So here it is! My fiction story! The title should be in Braille, but it won't work. Tell me if you want a full copy!
Maddie Whitten
Ellie dreams in colors and sounds every night. A car horn is always with a red burst of sparks; her mother’s voice is a soft cream-colored swirl. Water splashing is a bright green circle, even though she knows water was blue. Well, she doesn’t know exactly what water looks like, all Ellie remembers from her childhood is colors. But right now, Ellie isn’t supposed to be dreaming. She should be paying attention to The Group meeting, which is a therapy group for people like Ellie that is the absolute lowest point in her week. The only redeeming quality about The Group is there is free food every week.
“And that’s why I live every day in regret. What if I was just a minute sooner? What if those stupid calls didn’t distract me?” sobs Paul.
Ellie hears this every single Thursday, except when Paul is out of town. Paul Turtleman is a 45-year-old man, with nothing to do except sit at home or go to The Group once a week. Ellie is kind to him, but she’s the only one. He says the same thing, over and over and over and over and over again. He lists off his regrets, one by one, and then he cries without fail.
But then there’s Eden Burts, who is just as bad as Paul. She has a raspy voice, Ellie pictures a burnt orange pointy shape, that scrapes at her subconcious. She has no empathy for anyone, and doesn’t put up with Paul’s blubbering.
“Paul,” she said. “You have got to let that go. You make me want to be sick, with all your talk of ‘Oh I wish I did this differently’ and ‘Oh I wish I could see so-and-so one last time!’ It’s disgusting. Stop it. I tell you this every week and nothing changes.”
Paul can’t help it, and starts to cry again. Ellie hears Paul grab the box of tissues and his footsteps getting more and more faint. Paul spends a lot of time in that hall, the main hallway of Timber Ivy High School. Ellie goes there to school, but hates it. Ellie is the only one who has ever noticed that TIHS spelled backwards is…well…not good. That’s exactly how she feels about the school though. She is restrained immensely in her education, not everything is written in Braille. The school doesn’t have enough reading material ready for Ellie, so they have to special order it for her.
That’s what they get though. They should let me read, like normal kids. I’m normal. I should have whatever they have. Feeling a little bit rebellious, Ellie pulls out her latest book, The Catcher and the Rye.
“Ellie! That had better not be a book I see! I mean, uh, that better not be what I think it is! Just put it away now! It’s your turn to speak anyway.” Apparently, Mrs. Norburry wasn’t supposed to say anything about how she can see and her students can’t. It would stress out the members of The Group, or so Ellie had heard.
Mrs. Norburry sounds like fuchsia waves, rolling around. Sometimes storms came to interrupt the vision, like right now. Barbara Norburry was all about the mushy feelings, the ones that Ellie hated the most. Barbara encourages nostalgia and affection, and the more sentimental the better. Ellie believes she’s a hippie.
“Actually, no. My nephew is in town, and is coming to The Group today. He is excited to meet you all! Especially you, Ellie! He’s 16, too! His name is Jon Callaway.” Ellie heard her clap daintily and giggle, making her feel uncomfortable. Ever since she was little, emotions or physical touching made Ellie feel just awkward. Ellie suspects it’s for self-protection, or because it always seems fake. She received tons of hugs since she went blind, and they were all just for the sake of hugging. And now, she still hates the mention of new people that may pose the risk of closeness.
Without another word, Ellie feels her way up out of her chair, using her hands to guide her around the wall and out to the spacious hallway. Her steps echo against the metal lockers, and she could hear Mrs. Norburry’s faint yells. Nugget, Ellie’s dog, weaves in and out of her legs, whining a bit. He guides her to the bathroom and waits outside. Ellie paces through the girls’ bathroom, since she knows it by heart. This is her favorite place to hide during school, and no one ever bothers her. After a couple of minutes, she stops in front of a mirror, facing towards it. She tries to imagine what she looks like; though she never will find out for herself. It tortures her everyday knowing that fact. Her parents say her wavy black hair falls in front of both her eyes, since she doesn’t care. It’s better that way. Ellie doesn’t have completely white eyes, but they still scare people. Her parents say Ellie is very pretty, but she doesn’t believe them. Parents have to say that, it’s an unwritten rule. I bet I’m really ugly, just no one will tell me. Not that I care. Not that anyone cares.
Ellie paces out of the bathroom, and turns left when she hits the bump in the linoleum flooring. Then she feels something strange on her arm, something warm and soft. “Oh, sorry, didn’t see you there. Hey, are you in my aunt’s group? I was just walking down there and I’m a little lost,” it says.
This has to be Jon! Huh. While he talks, Ellie imagines a dark maroon that pours from a great height and seeps into everything, melting the bottom of her mind. “Oh hi, You’re fine. I’m Ellie. Yeah, its room 230, do you want me go with you?” Ellie says quietly. She tries to stick her arm out for a handshake, but ends up stabbing him in the chest. He backs up, brings her hand down, and shakes it slowly. Not letting go of her hand completely, he turns and starts walking down the hall.
“Please, I might as well be blind. I have no idea what I’m doing…” Then Jon realizes what just came out of his mouth. When he turns around to apologize, Ellie wasn’t there. She was already stalking around the corner, into classroom 230. Secretly through, Jon’s callous comment doesn’t bother Ellie; she really thinks it’s cute. Not that Ellie would say that to Jon though.
By the time Jon sat down in the room, only Ellie and Mrs. Norburry were left. Paul had locked himself in a locker in shame, and Eden was picked up by her boyfriend five minutes ago. Great. Well, I’m an idiot. I hope she forgives me. Jon looks down and doesn’t speak for the rest of the meeting. Mrs. Norburry is talking about how blind people are equal to everyone else. That’s what Ellie hates about The Group, how whatever the lesson is, Norburry makes it seem like she isn’t normal, like she shouldn’t be alive. Maybe Ellie shouldn’t be alive; after all, that’s what the doctors said. That’s all Ellie heard growing up.
“Her eyes will never function properly, her case of retinis pigmentosa is too severe. There is nothing anyone in the world can do,” morosely said one doctor, who Ellie had particularly hated. He then handed her parents a pamphlet that read ‘So Your Child Is Blind?’ Inside it described a year-round school across the country just for kids that were like Ellie. “This is the best option, the one I’d recommend. You won’t see her until she’s eighteen, it’s perfect.”
Maybe the doctors are right, maybe Ellie wasn’t fit to live. She had thought about it for weeks on end, and right after The Group would be when Ellie would act. She had bought the necessary equipment, and had completed a letter written to her family. Something stopped her though, both literally and figuratively. When Jon Callaway had bumped into Ellie, giving her something she hadn’t had before: a reason to live. As Ellie walks out of the doors of Timber Ivy High School, she wants to run home, but not for the reason she had just an hour earlier. Ellie wanted to go home to dream about the sound of Jon’s voice, and feel the surge dark red flow to the corners of her mind, drowning out any harmful thoughts that could still be lingering.
