The Blind Men

I wake up in a hospital bed and see darkness. I am accompanied by the beeping noise of a heart monitor nearby, and the smell of hospital cafeteria food.

Footsteps approach, “How are we doing today Ethen?” Knowing it is my Tuesday morning nurse, I reply.  “Run-of-the-mill,” a slight laugh escapes her lips, “I’m doing just fine today, Reese.”

Reese opens the blind from afar and light covers every inch of the room. She does the usual Tuesday morning check-ups; breakfast, medication, and helps with my daily hour sit up to drain bodily fluids that have progressed.

“You know, you’ll be having a new roommate soon. His name is Flynn Ward, should be coming in around four o’clock this afternoon,” Reese informs. “And what do I owe this company to?” I respond curiously.

“Ha ha. The sheet says he was involved in a house fire that caused injury to  to his eyes and led to his blindness.”

“Ah.”

“Anyways, I should be off to it, I’ll be back around six o’clock for your night check up. You know the drill, if you need anything just press this button here,” she says as she motions towards the remote I have come to be so familiar with, “ and a nurse should be with you shortly.”

“Got it. I’ll be here,” I say wryly.

She smiles and leaves the room.

I turn on the television and the local news plays. The broadcaster reports the daily breaking news. “In local news, a man is recovering in the hospital after his attempt to escape a fire in his home. This is video from the Boston Fire Department as they were battling those flames. With the latest coming from firefighters, we go straight to Joanna at the scene. ”

“The flames started at seven thirty in the evening last night in a local home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. If you look over my shoulder at this home, this is where investigators are currently looking, trying to figure out where and how this fire started. Now, around seven thirty, heavy smoke and fire was coming out of every window inside the home. The fire started at the back of the house. The man who lives here was home at the time and was having trouble trying to find his way out. Luckily, the local fire department made it in time to rescue the man from this life threatening house fire. No other homes were damaged and no one else was injured. The man is being treated at Spaulding Hospital in Cambridge. And again we are still waiting to figure out what started this fire.”  

The television sound begins to get lower and lower and I doze off into a deep sleep.

**Transitions to Ethen dreaming**

I’m driving a car. I look behind me and gaze upon my wife and son in his car seat. I hear her laughing and I see her smile. Our son begins to cry, she takes him out of his car seat because she said she needed to nurse him. I am still driving. This is so unsafe. I told her numerous times. I wanted her to put him back into his car seat. Both my hands are on the wheel. The stoplight is red. I reach a halt. I turn back. She begins to put our child back into his car seat. And then all of the sudden, ….

**Ethen wakes up from his dream**

Another familiar nurse greets me. It is three forty-seven in the afternoon. I am greeted by the sound of another man's’ unfamiliar voice.

“They told me your name is Ethen,” says the man.

I am assuming this is the man Reese was informing me about earlier.

“That is true. I’m Ethen. Ethen Walsh.” I don’t receive a response. “So, I am guessing that you are Flynn. I heard news that I was going to have a new roommate.”

“Yes, sorry. I’m Flynn. I trying to get used to this whole not-being-able-to-see thing.”

“Give it time. Soon enough you’ll be so used to it, it’ll be like you never even lost your sight!” I say, realizing it may have been too soon to say a joke so head on.

The nurse heads over to Flynn’s side of the room and closes the curtain.

I decide it was time for me to go on my daily stroll. I grab all my necessities needed to go on my afternoon stroll.

I walk down the halls, end to end, turn corners. I greet those whom I encounter each day I am here. But I hear a familiar voice, and I follow it. I ask for a name, and it’s not it. I turn away and continue on my stroll.

I am back in my room within an hour. By now it is nearly 5 o’clock in the evening and I am given my evening meal. I have looked forward to my dinner meals my whole entire life. Reason being for me, is because it is usually the largest, the best tasting, and the most fulfilling.

I am given pumpkin soup, apricot chicken, peas, and mashed potatoes.

I notice that Flynn is awake and is eating his evening meal as well. I begin a conversation with him to break the ice. I decide to tell him a joke I’ve told many in my lifetime.

And so I tell Flynn, “Two old men in a retirement village were sitting in the reading room and one said to the other, ‘’How do you really feel? I mean, you're 72 years old, how do you honestly feel?’’” I wait for Flynn to take a guess on what the response is, he’s got nothing.

I finish the joke by saying, “‘’Honestly, I feel like a newborn baby. I've got no hair, no teeth, and I just wet myself.’’”

Flynn shrieks. I begin to laugh as well. No matter how many times I repeat the laugh, it gets me every single time. And what are the odds, two men in a hospital room, both injured, laughing about a good joke.

Reese walks in, right around the time she said she would. She introduces herself to Flynn and shows hospitality.

She does her normal night check up routine and is out of the room within minutes.

The television is on once again, but this time a movie plays. Turns out it’s The Goonies, a classic 1980’s film. Flynn dozes off within 30 minutes of the film, and within 20 more minutes, so have I.

I wake up the next morning with the urge to smell the morning breeze; After my daily morning routine I decide to take a stroll in the outdoor garden. A nurse accompanies me and we begin my morning stroll.

I am in the garden. I feel the damp grass in between my toes; I hear the birds chirping; I can feel the fresh morning air crash against my skin. I can hear the wind swishing beyond the trees. I can smell the ocean breeze and I can hear slight waves in the distance.

I come back to my room and gulp down a glass of orange juice. I lay back down onto my bed and I notice Flynn is beside me. We talked for hours on end. He began to tell me of his wife and his children; how they are away at her mother's for the next few months. He tells me about his childhood and the homes he has lived in, jobs he’s had, as well as his vast involvement in the military.

Later that afternoon, I am seated by the window that overlooks the green garden with the lovely ocean water. Ducks play on the water while children play near the sand. An old woman walks amongst the flowers of every color with a man who looks like they have spent their entire lives together. Afar from the ocean view lies a sight of the skyline of the city. The descriptions cause Flynn to get emotional and he closes his eyes and imagines the picturesque site.

AUTHOR POINT OF VIEW

Weeks pass and the two men build a stronger friendship.
One Tuesday morning, Reese arrives to bring Ethen and Flynn their morning medication and breakfast. It doesn’t take her long to notice that Ethen died in a peaceful sleep. She called the hospital attendants to take his body away.

When it seemed appropriate, Flynn asked if Reese knew him well. She was aware of the incidents that brought Ethen to the hospital to begin with. She shares with him that Ethen was involved in a car accident that involved himself, his wife, his nine-month old son, and a drunk driver. The driver apparently was not aware that the stoplight was red, and did not reach a halt. The driver's’ car slams into the back of Ethen’s vehicle and the car jolts into the intersections and was hit by multiple cars. When the ambulance arrived, it was determined that the family died at the scene. Ethen was rushed to the hospital due to the severe damage to his head and the glass that shattered into his eyes. Reese was assigned to Ethen as soon as he was stable. She was informed that he endured injury to his brain that possed long term memory loss and became blind.

Flynn slowly walks over and props himself near the window to take his first look at the real world outside. The window faces the ocean front. I feel the serenity, but nothing that Ethen explained it to be. I did not see a green garden, nor did I see children playing on the waterfront. I didn’t see a man or a woman grazing upon a field of flowers. I didn’t even see a skyline of the city. I saw the ocean, as it met with the sky.

Flynn was confused as to why Ethen described all the pretty things outside the window when in reality it was a lie. He then realizes that perhaps it was to encourage him. However, in the moment that Ethen described the scenes outside the window, Flynn felt extreme happiness and was grateful for every moment that shared with his deceased roommate.