Blind
“Joe…Earth to Joe…” Ed’s voice taunted through the wispy cigar smoke.
“What?”
“You in or out?” Pat, seated next to him, nodded at the small pile of ones and quarters in the middle of the table. Joe shook his head to clear the cobwebs. “What’s the bet?”
“Three and a quarter, man—where have you been?” Ed tried not to sound irritated, but the effort needed more work.
“You’ve been miles away all night,” Pat added. “Everything okay at home?”
“Yeah, fine.” Joe set his cards face down on the table then leaned back in his chair, his dark blue shirt blending eerily with the surrounding darkness. “Sorry, guys, I’ve just had this nagging feeling all week.”
Pat looked across the table at Ed, the overhead light casting a glare off his glasses. “Like what?”
“Nah—it’s nothin’.” Joe ran his fingers through his tousled hair, exhaled, and then shook his head.
“C’mon, we’ve had poker night together every week for the last five years. You’ve been to my daughter’s wedding and stayed with Pat’s wife in the delivery room when his second son was born ’cause mister man-of-steel here passed out.”
“He’s right, Joe. Except the part about me passing out. I’d been up all night, I was exhausted—”
“Yeah right, whatever,” Ed cut him off mid-sentence. “Your eyes don’t roll back into your skull when—”
“—Don’t start, guys.” Joe leaned forward into the light and glanced at both men. Cradling his forehead in one hand, he made prompting circles with his other. “You ever had that feeling of—what’s the word? Premonition?”
The pair seemed to squint at him through the pyramid of light that bathed the table. Ed slapped his cards face down in front of him and leaned back in his chair. “I think I know what you mean,” he began, then leaned forward again into the gambler’s light. “There’s a little girl a couple of doors down, she’s got some kind of cancer. She’s only six years old and already bedridden.”
Suddenly the only bright thing in the room was the overhead light.
Pat somberly added, “Some kind of malignant tumor in her kidneys—I think you told me it’s called Wilm’s tumor, right, Ed?” Ed slowly nodded.
“That’s incredibly tragic, but, see, you already know about her sickness. I don’t know what it is that’s bugging me, but it doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies. I feel like I’m stumbling around blind.” An uneasy silence hung between them. “I better go. Sorry, fellas. Obviously, I’m not in the game.” Joe stood, causing the wooden chair to loose a low-frequency rumble upon the already gloomy atmosphere. “Thanks again for the sandwich and cigar, Ed.” A respectful, if not concerned, nod was the quiet response.
Joe tossed his cards atop the kitty, then disappeared into the darkness. He got as far as the end of the driveway, where he was abruptly stopped by an old man with a cane who appeared to be talking to himself—until he called out to Joe.
“Excuse me—could you please help me?” he asked.
“I suppose. What can I do for you?” Joe noticed the pungent aroma of booze and cheap cigars.
“I’m blind, and I must’ve walked past my house. I’m looking for forty-seven.” He tapped his white cane for emphasis.
“If you mean 47th Street, you’ve quite a ways to go…”
“No, I mean number forty-seven. Could you help me find it, please?”
“I, uh…”
“I surely appreciate your help. By the way, I’m Richard,” he introduced himself, grabbing Joe’s wrist with an assertive, weathered hand—almost too assertive.
“I’m Joe.” The nagging, foreboding feeling slithered inside him. But he’s blind; he should be harmless. As they walked, the white-haired man effusively thanked him for his help.
Rounding the corner, Joe remarked, “You’re two doors down from my friend.”
“I don’t get out much, so I’m sure I’ve never seen him.” His white beard seemed to shine when he chuckled.
Joe grinned uneasily; surely the man could hear and feel his uncertainty. After five years of poker nights he’d never encountered anyone outside, not a soul.
“Thank you. I know my way now.” Releasing his grip, the old man walked through a side gate and into the house.
The next morning Joe awoke with the nagging feeling that he needed to go by Ed’s on his way to work. He skipped breakfast and made quick time to the house. His stomach sank as he turned the corner. Morning sunlight filtered through the trees, punctuated by a solid yellow line around the perimeter of the front yard two doors down. It read: Police Line-Do Not Cross.
“They’ve been here since six this morning.” Joe jumped; he hadn’t heard Ed approach. He gestured at the two police cruisers parked in front of the house.
“Wow. What happened?” Joe asked, visibly shaken.
“I talked to one of the cops earlier…”
“Oh no, please no,” Joe whispered.
“What?”
“Go on.” Ed shrugged and adjusted his tie. “Seems the little girl said something about an old man with really white hair and a beard showed up last night. Said he smelled funny.”
“Please, tell me no one was murdered.”
“Take it easy, Joe,” Ed patted him on the shoulder, “nobody was murdered. Quite the opposite.”
“Then why are the cops here?”
“Seems the old man just vanished into thin air. The parents were hoping the police could track him down so they could ask him some questions.”
Joe’s gut clenched. “Did he hurt the girl?”
“That’s the weird part,” Ed drawled. “She’s up and out of bed this morning as if she was never sick. Practically a bona fide miracle. The family doctor and oncologist made a house call and they can’t explain it. They’re going to run tests, of course, but this is the last thing they expected. I couldn’t be happier for them.”
Joe gave the area a thorough visual twice-over, even looking over both shoulders as he ran the previous night through his head.
“He sure works in mysterious ways,” Ed marveled.
“What? What’d you say?” asked Joe.
“I said,” Ed pointed skyward, “He works in mysterious ways.”
Joe thrust both hands into his pants pockets, suddenly feeling very much at peace.
“That he does, Ed.”
Turning to face Ed, he placed his left hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“I can surely say he’s taught a blind man to see.”
Ten Word Quickie
I was given a list of ten words to use as I saw fit. By whom and why I honestly don’t recall. One of the ground rules was that the words be random, and each one used only once. Listed below are those ten words, and the subsequent result:
quip gallant seraphim perilous reasonable green inspiration baseball flirt rhino