Blind Photographs

I put the can on the counter with a note written on the back of an old wanted poster that said they were for Boom box, and tied the cloth over my eyes. Fun Ghoul led me out into the sand (as indicated by the shifting ground and stale heat) and then left me completely blinded. I knew I couldn’t be far from the diner, but everything was gone.

“Over here!” I turned toward the voice and coughed as a hand collided with my stomach. “Listen to me. Listen for me. I’m sorry but I’m really not allowed to go easy on you. So please, for the both of us, learn fast.” His voice was smooth and cool, but still sounded like a kid instead of a grown man.

I coughed again when a hand came down on my back, knocking me to the desert floor.
I tried fighting back, throwing handfuls of the hot sand in his direction, but it was futile.
Like everything else, I could not learn this fast. So after what I’d estimated to be a very long time, Fun Ghoul had to call it quits for the day, tugging my aching arm back into the diner. It went on like that to the point where it seemed hopeless. Until the day Party Poison thought of something.

“It’s too much of a transition,” He said, strangling a can of Power Pup with a can opener. “Going from blind to seeing to blind to seeing. You need to keep it consistent. Give me your glasses.”

I looked at him. He stared back, unblinking, hand reached out. So I handed them over. And he snapped them.

“You’ll learn faster. Put your bandana back on.”

Being blind or mostly blind was unsettling. I barely had their faces in my mind. I moved permanently to the cot, which made Grace happier, but constantly kept me on edge. Radio Heat was being nice so far.

So far? I saved your sorry ass so many times it’s not even funny. Who warned you not to sleep on the cactus? She demanded.

She stayed around for longer now, and I found myself having conversations in my head more and more frequently. I'd need to explain her.

After exactly one week of total darkness, I could make my way around the diner pretty well. Not perfectly yet, but well.

“Hey, Photo,” Jet Star said. “What’s up?” Sounded like he was messing with the guns again.

“I have an announcement. Is anyone else here that I missed?”

“Nope, just me and the blasters”

“Could you get them in here?” I think he nodded before remembering he needed to speak

“Yeah, hold on.”

“Since my last residency at Battery City,”

“You were held there?” Poison interjected.

“Yes, I was taken captive and brainwashed. Because of that, withdrawal from my pills once I was rescued was extremely difficult with no real sensory shock. The voice in my head amplified into another personality, who goes by Radio Heat.” I turned to face them. “She’s very smart, but also very... she wants to get out of my head, let’s say. When I sleep there’s always the risk of her taking over my body. She wouldn’t hurt any of you, not now since you know her, anyway, but there’s no telling what she’ll do.”

To be honest, she could kill all of them. She’d leave Grace, though. Radio Heat, sarcastic and harsh as she could be, knew to respect the only person that had kept me going. If I died, she would too.

“We have someone who might be able to help you.”