The Gift

He heads out and I go back and sit on my bed.

“Really? The blind kid wants to come and help?”

“What? I stand there – blind.”

“So, the blind kid, who I know can actually see, wants to play peeping tom?”

“No! Geez. You think the worst of me already?”

“No,” I say holding out my hand, which he takes. I feel the warmth spread down my arm. “We’ll have all of eternity. Isn’t there some saying about expectation making the result sweeter? Or something like that? If not, remember it and give me the credit for it.”

“Just so you know,” he says, pulling off his glasses, then rolling his eyes at me.

“Har-har. Leave them off, please,” I tell him.

He folds them up and puts them in this shirt collar.

We continue to talk, and Anna comes in a little later to tell us it’s lunch time.

“Can Ben eat here?” I ask.

She looks at me, then at Ben. “You two keeping your hands off each other?” she asks with a grin.

“Not exactly,” I say, holding up our entwined hands. “And he did volunteer to help me in the bathroom.”

He turns red at this. “I’m blind, what am I going to see? And I was volunteering the therapist, not me just to set the record straight.”

Anna laughs and says, “I think we can find an extra tray. If not, I’ll get yours from your floor Ben. Get ready.”

Ben moves over to the bed, having to switch hands since I’m sitting towards the head of the bed. We push the table between us to share.

Anna comes back with a tray and sets it down, saying, “Unload the tray while I go get the other one.”

Ben and I pull things off one handed, then he slides his side over to me. “You first,” he says.

I start to let go of his hand so he can eat too, but he holds on. “I’m a lefty, so deal with it.”

I giggle as Anna brings in the second tray and puts it item by item in front of Ben.

“I’ll help him,” I say. I put a bite of potatoes on my fork and say, “Open,” and he does. I manage to aim high on purpose of course and put it into the tip of his nose as well as into his mouth. “Oops.”

Anna laughs and says, “If a food fight occurs, the blind kid and the gimp are cleaning it up.”

I use my napkin to wipe off his nose and promise to not let that happen again.

Anna walks out still laughing.

“You’re gonna pay for that,” he says.

I just shrug and keep eating and Ben does that same. We finish eating, Ben feeding himself as no one but I can see, and we stick all the dishes back on the tray that Anna left.

Pushing the table back, we stay sitting on the bed. I swing my feet back and forth, then try raising my left leg, which only makes it about halfway up.

Ben raises his leg, putting it under mind and raises it up all the way.

We keep doing this until my leg makes it all the way up without his help. I turn my head towards him and say, “Thanks. That helped.”

He turns towards me, cocks his head, and says, “I’m glad,” then leans into me and kisses me.

My body tingles and I get butterflies in my stomach. I’m not sure how long this does on before I hear, “Oh geez, really? Making out with an open door?”

I break the lip lock and look over at Brittany, red as her hair. Caught again. “We weren’t making out,” I claim.

“Looked like it to me,” she says.

“Felt like it,” Ben adds, and I elbow him. Lucky for him it’s my left one.

“Don’t you have to be somewhere?” I ask him.

He turns my head towards him and gives me another quick kiss and hops down from the bed.

I don’t want to let go of his hand, but I do.

“Call me and I’ll come back. I’ll try to get Anna to okay dinner here too,” he says on his way out. Stopping at the door where Brittany was still standing on her crutches, he says, “Pretty hair,” then puts on his glasses and walks off.