Spoilers:  Blind Faith

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Sudden Darkness
by Janet

Gary Hobson didn’t know when he’d been so frightened.  Just a few seconds ago he had been able to see everything clearly that was around him.  Now all that was changed.  When he’d received his “early edition” that morning he never would have dreamed that by nightfall he would be as blind as his friend Marissa Clark.

An article in the paper stated that three teens would be killed in an explosion in one of the numerous freight tunnels that ran beneath the city.  Gary had located the teens and found them tossing a Civil War cannonball back and forth as if it were a toy.  His heart nearly stopped beating when he saw this because those particular cannonballs were explosive.  He tried to convince the three boys of this but their leader would have no part of it.  In fact he seemed to delight in trying to scare Gary by tossing the explosive device back and forth between him and his friends.  Finally, though he had tossed it toward Gary who ducked away from it.  Laughing at the “big explosion” that didn’t happen when it first landed just a few feet away from Gary. Seconds later the cannonball exploded and Gary, unprepared, caught the explosion in his face.  Badly frightened and with a note of panic in his voice he had called out to the teens to wait.  But the boys, seeing the damage they had caused, ran off leaving Gary frightened and injured in the tunnel with no one around to help him.

Now Gary was crawling blindly on the ground trying to find his way out of the tunnel.  Unsteady on his feet he kept tripping over boxes and other trash.  He fell a few times skinning his knees and hands in the process.  Finally finding a wall to lean against he followed it to the street above.

“Help!  I need… I need help!  Somebody please?!”  Gary’s voice was as shaky as his hands.  “Help, please, I can’t see.  I can’t.…I can’t see.”

A passerby heard him and approached from his right side.  Taking his arm he helped him to a place where he could sit down while waiting for the paramedics and ambulance to arrive.

“Take it easy buddy,” a man’s voice said.  “I’ve got you.  Let’s get you over to this bench to sit down.”

Gratefully Gary let the man lead him to a bench near the street.  His eyes hurt like the dickens.  His face and his left hand as well.  He couldn’t be sure what was wrong with it.  He must have cut it on something while he was trying to find his way out of the tunnel.  Shaking with nerves and pain he sat on the bench straining to see anything but without success.  He was as blind as Marissa and scared that it was permanent.

Wailing sirens approached as an ambulance and a police cruiser arrived on the scene.  The officer reached him first with the paramedics close behind.

“Can you tell me what happened sir?”  the officer asked Gary.

“Some kids, they - they threw an old cannonball.  It fell on the ground and exploded.  It, uh, it exploded a couple feet away from me.  The, uh, the explosion …”  Gary’s voice trailed off as shock started to set in.

“The paramedics are here, sir,” the officer said.  “I’ll talk to you later.”

The paramedics took Gary’s vital signs and tried to clean up the damage to his face before bandaging his eyes.  Then they helped him walk over to the gurney and got him settled.  Once he was strapped on they loaded him and the gurney into the ambulance and started for the hospital.

An emergency room nurse met them as they came in and took charge of getting Gary into an examining room and helped him onto an examination table to await a doctor.

“Is there someone I can call for you sir?” the nurse asked.

“Yes, my friend…Marissa Clark.  She’ll be at our restaurant - McGinty’s.  The phone number is in my wallet.”

The nurse took Gary’s wallet from him and found the phone number.  Then she went to the desk to place the call.  An emergency room doctor took one look at Gary’s cloudy eyes and sent for a Dr. Katzman to take over.

The phone on Marissa Clark’s desk rang.  The young blind woman groped for a few seconds before her fingers made contact with it.

“Hello, McGinty’s,” she said as she answered it.

“Marissa Clark?” a voice on the other end asked.

“Yes,” Marissa replied, “Who’s calling?”

“My name is Hazel Cain, I’m a nurse at County General.  I’m calling about Gary Hobson.  There’s been an accident.”

“An accident?  Is he okay?” Marissa was worried.

“He was injured in an explosion.  Someone needs to come and get him and see that he gets home all right.”

“I’ll leave right away.  Thank you for calling.”  As she hung up the phone Marissa’s hands started to tremble.  Gary had been in and out of hospitals so many times since he started getting the paper, sometimes because he was hurt, sometimes because somebody else was hurt.  She wondered what could have exploded and how badly he was hurt.  She reached for the phone and called for a cab.  Then, putting on her coat and hat and with cane in hand she went outside to await its arrival.

Dr. Katzman took out her penlight with which to check Gary’s eyes.  Waving it in front of his eyes she could tell that he was unable to see a thing.  Her exam and tests indicated that he had suffered a thermal corneal burn to both eyes.

“Mr. Hobson,” she said gently.  “I’ve got the results of your tests here.  You’ve suffered a thermal corneal burn to both of your eyes.  It’s causing some cloudiness which is why you’re unable to see right now.”

“Does…does that mean I’m bl…that I won’t see again?”

“Not necessarily.  There are some treatments we can try but for now your eyes just need some time to start healing.”  As she spoke the doctor was bandaging Gary’s eyes.  She was very gentle and spoke quietly and calmly to her patient whom she could tell was very shaken up by what had happened.  When she finished the bandaging of his eyes and hand she tried to make him comfortable while he waited for his friend to arrive.

A few minutes later the cab, with Marissa inside, arrived at the hospital.  Quickly she paid the cab driver and started to find her way inside.  After avoiding a gurney being rushed through the corridor a woman in surgical scrubs came up to her and took her to the room where Gary was waiting.  Upon hearing the news that Gary was blinded, though he made it sound like it was temporary, she reached out for his hand knowing that he must be totally devastated.  Gary had always been there for her over the past few years and now she was going to do what she could for him.  It was a terrible shock for him to suddenly lose his eyesight when he’d never even needed glasses.  She could feel his hand trembling even though he was putting up a good front for her.  He needn’t have bothered.  She intended to do everything within her power to help him cope in his suddenly dark world.  And nothing and nobody would stop her from protecting him and encouraging him and helping him learn to cope.  Not even Gary himself.
 
 

Email the author: Janet.E.Brayden@nae02.usace.army.mil
 

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