KENNY

I was 17, my name is Jim, when I met this kid Kenny 19 who was
blind.
My parents had just rented this House next door to him and his mother
in Tucson Arizona. We became real good friends. I lived next to him for
about 18 months. His mother had been in a car accident awhile back and
it left her with a bad leg and a speech problem. His father had died
from a heart attack about three years ago. Kenny and I would talk all
the time back-and-forth, we became real good friends. He had told me
when he was 5 he had lost his eye site. I liked Kenny an awful lot, we
would hang out together for hours and talk on his front porch. I sat in
this rocking chair, and he would be in his Father's wheelchair moving
back-and-forth with his hand on the wheel. After knowing him pretty
good, he would tell me about all these different experiences that he
had being blind. It was hard for me listening to the weird stuff that
he was telling me about. He told me that people would do things in
front of him knowing that he could not see. How do you know this? Some
people would come up to me and tell me what people were doing, it was
nothing to hurt me but it was embarrassing when I found out. People
would do some strange looking at him as they were passing like they had
never seen a blind person. Standing there with special black glasses on
and this long stick that was white with a red tip on the end showing
that he was blind. Wanting to get out every day and being around a lot
of people he told me he felt more relaxed hearing a lot of voices. His
mother worked part-time in the mall and he would sit around for a few
hours until she got off. I said, that's an awful long time just hanging
out. Jim you're my friend, I will tell you why I do it. I am scared to
be alone. Please don't tell my mother. I promised him I would never say
anything that we talked about. You know Jim, being out most of the day
at the mall or at most anywhere, my mother would see people making
faces as they were passing by me and doing different stuff to see if I
would have some sort of reaction to them. They must have thought that I
was faking this blindness. Jim I wish I was faking it. Kenny why don't
you and I go hiking in the hills, there is a hiking trail a mile from
here.
He said, I would love to but I don't want to be a burden on you,
remember I cannot see, you're my friend Kenny, it's no burden. Jim I
have never done anything like that before. I know Kenny but we will
have a lot of fun.
The next day we went to the hiking trail, we were laughing and joking
back and forth as we started walking up the trail, he said, Jim I want
to thank you for asking me to go with you. I patted him on the back and
said, come on let's go have some fun. Kenny said that he wanted me to
hook a rope from him to me I said that's a good idea. As we hiked near
the top of the hill which was about a half of mile I said, Kenny I
forgot the water it's in the car and we better go back and get it, we
will need it if we go any further. Kenny said you go get it and I will
wait here for you. If we go together we will be here all day and night
as he laughed. I will be ok, I will sit here and wait for you to come
back. I untied the rope and started down the trail. Kenny don't you
move, stay right on that big rock, he laughed and said I'll be ok. I
got about 200 ft. from him and slipped on a rock and cut my leg a
little. As I was cleaning off my leg I heard Kenny say something, it
sounded like he said, can you hear me? I looked at him and he was still
sitting on the rock. I didn't pay any attention to what he was saying.
I was rubbing my leg. I stood up and started walking back down the
hill. I looked back at Kenny and he was standing up with his hands
pointing towards the sky. I heard him yell out," please, please bring
back my eyesight," don't let me go on like this. Let me see again, it
is hard to live like this when you can't see. Please let me see my
mother. As his voice echoed down through the canyon it was kind of
scary and very sad.
I turned around and went back up to him and said, come on Kenny we
don't need the water, let's go back down and we will stop and get
something to eat on the way home. He was holding my arm so tight that
it was hurting but I didn't say anything because I knew how scared he
was. As we were going back home, we stopped at a restaurant and had a
hamburger and coke. We were just talking back-and-forth about just
different things. Kenny said to me, don't pay any attention to what I
was saying back there, I was just sounding off. In a laughing way I
said, that's ok I do it every once in awhile myself. Jim why do people
stare at me and make little faces like if I could see them. Kenny no
one makes faces at you and stairs at you, I am with you a lot and I
never see anything like that. I don't know who's been telling you this
but it's hard for me to believe it. My mother tells me every once in a
while someone is staring at us or making little faces to see if I am
really blind. I know my mother has a few problems ever since she had
that accident. I think she's afraid I will leave her someday and she
will be alone, maybe she's telling the truth and maybe not, but you
know how hard it is being blind. I said, no I don't. Think of it this
way, just imagine Jim, if someone put something on your back and you
couldn't see it, it's not black or white it's nothing its hard to
explain I am like that all the time. We sat around at the restaurant
for a quite a while talking, Kenny was getting a lot off of his mind
and then we headed on home. I told Kenny on the way home you're my best
friend, are you going be ok? Kenny looked at me with a smile yes, I am
glad that you and I can talk I feel much better having a friend like
you. When I seen Kenny a few days later he seem more relaxed and
talking real good and had a smile on this face. That day we were
together was good for both of us. That was on a Sunday. The following
day he called me around 10 a.m. He was so excited he needed to talk to
me right away. I went right over and was there in about four minutes.
When the door opened he reach out and put both his hands on my shoulder
and looked straight in my face and said, there is a hospital in
California that wants to look at my eyes and maybe do an operation on
them, then he started to cry as he laid his forehead on my chest. I
said that is great, I hope the operation will work and then his mother
came from the kitchen and said did you hear the news, they may operate
on his eyes and she started crying. It may be in a week or so before we
know if they can do the operation. And then she turned and walked away
saying it's going to be like a miracle. Three weeks later we are all in
California at the hospital. The doctor said that it looks real good and
hopefully he would be able to see after the operation. It was a new
procedure but it looked real good for Kenny. Two day's later they were
operating on him. They started at 5 am. In the morning operating and at
9am the operation was over.
The doctor said this evening we will see how well the operation
went.
That evening we all stood by his bedside as he laid on his back the
doctor took the final bandages off of his eyes. Kenny reached over and
grabbed out for his mother's hand, the doctor said, open your eyes real
slow and tell me if you see any light. We all stood there staring at
him with his eyes open, it seem like for ever he just stared at the
ceiling but only a few seconds passed by. Kenny started crying and in a
loud voice saying I think I see a little light, yes I am sure it's
light. Everyone moved closer to his bed and said how happy they were.
My mother and his mother and three of the nurses all were crying.
Everyone was moving around in the room, his mother and I came alongside
his bed and he slowly looked towards me. He reached out and grabbed my
hand and stared at me for a few seconds and said it's a little blurry
but I know you must be Jim. Yes it's me Kenny. Doctor, this is the only
friend I have, I'd like you to meet Jim. He lay there just staring at
everything, I was so happy for him. He was holding my hand and tears
were rolling down the side of his face. He would not let go, he kept
looking back at me and saying, Jim I can see.

We were both very close friends for a number of years until Kenny
died,
In May of 2001 from liver cancer

A short story by Norman Clifford
4-3-2002