Blinded

He had had an initially happy childhood and his parents had been a great couple. Always cheerful and happy, home felt easy and peaceful. They did not have any economic issues and they used to take numerous trips and excursions. Always with their son’s amusement in mind, they had visited every theme park in the country and they even took two trips to Disneyland in Paris.

Robert never lacked anything; they bought him the latest generation videogame consoles along with the newest games, including a connection to the internet. He was the envy of his classmates; many a long game night took place in his spacious home. His seven birthday parties had been awesome; some with wizards, others with clowns, others in the best children recreation centers of the city. He had even been the first one in his school to get a latest generation cell phone; like, truly amazing. But the tentacles of the economic crisis reached out directly into his father’s company, which greatly depended on housing construction. In a brief period of time, his springy financial cushion had deflated. The revenue had plummeted, the expenses for firing the numerous personnel depleted the company’s financial ability, the debts and bank loans pursued him relentlessly, and some unfortunate investments caused the final outcome of the total closure of his business.

His father, without a job, without an income, and drowning in debt, fell into a deep depression. His relationship with his partner deteriorated in the extreme; they argued frequently and, when the situation became unbearable, they broke up.

Sandra, a lower-level civil servant in leave of absence, asked for a re-admission and barely managed to pay the exorbitant mortgage with her salary. They lived hand to mouth with the rest; despite those hardships, there were others who had it worse.

Robert could not adapt to the new situation of want and impoverishment, since he was used to having it all, but the worst part was the absence of his father. Despite all of the reasons his mother gave him, he could not understand why his father could not live with them. Moreover, he blamed her for it, since she was the one who had taken the initiative with the separation.

Lately, his mother would not talk to him, except to scold and order him around with frequency. They would not do anything interesting in the weekends anymore, just watch TV, and he would play videogames on his own without an internet connection. It was even worse when he was with his father. He would not get back on his feet and had developed the sick obsession of interrogating him over and over about his mother’s new life. They would go over to his octogenarian grandparent’s house, where his father now lived, and his only joy was to play with their little dog that also lived there.

Robert’s personality had changed gradually. He had become more withdrawn overall and more insolent with his mother, to whom he would occasionally dedicate a loud tantrum. He slept and rested worse at night, his grades fell, and he was not as popular in school as before.

“Come on, let’s go to Miguel’s shop,” said Sandra, defeated. “You’ve already missed your first hour of class and I’ll have to recover my hours some afternoon.”

He followed her in silence, even though he did not like that shop, well, he did not like Miguel, the owner. Between child and manager, the feeling was mutual. Miguel was the typical storekeeper that had to deal with women of a higher economic and cultural status every day, so his conversation topics were poor and uninteresting. He always welcomed his clients with a smile that looked more like a grimace due to how fake it was. He was delightful towards the mothers, but, in any slip-up, or whenever they went on their own, he did not hide his foul attitude towards the children of his customers.

When they made it to the store they found Miguel at the door. He was happily admiring the pleasing, brand-new Supermarket sign that hung on the external wall of the building. It was big, excessive, and could be seen all along the street. He was happy with the purchase, despite having costed him a lot of money.

“Good morning, miss! Good morning, kid!”

He greeted them while giving Robert some pats on his head in a friendly manner as they entered the shop. Robert, who was not too keen on that kind of familiarity, did not say anything.

“Have you forgotten your breakfast again?” said the salesman, adding salt to injury.

“Well, in the hurry, you know,” said the mother.

“Isabel, give her the usual and bill her quickly, she’s in a hurry,” he ordered his employee with contempt.

While his mother payed, Robert silently grabbed a chocolate bar and snuck it in the pocket of his pants.

“Isabel, add another euro for the chocolate bar,” ordered Miguel emphatically.

“What chocolate bar?” asked Sandra, surprised.

Robert’s heartbeat rose, he was going to get in big trouble.

“The one your son hid in his pocket to avoid paying for,” he said.

“What? Robert, empty your pockets, now!” his mother ordered furiously.

Robert stammered for a moment, but, giving up, he pulled his pockets outward. A miracle! Inexplicably, they were empty.

“I… thought, sorry… I thought I saw him grab one and he then put his hand in his pocket,” babbled the storekeeper, not understanding what had happened.

“What do you even think of my son? Just what I was missing today, let’s go, Robert.”

Miguel, cursing at the child under his breath, watched stunned as they left. It was the last thing his eyes ever saw.

The intense flash of white light surprised Robert and his mother, having just left Miguel’s store.

Robert was still surprised wondering about what had happened to the chocolate bar as he went on the sidewalk. Maybe he had turned into a magician without knowing it!

When his eyes could not resist the intense bright light anymore, he let go of his mother and covered his left eye instinctively, and he let go of his breakfast-filled bag with his right to protect his other eye. He stopped, standing still for a couple of minutes, each hand covering his eyes, somewhere between surprised, scared, and in pain, without reacting and not knowing what to do. After the first minutes of the commotion, he started to come round. The first thing he did was call for Sandra incessantly.

“Mommy, mommy, mommy!” he repeated over and over, “I can’t see! I can’t see! Where are you?”

There was no reply; his feeble voice was lost among the widespread shouting. After a great effort, his vocal chords told him it was time to stop by making his voice hoarse. When he stopped shouting he noticed the great commotion roaring about him. Everybody was shouting names, calling to each other, crying out loud, asking for help, and they all said either that they could not see or that they were blind.

Tears flowed from his eyes, which dried up and became a sort of pasty slime that glued his eyelids shut, making it impossible to open them. After waiting a short time, he decided to move a little, but, disorientated, he moved in the wrong direction, returning to the store and getting farther away from his mother, who was searching for him desperately a few meters ahead.

Sandra was walking furiously because of what happened in the small supermarket. Never again would she buy anything else there, never again! They had lost a regular client.

Out of nowhere, the light outside gradually began getting brighter until it was unbearable, forcing her to close her eyes and instinctively protect them with her hands. She unknowingly gave three blind steps, moving away from Robert, who had stayed a few meters behind. It became hard for her to open her eyes, but that did not matter, she was already blind. Once she gathered herself a bit from the initial shock of the phenomenon, her maternal instinct made her look for her child. She desperately called him by name, though, among the commotion, the pleas for help, and the honks of the vehicles it was too difficult to hear an answer. She moved forward some steps again thinking she heard the voice of a child ahead shouting “mommy”. She kept going, blindly, until she stumbled upon the voice.

“Robert!” she called desperately.

“Where is my mom?” asked the unknown child’s voice.

“Wait here a little longer, darling, your mother is coming,” she said comfortingly.

Sandra did not know Robert had stayed behind and that they were consistently moving farther away from each other. She stepped forward a little more, very slowly, full of fear, in absolute darkness, unable to notice the declivity of the area, connected by a stairway. She lost her balance and fell down the stairs, ending up motionless at the bottom, unconscious, because she hit herself hard on the head forming a red bruise.

Robert wandered the street swerving aimlessly. A sudden, strong explosion nearby startled him and knocked him off his feet. Once on the ground he covered his head and a rain of small metal and plastic scraps fell over him. A few meters away a heap of junk smashed hard into the pavement. After recovering a bit from the scare, Robert got to his feet unharmed, except for his wet pee-stained pants.

Ashamed, he kept to his overwhelmed, uncertain path and approached some voices close by, tripping over a man’s leg. He grabbed to it firmly, it was soft. He noticed the presence of other people and he cried for help over and over, but the man and the others fell to the floor and rolled down the street a little. Robert did not have any other choice than to let go so as to not harm himself even more.

He was a bit tired, so he crawled until he reached a wall on which he sat next to and placed his back on the cold marble. He stayed there a long while, sad and pensive.

A cane unexpectedly hit him in the ankle.

“Ow!” groaned Robert.

“Sorry, are you blind?” asked an unknown voice.

“Yes, I can’t see a thing, please, help me, I can’t find my mommy.”

“Well, kid. Tell me a bit of what happened to you.”

He listened intently to the kid’s short story.

“Well, everything is a mess,” answered the blind man with the cane, “everyone is blind, and your mother must be as well.”

“My mommy is also blind?” he asked incredulous.

“I am blind and everyone in the line behind me is also blind, so we cannot help you find her.”

“What do I do?” asked the helpless child.