*Blind Effects

Intro: Look, I got all three posts in this last week. This story came from a conversation I had with Moose. He fell asleep while I was driving and when he woke up I made a comment about "Nice to have you back." He replied with "But I didn't go anywhere."

“Were you watching me while I was sleeping?” Charles suppressed a yawn.
“No,” Martha said. “You went somewhere, again.”

Charles rubbed the heel of his hand against his forehead. “I feel like I’ve been through a war.”

Martha pushed herself up on her arm, her black hair falling to the pillow. “You look like it.” She ran a hand across his face, smearing the dirt.

“How can you see?”

“I turned on the light when your body disappeared.”

“What time was that?”

“About two-thirty.”

Charles fumbled on the bedside table and picked up his watch. He felt the face and let out a sigh.

“Only two hours. I still have time.”

Martha swung her feet out of bed and pulled Charles after him. When she had been in college her room had shown her priorities, anything but cleaning. Working part time and going to school, in addition to her community choir, left no care for cleaning. Marrying a blind man had changed that. She had met him in college. He was new to the city and had a hard time getting around. She always found him sitting in the back of the auditorium listening to the choir. She’d found him attractive and cute. Clueless but not helpless.

Charles stumbled and Martha caught him. The left leg of his pajamas was shredded. She half carried him to the bathroom and deposited him in the tub.

Once he was clean, and bandaged, they sat huddled together on the couch.

“I dreamed, but I don’t remember what it was. I think, I think I could actually see. But I don’t know. I just remember the loud noises. Gunfire.”

“How do you even know what gunfire sounds like?”

He opened and closed his mouth a few times. “Like in the movies.”

“We’ve never seen a movie with guns. They don’t even make movies with guns anymore.”

Martha shook her head. “I think we need to go back to the surgeon. This started happening when you had your surgery.” She shivered. “I keep thinking that if we could eliminate war and create clones, we could return your sight.”

“But it isn’t returning my sight. I never had any to begin with. It’s been this way since I was a child.” Charles pulled her close. “I’ll make an appointment with the doctor.”

That afternoon, Martha found herself frozen before the glass doors of the hospital. The lack of violence hadn’t made hospitals obsolete like everyone had hypothesized. Not even the new methods of childbirth had been as miraculous.

“Are you coming?” Charles asked. His helmet shone in the light. They couldn’t return his sight, but he wasn’t completely hopeless. Martha wasn’t sure what the scientificness was behind the helmet, but it kept him from running into things. It also caused headaches, which was why he never wore it at home.

They were shown to the examination room where the doctor was waiting for them.

“I understand something is wrong. What can I help you with?” Dr. Matthews asked.

“I am not sure. Martha is the one who can explain it.”

Martha shifted on the padded chair. “Ever since the surgery Charles has been disappearing when he sleeps.”

Dr. Matthews tapped his computer. “Disappearing? As in he doesn’t respond to you?”

“As in his body is no longer there.”

“Sleepwalking?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

Martha gripped her knees. “No. One minute he is asleep next to me, the next he is gone. He returns the same way, only it’s like he’s been somewhere else. This morning he came back injured.”

“With your husband’s condition it isn’t surprising that he would be injured. No offense.”

Charles merely snorted.

“I just don’t want you to worry about nothing. I can prescribe a sleep aid.”

Martha scooted forward on her chair. “This only started happening after his latest surgery. I want you to make sure that there hasn’t been any complications because of the new sensors.”

“There is nothing wrong with the sensors.”

“Dr. Matthews, I would like my implants to be checked out.” Charles said. “I don’t like what has been happening. I don’t like waking up beaten and bruised.”

“Charles, you have always been accident prone. I remember hearing about how your mom used to bring you in all the time because of your accidents.”

“Yes,” Charles licked his lips. “Accidents like what I have been going through. I went through surgery when I was a child, to stop the nightmares.”

Martha clenched her hands, just as transfixed as the doctor.

“They implanted my brain, to keep me from Traveling. What did you do to me?”

Dr. Matthews moved away from his computer and clasped his hands. “It’s not the implants that are failing. Your being pulled back to your time.”

Charles rested his head in his hands. “I don’t want to go back.”

“You have to. You weren’t supposed to be here for this long. You have to go back and tell them what you found. Tell them about the side effects of dimensional travel. They have to find another way of escape. I can maybe give you two or three more days.”

Martha covered her face with her hands and wept.

Charles wrapped his arm around her. “I thought I could stay. I didn’t mind living blind if it meant I could live with you.”