Sarah's Trust

For the first week of being at home, Sarah didn't move from her bed. She didn't want to move or do anything because she couldn't see. The loss of her eyesight was devastating. But after the seventh day where she had just moped about, her mother pulled her out of bed and refused to let her wallow in selfpity. It wasn't healthy for her and she knew that her daughter would never be the same person again, but she would rather she be a different person than just waste away in her bed. She couldn't watch that happen so she took matters into her own hands.

The first thing she did was move her daughter into the doorway of the sitting room with the white cane the doctor had said to get for her. Then she sat on the sofa and watched her daughter carefully. Sarah stood there for a while, not knowing what to do because her sense of direction was gone. She'd been in almost total darkness for over a week now and she couldn't tell where anything was except for the doorway and the cane. But they didn't tell her anything.

It took her just over half an hour to work up the courage to move away from the doorway. One hand was out in front of her, feeling around for anything in case she were to bump into it and the other hand had a firm grip on the cane as she used that to that make sure she didn't walk into anything. Her footsteps were shaky and she hesitated several times, but finally she made it over to the sofa where her mother was sat, and it was her mother's reaction to that which encouraged her to continue to get used to not having any sight.

When she went for her first appointment with the eye doctor, she told her that she hadn't done anything for the first week because she didn't feel like she could. The doctor had understood and told her that it was all part of getting used to not being able to see and that it was actually healthy for her to have a period like that.

True to what the doctor in the hospital had said when they'd first found out she was blind, it wasn't easy for her throughout the next few weeks. She constantly had bruises running up and down her shins because she kept bumping into pieces of furniture and she would occasionally misjudge a step on the stairs and fall up them. Lucky for her, there was a banister for her to hold on to that helped her on the way down. And after the first month, she felt confident enough to move back into her bedroom upstairs. She had been using the back room as her bedroom for the time being but now that she could climb the stairs and descend them fairly easily, she wanted to move back into her bedroom. Her parents were thrilled that she was making such progress that they started to ease up on watching her. They would always be supportive of her and never underestimate how hard it was for her to go about her life without vision, but the second month after the accident her mother went back to work. She'd taken leave for her daughter and had contemplated quitting her job to stay at home all the time for her daughter, but now she didn't need to although she did cut back her days so she only worked three days out of the week. Her father worked as well so for those three days Sarah would be alone in the house.

At first the idea scared Sarah and she would remain in her bedroom until her mother got back from work, but she soon gained the confidence to leave the room and go about the house all by herself. By then she had practically memorised the entire layout of her house so she rarely bumped into anything, although there was the occasion item she would bump into but that was to be expected. The little shapes in the walls helped her as well, certain shapes telling her that she was heading towards the kitchen and other shapes telling her which way the bathroom was. They had been her father's idea, and the idea was perfect for her.

The day that she decided that she was confident enough to go outside was one of the days where she was home alone. In a way, it was good that it was on one of those days because her mother would have never allowed that. She would have thought that she wasn't ready for it. She probably wasn't ready for it because two months before the accident they had moved into their new house and for those two months Sarah had barely left the house. She'd been home-schooled since she was nine because there had been an issue with her older brother where the teachers had been ignorant to his problems and he'd been beaten to an inch of his life during a day at school. After that their parents drew them both from school and home-schooled them for the rest of their years in school. Now her brother was away at college.

Sarah stood in the doorway of the house for five minutes before she picked up her mother's doorstop and left the house. She didn't close the door properly because she was only going to walk down the road and back again. There was no way she was confident enough to go any further. She had her cane with her, and once she'd placed the doorstop at the end of their garden so she could recognise her house, she tightened her grip on the cane before she slowly stepped off of the grass.

She could tell that it was light out – possibly sunny – but also that there was a slight breeze. Her steps weren't that big as she tapped the cane in front of her as she walked along, making sure that she wasn't going to walk into something or step in something that she didn't want to step in. She'd forgot to bring her glasses out with her but she didn't think that it was much of a problem. Besides, they would stop her seeing the light right now and she didn't want that.

When she thought she had made it to the end of the street, she turned back around and slowly made her way back to her house. However halfway back down the street someone bumped shoulders with her, the strength of the jolt making her lose grip on her cane and sending it to the ground.

"Sorry," the person said but she ignored them, bending down to the floor and patting around to find the cane.

There were no sound of footsteps heading away from her but she didn't take notice of that. Her fingers searched around for the cane as she became puzzled over how far it could have fallen away from her body. The jolt couldn't have been that heavy to have made it fall a distance away from her, surely.

"What you looking for?" the person questioned.

She sighed lightly and looked in the direction the voice was coming from. "Did you see where my cane went?" she asked.

There was a short pause before he answered. "It's to your right."

Sarah turned to her right and felt around, feeling the end of cane. Relieved, she gripped the right end and stood up, holding it close to her body. "Thanks," she said.

She began slowly making her way back down the street and towards the house. The boy followed after her. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Why do you ask?" she replied. She didn't feel all that comfortable with him following her up the street because she didn't know who he was and if she needed to get away quickly, it'd be hard for her to do.

"You didn't see the stick was beside you."

She let out a small, bitter laugh. "You're observant," she commented sarcastically. The boy didn't reply to what she had said but he didn't stop following after her either, something that she didn't like. As they got further down the street, she kept nudging her cane to her right to try and feel for the doorstop she had put in front of her house.

"What are you doing?" the boy asked after noticing her action.

This made Sarah stop. "Why are you following me?" she asked him back.

He shrugged even though she couldn't see the action. "You seem unsure of where you're going and I didn't want you to get lost," he replied nonchalantly, almost as if it were an every day occurrence for him to follow someone like he was.

She sighed and rubbed her forehead lightly. "Is it that obvious that I'm blind?" she muttered. When he didn't say anything back she spoke again. "Anyway, I don't need you to take pity and follow me so I don't get lost. I'm not a pity case."

"I didn't mean it like that," he protested. "Really, I didn't. At first I didn't even notice that you, urh, couldn't see."

For a moment they just stood in the street until Sarah grew uncomfortable with being outside and as vulnerable as she was. "Um, how far away is the house with the doorstop in front of it?" she asked shyly, feeling embarrassed over having to ask him.

"Just ahead of you. Can I help?" he replied and she just sighed and nodded lightly. It was tiring having to navigate with the cane all the time so when the boy grasped her arm lightly and began guiding her forward, she enjoyed it.

True to his word, it was just ahead of them and they reached it in seven steps. Sarah bent down and picked the doorstop up. "Thanks," she told him.

"What's your name?"

"Sarah."

"Well then you're welcome, Sarah," he told her. "I'm Embry."

She gave him a small smile before she turned away and made her way towards her house, pushing the door open with her cane and going in. She closed the door behind her, unaware that he had watched her.