenage girl is to beat and threaten her. I wonder how much the cops will like to hear that my father beat me. Or maybe how would the press react to find out that Howard Lewis CEO, beat up his blind 15-year-old daughter when she talked back to him? I can see the headlines now." I use the only weapon I know that Howard is afraid of The public's opinion of him. Every bone In my body is telling me to run when I hear Howard's chair grown. Maybe I took this too far. I should have kept my mouth shut.

I vow to myself that I will put up more of a fight this time. I won't let my father beat me like a defenseless girl. He doesn't know that his blind little daughter happens to know how to hold her own in a fight.

Howard comes toward me in such a rage I can almost hear him growling. His hand brushes my cheek on its way to grab my hair, I'm sure, and I quickly maneuver away from him. I enter a defensive position that Shawn first taught me when I was young. I am not letting Howard get the drop on me like last night. I listen to him approach me, but this time faster, and I sidestep him. He lets out a frustrated sigh before he lunges at me a third time. I finally step in closer, sending him off of balance. I aim a punch at his throat, so he knows what it's like not to be able to breathe, but I misjudged how large he is. I think I hit between his chest and stomach.

He lets out a grunt that I know means that it hurt like hell, but he will recover faster than the through punch that I had planned. I run toward the dining-room door. "You're going to DIE FOR THAT BITCH!" Howard bellows as I push open the dining-room door. I run through the house, wishing I had my cane with me. I try to use echolocation by clicking my tongue but, my heart is pounding, and I'm afraid of what will happen if Howard catches up with me, so it's a little hard to concentrate. I manage not to run into any walls.

Suddenly the echoes of my pounding feet become more prolonged, and the echoes come from farther away. I've gained distance from Howard and quickly take my shoes off. My bare feet touch the cold tile, and I sigh in relief that it isn't a heated floor. I'm almost certain that I'm back in the foyer from last night. I swiftly make my way across the floor, doing a mix between high knees and running in place. I'm able to travel around the room while touching my feet to the floor as often as I can. Finally, I feel it—a warm spot. I take a couple more steps, and it's gone. I quickly find it again and feel my way through the warmth. I hear Howard's pounding footsteps finally catching up, and I speed my progress up. I follow the warm floor and can feel the sun's warmth over my entire body.

I'm so close. Knowing Howard, he has a grand front door. Including large windows next to it. And who doesn't open the curtains when it's sunny out. Howard is getting super close now I can hear his panting. I finally find the door and am groping around the wall to find the doorknob. Please please please. YES! I found the doorknob! As I turn the smooth metal in my hand, my luck runs out. With the door halfway open, Howard grabs my hair. The momentum of me running away and him yanking on my hair brings tears to my eyes, and I am pulled back into the mansion.

"Oh, you were so so close, Gertrude. But you failed, and you will always fail." He sneers in my ear as he throws me to the ground. I hit my head on the corner of something, and the floor spins underneath me. I lay on the ground so dazed that I almost didn't hear Howard call on of his bodyguards.

Howard starts choking me once again. "You know I liked it earlier when you didn't talk. Let's work towards that again, huh?" He snarls in my face before letting up on my windpipe, and I can breathe again.

"Greg. Hold her." Howard orders as a man much larger than I holds me against his body." Howard then proceeds to punch my body, and with Greg as a backboard, Howard's punches feel so much harder. "You gonna talk back again, Gertrude?" Not yet willing to let him win, I spit in his direction. Satisfaction rolls through me as I hear it land its mark.

"Okay, I see that you want to do this the long way. That's alright we still have a whole two days ahead of us, Gertrude. And when I'm through with you, you will obey, and you will comply. Are you ready?"