BLINDNESS

Blindness

Oleh: Lia Octavia

It was just like an ordinary morning. I got up quite late, hurried to school, and missed my mother’s delicious home-made breakfast. Never mind. Although I knew my mother did not like me to go to school without having breakfast but I ignored her anyway.
“I could catch up later, Mom!” I grabbed a bottle of milk, said goodbye to her and ran across the noisy lanes. It was almost seven o'clock and I could not afford to arrive late at school. I had a math test this morning.

“How could I be so stupid?” I grumbled and jumped over a pool of mud. “I had been studying until almost dawn and expected not to be late?” My heart almost stopped beating when I saw long lines of cars, buses and vehicles on the streets: a congestion! I’m definitely going to be late, I said to myself.

I had to take a public minibus and it took me about twenty to twenty five minutes in a normal traffic to get to school. My math test would begin at seven thirty and I did not see that bus stopping at the bus shelter I was at. It must have been stuck in traffic somewhere. I had asked my father to buy me a motorcycle, something almost all what my friends had, but it seemed that expecting my dad to ever buy a motorcycle was just a dream. My father said nothing to me at all regarding the motorcycle, even my mother refused to talk about it. He said that I had to throw away of the idea of having a motorcycle out of my intellectual mind.

I grinned and looked up at the sky. Why did this happen to me? I felt so tired in my mind just waiting for the minibus that seemed never to come. God knows how hard I studied last night and I was sure He will not fail me this time. I looked around. The bus shelter was packed with people waiting for the bus. It would be much better if I waited for that stupid bus over there, across this bus shelter, so I could be the first to get on it and I could pick any seat I want and not waste any more time. I ran as fast as I could with my school bag in my right hand and a bottle of milk in my left hand.

Crash!

“Hey! Are you blind?” a tall handsome young man scolded at me furiously. His fancy white shirt was covered with milk that spilled out from my bottle. Really, I did not see him coming towards me as I ran across the busy street.

“Oh, my God! So-so-sorry, Sir!” I tried to clean up his shirt but I did not really notice what I was doing. My mind was still on the traffic and my math test. I gave a glance at my watch. Seven fifteen. The test should start in another fifteen minutes and I am still here with this stupid man. Where is he coming from? He seemed to appear out of nowhere as if he suddenly seems to fall from the sky and bumped at me. Of course, it’s not my fault.

“Sorry? Just sorry? See what you have done to me! I have an important meeting this morning and your stupid greasy milk is all over me!” that man gripped my hand and forced me to take off my shirt.

“What? No! You can’t do this to me, Sir! You can’t have me take off my shirt! I must get to school! I’m late for my exam. Besides, I said I am sorry. I didn’t see you,” I tried to run away from him but his grip was too hard.

“I said take it off! Now!”

I was all confused and I did not seem to much of a choice. I took off my shirt, gave it to that young man who did not look so handsome anymore. His face looked like a hungry wolf and ready to eat me alive. He grabbed my shirt and went away.

I can’t believe it! Here I was, standing half naked by the busy road, so scared of being late to my math test but now it seemed it did not matter anymore. Of course I could not go to school like this. I had to go back home, put on a clean shirt, listen to my mother's preaching and ran to school. I would miss my math tes.

I could hear people start talking about me now. “Do you see what I see?” asked a young woman to her friends. She looked at me peculiarly and then she and her friends laughed. Their shiny yellow teeth seemed to dazzle me. I almost yelled at them when I heard some school girls laughed at me behind my back. I looked at them fouriously but they kept on laughing.

“We didn't see anything,” they said and burst into laugh.

“Yeah... laugh until you die!” I said harshly back at them.

I was standing angrily by the road. I was angry at the traffic jam and all the noise it made which only add to my spinning head; angry at my father who did not care to buy me a motorcycle, angry at the man who took my shirt, angry at the girls who laughed at me, angry that I missed my math test. I was angry at the world. The air seemed to stop flowing and I could hardly breathe. Life sucks.

“Young man, calm down! It’s just blindness,” a gentle and kind voice reached my ears. A middle-aged woman wearing a thick coat was standing beside me and smiled at me.

Blindness? What is she talking about? I did not understand and could not think. I held my school bag tightly. I could not afford to handle another robbery.

“Do you think blindness simply means inability to see things ? Don’t you think there are things you see but is not supposed to be seen? When someone loses their sight and unable to see, they are blind. But even when your eyes are wide open, you have plain sight, you can see things around you, and yet you don't realize they exist and move on in life, then, you are blind while you can see them.”

I was starring at her. Something was strange with this lady but I could not really put my hands on it.

“You knew that you have a test this morning and you knew that traffic jam is some sort of ritual of this city but still you just don't get it. You don’t try to start up earlier and do something about it. And then you ran about along the busy streets and bumped into a man. You wouldn't spill your milk all over him if you didn’t bring it with you and you wouldn’t bring it with you if you drank it before you left home. Why you didn’t drink it before you left home? Well... you got up late. Why? You studied until almost dawn. Why? You have a test this morning, a math test, which you will never be able to attend to now. Am I right? And now you got angry at what happened to you and you just don’t see that whatever happened to you this morning, you got yourself to blame, ...and not the others?”

I was speechless word. Why wasn’t I? She smiled at me and said gently, ”It’s just blindness. Don’t worry! Everything will be alright when you get over it and can see things clearly.” And then she left, swaying her bag in her left arm and waving at me with her other are as she walked away from me.

I looked at my watch. It was almost eight o’clock. She was right. I missed my math test, lost my shirt, lost my temper and most of all, lost my time. I could not turn back the clock and rewrite them all over again right from when I should prepare myself for my math test. And that's all because of my blindness. And most of all, I did not have any idea what her name was and why she knew so much of what happened to me this morning. I was just to mesmerized at the things she said.

The sun shone brightly. I wiped out the sweat from my forehead. It was hot. All of a sudden, on my way back home, I realized something. There was something strange with the woman that I just had seen. I guess I could never get an answer why she wore such a thick coat in this hot weather. Or maybe I was too blind to see?***