Landon was still on his bed with his face in his hands. Lance walked in and immediately saw Landon.
"Dude, are you okay?" Lance asked with concern in his voice.
Landon looked up, again finding darkness and said, "Nothing's wrong."
Lance, noticing that Landon was lying, said," Come on, man. I know you. You don't get like this for---" he stopped mid-sentence. Landon was confused and asked, "What? What's wrong?"
Lance had seen the canvas on the wall. He couldn't believe his eyes. On the wall was a canvas with Landon as the main subject. Everything, including Landon, was only painted in the colors gray and black. Then his eyes went straight to the only thing on the canvas that had color: Landon's eyes. They were the perfect color. It was as if he were looking into Landon's real eyes. She had gotten everything about his eyes right. All the emotion he saw in Landon's real eyes were captured perfectly in the canvas. In that moment, Lance realized that whoever painted the canvas was a great painter, because they captured every emotion that was present in real life on canvas. He couldn't believe it, yet he was seeing it right in front of him.
"What's wrong, Lance?" Landon's voice was more annoyed now.
Lance finally woke up from his deep thought and he asked, "Who gave you that?"
"Dude, you're asking a blind person to identify an object, real smart."
"Oh, sorry. It's just so amazing."
"I still don't know what you're talking about."
"The canvas," he said. "Who gave you the canvas?"
"Oh. The canvas. Lauren gave it to me. Can you describe it for me? What does it look like?"
"You."
"Lance, really." Landon was becoming more annoyed.
"I mean.....I mean, it's you."
"Me?"
"Yes. It's you. Everything about you and your surroundings are painted in black and gray. The only thing that has color are your eyes and trust me, they are the most real looking eyes I have ever seen. I mean, it's like looking into your own eyes. It's amazing. Lauren captured every emotion in your eyes. I mean, how did she do it? She is an amazing painter. It's amazing."
"I wish I could see it."
At these words, Lance looked at his brother. Lance felt a bit of remorse but he also felt all the pain that came with it. Ever since the accident and Landon's blindness, Laura began to take more care of Landon. Never once did it make Lance jealous, but every now and then, Lance wished that Landon hadn't turned blind. Laura never paid more attention to Landon than Lance. Lance had always wondered how she did that. He never once felt that his mother loved Landon more than him. And for that he was grateful. Lance loved his brother more than anything and he couldn't live without his family. It killed him that Landon couldn't see. He would have given anything to see his brother happy. He turned to Landon and said, "It's okay, Landon. Don't worry."
"Lance?" Landon asked.
"Yes?"
"Thank you. Thank you for being my brother, for never letting me down, for being there to pick me up when I fell hard. Thank you for not giving up on me. I don't know where I'd be if it weren't for you."
At these words, Lance's eyes filled with tears and he went over to his baby brother and wrapped his arms around him. Then he said, "I love you, too, kid."
They stayed in that embrace for a few minutes. Then their mother walked into the room and they made her join in the hug as well. They stayed in that three-way hug for another five good minutes. At the end of the hug, Lance was teary-eyed and Landon was close to tears. Laura couldn't hold in the tears and she was already crying. While they were hugging each other, Landon told them about all the times that he had faked to be strong but it was just a role. He told them that whenever he came home from school with no friends, he wanted to quit. He wanted to give up but then he looked at them, his family, and his strength was restored. And it worked for him every time.
For the first time, Laura looked at the wall where they canvas held its place. "Wow." she said breathlessly.
Lance followed her eyes and saw that she was looking at the canvas on the wall. He stood next to her and said, "Amazing, isn't it?"
Laura kept her eyes glued to the canvas and said, "Yes. They got the eyes just right. I mean, everything about those eyes are exactly the same as my boy's eyes."
Landon heard them and said, "You guys are looking at the canvas again? What do you think, Mom? This is the gift Lauren came to bring me."
Laura's attention was caught at the mention of Lauren. "Lauren brought you this? Did she make it?"
"Yes. She painted it."
"Wow, sweetie. It's amazing. She got the emotions in your eyes exactly right. And she recreated those emotions on a canvas. She has extremely good talent. It's just amazing. I don't know what else to say."
Landon laughed at the words of is mother. They were almost exactly the same as Lance's. He needed to be alone for a while. "You guys, do you mind? I kind of want to be alone with my thoughts now."
Lance and Laura looked at each other then at Landon. Then they nodded and said, "Sure."
Lance walked out first. Then Laura walked out but before she closed the door, she peeked her head back through the door and said, "If you need anything, or want to talk, I'm always downstairs."
Landon smiled and said, "Okay, Mom. Thanks."
Landon waited until he heard the door close completely. Then he went over to the dresser and retrieved the wooden box. Again, he placed it on his bed and opened it so that he could take the pictures out. He looked at them hoping that all of a sudden, the figures would appear clearly. But Then more he tried, the more the darkness greeted him. He sighed and he put the pictures back in the wooden box. Then he put the box back where it had been.
He went over to the window. He felt around until he found the lock. Flipping the lock up, Landon managed to open the window about halfway. Then he passed his legs through the open window, and there he had his own seat. It was something that he had been doing for a while. The feeling of peace and comfort that accompanied the feel of his legs dangling and the wind in his face couldn't be compared with anything else. This was another method of his reflecting and thinking. He closed his eyes and sat there, thinking about nothing in particular. He wanted the wind, nature to bring specific thoughts to his mind. A few minutes later, he heard a voice from across him, saying, "Don't jump !"
He opened his eyes, though there was no use in opening them, since he was always greeted with darkness, and he tried to recognize the voice.
"Please don't jump." the voice said again. The second time, Landon recognized the voice as being Lauren's.
"Don't worry," he said. "I'm not going to jump. This is just my....reflection place. I've been doing this for years."
"Really?" the other voice answered doubtfully.
"Trust me. I know what I'm doing. You don't have to worry about me. I'm going to be fine. Always have been, always will be."
"But don't you feel like giving up sometimes? Don't you ever feel like it's not worth fighting for anymore?"
"Of course," he said, "but I know that my family will always be there with me supporting me. I still have so many things to show the world. I have so many goals in mind. I know that sometimes it's hard. I'm not going to lie but it will always be better to keep trying than to give up and feel sorry for myself. I can't live in pity my whole life. It's something I don't permit."
"Wow. I admire you a little bit more each time I talk to you."
"Thanks. But there's really nothing to admire here."
"You know, there is so much more greatness in you than you think there is. You're special and you'll see it someday."
"Maybe."
"Anyway, I'll see you later."
"Yup. See ya. Well..talk to you later, since I can't see."
Landon heard a faint sound of laughter coming from the other bedroom. It was cute, he thought, her laugh was adorable. You are one hundred percent biased, Landon. I mean. she is the only person who hasn't been afraid of my blindness. And for that I will always be grateful no matter what. She is the first one who gave me a chance.
I just wish I could see, he thought. Sometimes I don't mind but it's times like these when I want to be able to see. I want to see what she looks like. I want to be able to look into her eyes just as I know she's looked into mine. It's not everyday that you meet a blind person, especially one of my age.
After a while with these thoughts, Landon returned back inside to the comfort of his room. He found his bed and laid down on it, with his eyes looking up at the ceiling. He folded his arms across his chest and he closed his eyes. He fell asleep a few minutes later, and he began to dream.
In his dream, Landon could see that his father was there in the house. He saw Liam walk into the kitchen and come behind his mother to wrap her in his embrace. He saw how happy his mother and father and mother looked. Then they turned to look at him, and he said the only thing that came to his mind. "Hey."
Both his father and mother laughed and told him to come and sit down at the table. They sat down and a few minutes later, Lance came to join them. Landon looked down at his plate and saw that there was rice and a piece of chicken but most of all he loved that there was a cinnamon roll, just for him. He looked all around at the other plates and noticed that there was no other cinnamon roll. "I'm special," he said proudly. "I am the only one with a cinnamon roll on my plate."
The smile on his face reached from one ear to the other. From this scene, he was back at school. Kennedy High. Here he entered with his backpack on one shoulder and he carried his bio and math books in one hand. He stopped at his locker and he stuffed his books in there. He was thanking they school mentally because they had lockers. Some schools didn't have any sort of lockers at all. He walked to his next class, and there waiting for him was his best friend, a guy named James. James was the really smart one. He knew the answer to every question the teacher had and Landon always admired that. That day James was wearing a black polo shirt and blue denim jeans. He was the one who got all the girls. The thing about him, though, was that he never took the chance with the girls. They were pretty and mostly popular, but James was into the more simple girls, the ones who didn't happen to wear eight bags of makeup on their face and the ones who didn't put everybody else in a category.
Landon went to sit next to James and once the bell rang, the teacher along with a pretty girl entered the classroom. The teacher introduced the new girl as Lillian and she sat next to Landon, since it was the only seat available. He looked at her and saw that she had the most amazing beautiful green-bluish eyes he had ever seen. She waved a shy hi at him and he waved back trying to be nice. But a part of him wanted to be more than just a guy. Something about her look had captivated him.
"Crazy, right, James?" Landon asked his best friend after he had finished telling James how he felt.
"Nah, Landon." James replied. "It's pretty normal. It happens all the time. You have to figure out whether that's real or not."
From there, the setting changed to a wedding scene. He soon realized that he was the groom, standing in front of the altar waiting for his bride to walk through the doors of the church. His hands were sweating and the time seemed to pass by ever so slowly. A few minutes passed but for him, it was like three hours. Then, at last, after what seemed for hours, the bride walked in. The veil was over her face and he couldn't see it. Her dress was beautiful, but what he wanted to see was her face. He took the veil in his hands and he began to lift it up. But as soon as he was about to expose her face, he woke up, or in more accurate terms was woken up.
"What?" he asked groggily.
"Sweetie, come on. Don't sleep in the middle of the day."
"Mom. Have you never heard of naps?"
"Get up. We got company."
"Company? Who?"
"Your uncle."
"What uncle?"
"Bryan."
As she said his name, a young man of about 23 years old walked in with his Army uniform and Calderon on his name tag.
"Uncle?" Landon asked.
"It's me, kid."
Landon got up and went over to him and embraced him in a hug. "How have you been Uncle Bryan."
"Great to come home and visit you guys. How are you, kiddo?"
"I'm great. Although, I am not a kid anymore. I'm seventeen."
"You're still a kid to me, Landon. How good have you been taking care of your mother for me, huh?"
"I say, Lance and I are doing a pretty good job. She's doing great as far as I can see."
Landon felt Bryan embrace him in a strong, comforting hug. Bryan resembled Laura in many ways, they weren't siblings for nothing. Bryan had the same eyes Laura had and the same smile as well. Growing up, Bryan had been there for Landon. A few weeks after the accident that killed Liam, Bryan had gone to live with Laura and the boys. He had been a big help to Laura and when Landon had gotten blind, Bryan was there to encourage him to keep going, to not let others bring him down no matter what.
"What brings you here, uncle?" Landon asked.
"I'm on leave right now. Vacation time. I go back in a month and I thought what better place to spend my month and a half vacation than with my wonderful nephews and sister? So I'm here."
"That's great! Ready to help me workout again?"
"Are you sure? I mean, it's going to be pretty tough."
"You tell me that all the time. I always make it through."
"You know, I met someone. I met someone who didn't mind me being blind."
"Really? Who is it? Tell me all about that person. I'm waiting."
" She's really cool. She---"
Bryan interrupted his nephew. He didn't know if he had heard right or if it was just a figment of his imagination. " Did you just say she?"
"Yes, uncle Bryan. I said she. Her name is Lauren. I collided into her a while back and now we met formally. She's the one who gave me the canvas on the wall." He said, pointing to the place where he estimated that the canvas was.
At these words, Bryan looked at the canvas on the wall. He stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he saw the canvas. He looked at the only thing on the canvas that had color on it: Landon's eyes. Bryan couldn't believe how real and amazing his eyes looked. Lauren had painted Landon's eyes exactly as they were. It was like looking into Landon's eyes.
Landon heard the silence that was in the room and asked, "What are you contemplating?"
"She got your eyes exactly right. It's like looking into your real eyes. I mean, everything that is seen in your eyes, every emotion is captured in that painting, it's captured in your eyes. How did she do that? I mean, she's pretty amazing. Gosh, I wish you could see this."
"Me, too, Uncle Bryan. Me, too. But she's amazing, Uncle. Lauren is really nice; she's different."
"I'm glad you met her. I told you never to lose hope."
"Yeah, it's true. But Lance told me the same thing and so did my mom."
"Rudeness."
Landon laughed at his uncle's remark. "Thanks to you too, Uncle."
Bryan hugged his nephew, finally feeling that Landon had found someone who was worth it. Bryan was glad that Landon had finally met someone who actually gave him a chance.