A Chance at Love

by T. K. Chapin

  She quickly shook her head as I came up to her. She dipped her chin into her palms and began to cry. “You can just leave now. I understand if you can’t do this.”

  My pounding heart wasn’t pounding anymore. Instead, it fluttered, and a peace and calmness was over me. I wasn’t upset. Placing my hands onto hers, I felt a surge of warmth shoot up through my fingertips. Pulling her hands gently away from her face, I held each of her hands in mine and said, “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Really?” she asked.

  “Really.” Releasing one of her hands, I brushed a strand of loose hair away from her cheek and then rubbed a stray tear away as I cupped her cheek in my hand. She leaned into it and smiled as she kissed my hand.

  “You’re too good for me,” she said.

  “No, you deserve the best, Emily. I will fall short daily of being perfect, but I will try my hardest to make you happy.”

  Seeing one of the girls peek from around the corner of the wall that led to the back area behind the stage, I smiled and dropped my hand away from Emily’s face. “Looks like they want to get on with this practice,” I said, grinning.

  She smiled and said, “All right. I really want the skit to be a surprise for you. Could you . . . leave?”

  “Yeah, I’ll go.” I pulled her hand up to my lips and kissed the top of it. “I’ll call you later.”

  Her smile grew as the other people doing the skit came back on the stage. Her eyebrows shot up as they made their way up the stairs. “This is Kyle, everybody. Kyle, this is Heidi, Paul, Ronda, Jeremy, Tessa, and my younger sister, Liv.”

  Everyone was about our age, except for Liv. She looked about thirteen or so. She came over to me and looked up into my eyes. “You’d better be nice to my sister, mister! Or you’ve got me to deal with!”

  “Liv!” Emily scolded. “Stop that!”

  I laughed and said, “I’ll treat her like the princess she is.”

  “Awe . . .” one of the girls from the group said. “He’s so perfect, Emily! And he’s super cute!”

  Emily smiled.

  “All right, all. Nice meeting you. I’ll leave you all to it.”

  Leaving the sanctuary, I headed out to the parking lot to leave when I was stopped by a yell from the church.

  “Kyle!” Tom hollered, running out from the church as I was about to open my car door. I stopped and turned to him as he approached.

  Smiling, I said, “Hi, Tom.”

  “Hey . . .” he said, taking a moment to catch his breath. “I wanted to talk to you for a moment. She told you, right?”

  I nodded.

  “Good. You should know that she’s a pretty important girl in this church, and if you do anything that—”

  Raising a hand, I said, “Stop. I’m fine with her being blind. It’s not a big deal to me. I care about Emily.”

  He furrowed his eyebrows. “I don’t think you understand how big of a disability blindness truly is. She can’t drive. She can’t do a lot of things in life that you take for granted every day.”

  “I understand what being blind entails. Thanks, though.” I opened my car door, and he grabbed onto the door to stop me.

  “Just end it now if you can’t deal with it. Let the shock wear off and then re-analyze. It’s okay to not be with her, Kyle. Completely understandable.”

  I shook my head and got into my car. What a jerk, I thought to myself as I left the church parking lot. Her being blind didn’t matter to me. Sure, it might be inconvenient here or there, but it wasn’t something that would cause me not to be with her. I wasn’t falling for her because of what she saw, but for the way she made me feel.

  Getting home just a few minutes after dinner was underway, I grabbed a plate and dished myself a helping of my mother’s tuna casserole. Taking a seat at the table with Joanie and my mother, I bowed my head and said a silent prayer to myself.

  “How’d it go?” Joanie asked as I lifted my eyes and began to eat.

  “How’d what go?” my mother asked.

  “I went and met Emily.”

  My mom furrowed her eyebrows. “After she told you she wasn’t comfortable with letting you into that part of her life? That wasn’t very nice of you to do.”

  “I think it’s fine,” Joanie added.

  “I’m falling in love with her, Mom,” I said before taking a bite of my food.

  My mother smiled. “Oh, young love . . .” she said longingly. “Okay. Well, tell us what you learned.”

  “It ended up not being that big of a deal. She’s just blind.”

  Joanie choked on the glass of water she was drinking and my mother set her fork down.

  “What?” my mother asked, her eyes wide.

  Joanie wiped her mouth with her cloth napkin and leaned in. “Are you serious right now? Blind?”

  I nodded and asked, “Yeah. What’s the big deal?”

  “Honey . . .” my mother began to say in sympathetic voice. “I don’t think you understand.”

  I shook my head. “Seriously? I get it. She can’t see things. It’s not like it’s going to affect much.”

  “She’ll forever need someone to take care of her. She can’t ever get a job, drive, or even take care of herself,” Joanie said.

  Standing up, I said, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Taking my plate over to the sink, I tossed it in and stormed toward the exit of the kitchen.

  “You need to be a little bit more sensitive to what you say, Joanie,” I could hear my mother say as I left down the hallway.

  Coming into my room, I shut the door and lay down on my bed. Putting my hands up behind my head, I looked at the ceiling and began praying.

  Why are people so judgmental, Lord? Help them understand that I don’t care about the blindness. I like—and quite possibly love—Emily for who she is. Help me have a level head, and help others to see my perspective. Amen.

  Following the lines in the ceiling with my eyes, I thought about Emily. Had she been blind since birth? Or was there an accident? Jumping away from the topic of being blind, I thought about the last few weeks leading up to today. She had been terrified to tell me. It broke my heart that she had all that worry about me knowing and finding out that had been building up inside of her.

  Sitting up on my bed, I looked across the room. Seeing my computer, I went over and jumped in the chair. What Joanie said could have been true or false. I honestly had no idea, and so I began to research online. After an hour of researching, I was happy to find out that I was right. Blind people can live rather independently and even have jobs when they use the resources available to them; it just takes a lot more effort.

  Looking away from the screen to give my eyes a break, I saw my old bandana from when I was younger hanging on the corner of my closet door.

  Getting up, I went over to the closet and pulled it down. I wrapped it around my head and tied it. My vision was completely gone. This is what it’s like, I thought to myself.

  Turning around from the closet, I attempted to use my memory to move around the room. Crouching slightly at the knees, I touched the top of my bed as I came around to the front of it. I stood upright as I stopped and felt for the TV to my left.

  “Okay . . .” I said, nodding my head. Moving my hand from the TV, I felt over to the dresser and then to the radio. My fingers glided across the radio buttons until I found the power.

  I pressed it, and started snapping my fingers and tapping my foot to the beat. Then I began to move my waist in rhythm with the classic rock song that was playing. As I began to dance about my room, I tripped on my controller, which sent me tumbling to my backside.

  “Ahh!” I shouted as I pushed the bandana up to my forehead.

  My mother came flying through the door. “What happened?” she shouted as she looked around.

  I winced. “I fell.”

  Her eyes met my bandana on my forehead, and she began to laugh and cover her mouth. “I’m sorry . . .” she said, reaching over to shut off the radio.
Bending at the knees, she dropped beside me and brushed her fingers through my hair as she looked at me. “I’m sorry if I came across as not supportive out at the dinner table. I was just in shock.”

  I nodded.

  She moved her hand from my hair to my chest and said, “I’m glad that I raised a son who cares about someone’s heart above all else.” Her eyes began to well with tears. “Your father will be proud of you too. I know it.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  “Hey, Kyle,” Joanie said from behind my mother in the doorway.

  I looked up at her.

  “I’m sorry too . . . I still think the whole thing is weird, but I’m happy for you. Truly. If she makes you happy and you want to be with her, there’s nothing else that matters, bro.”

  “Thanks,” I replied with a smile.

  “I can’t imagine how Jake will take the news,” my mother said. “He’s always a jerk about things.”

  I shook my head and looked down as my smile fell away. “We’re not friends anymore.”

  “How come?” she asked.

  Joanie vanished around the corner and out of sight.

  “I went over there the other day and told him about becoming a Christian.”

  “Oh, jeez.”

  “Yeah. I thought we were guys and it wasn’t going to be an issue, but he flipped his lid.”

  My mother placed her hand on my shoulder and said, “There’s a whole wide world out there that doesn’t want to hear about God, Kyle.”

  “I know. Even you and Dad didn’t tell your own kids.”

  She lifted my chin with her finger and looked me in the eyes again. “You’re right. And you know what? That was a mistake. We were young and angry and super liberal.” She smiled. “I’m proud of that commitment you made up there at your grandmother’s house. Your father already started talking to Joanie about salvation. She isn’t very fond of the idea, but he’s trying anyway. We want to start getting right with God.”

  “That’s good. There’s no such thing as being too late when it comes to God.”

  She nodded. “It’s never too late with God.” She stood up and helped me to my feet. “You should let me give it a shot.”

  I smiled and took off the bandana and helped wrap it around her head.

  “It’s so dark!” she said as I finished tying it.

  “That’s the point.” I laughed.

  She began walking around my room and touching everything around her as she maneuvered. “This is difficult!” she said over her shoulder toward me. We eventually made it over to the doorway and started down the hallway and into the living room. Joanie even joined in after my mother became weary. It was nice to understand what Emily was going through, even if it was to a very small degree.

  CHAPTER 11

  Later that evening I called Emily. I felt a closeness to her that I hadn’t had previously. It was like learning about her blindness opened us to a new level of intimacy. In a strange way, I felt like it was me and her against the world. Between dealing with Tom at the church and the bit of backlash with my family, I felt like nobody understood.

  “Hey . . .” she answered the phone. Her voice was quiet, and I could tell right away that something wasn’t right.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, kicking my shoes off the end of my bed as I put an arm behind my head and held the phone against my shoulder.

  She sniffled and said, “My parents. And my stupid sister! They’re being so mean to me about us. I just wish my mother would listen! She’s so unreasonable and rude!”

  Remaining silent for a moment, I thought carefully about what I should say. At first I wanted to agree and tell her about my family, but instead I just asked, “What happened?”

  “First off, Liv decided it was a good idea to tell my parents about you coming down to the church. She also must have seen you brush my hair out of my eyes and touch my hands, because they found out about all that too. My mom told me we were moving too fast and that she worried about the type of . . .” Emily hesitated.

  “What? Type of what?”

  “She’s wrong about you, Kyle. I know that. She thinks you’re a bad kid. I defended you and told her about your conversion at your grandma’s house, but she suspects it was all a ploy to get to me.”

  I laughed.

  “Ridiculous, isn’t it?” Emily laughed. “Anyway . . . she thinks we’re moving too fast and that you’re not right for me.”

  “That’s rather judgmental when she hasn’t even met me.”

  “I know.” Emily let out a relieved sigh. “I feel so much better talking to you,” she said. I could hear the smile come across in her voice as it fluctuated. “Everything else just seems to not matter when I hear your sweet voice, Kyle Reynolds.”

  I grinned as the sound of my name on her lips sent warmth all over my body. I hadn’t done drugs before in my life, but I was pretty sure she was like heroin. “Hey. Do you think you can leave the house ?”

  “Uh . . .”

  “Forget it. It’s a stupid idea. Obviously it’s not going to happen. You just told me about your mom.”

  “What’d you want to do?”

  “I wanted to take you up to The Abby, but I don’t think your parents will be willing to let you go anywhere.”

  “Awe! I want to go lay under the stars by your side.”

  “You think they’d be okay with it? We can just go for a little bit. Just an hour or so.”

  Silence came over the line for a moment.

  “Just as friends? Maybe they’d let me go if that’s the case? Let me go ask!”

  A few minutes later she got back on the phone. With an excited tone, she said, “Yes! They just want to meet you really quick, and they said no more than an hour.”

  “How’d you do it?”

  “I told them they need to at least try to let me have a life. I totally guilted them into it!” She laughed.

  “You lil’ devil!”

  “Shut it!” she laughed.

  My smile grew as my heart warmed and stirred within me. Finally able to hang out with Emily, I thought to myself. Leaping from my bed, I slipped my shoes on and said, “I’ll head over right now.”

  “Don’t you need my address?”

  “Oh, yeah. That’d be helpful.”

  “Ya, doofus!” she laughed.

  Standing at the door of Emily’s house, I reached out and pressed the doorbell. My stomach felt as if it were doing summersaults inside of me as I waited for someone to come to the door.

  The sound of the deadbolt being undone froze me more than the chilly wintry air that accompanied me that night. I knew her parents were devoted Christians in the church, and my first impression was a vital importance to our relationship.

  Opening the door, her father ushered me inside. He was lanky and wore a pair of black framed glasses that didn’t seem to want to stay up on the bridge of his nose. “You must be the boy we keep hearing so much about,” he said as we walked through the foyer and into the living room.

  “Hopefully I’m the one she’s been talking about,” I said, trying to get a laugh. He didn’t even so much as smile. Tough audience, I thought to myself.

  Turning around to face me in the living room, he shook my hand and said, “I’m Steve. It’s nice to meet you.”

  I nodded. “Same.”

  “I thought your name was Kyle?”

  I laughed nervously. “Yes. Sorry.” I was blowing it. We sat down on the couch and her mother walked in. Smiling, she came over and shook my hand. “I’m Patricia.”

  She took a seat in the recliner across from the couch Steve and I were sitting on. Looking over at Steve, she said, “Are you going to ask him? Or should I?”

  Steve squinted over at Patricia as he hesitated for a moment. “I’ll do it.” He turned on the couch and adjusted his posture. “Kyle. Emily has informed us that you recently converted? Correct?”

  “Converted?”

  “Yes. Converted into Christianity. Right?”

&nb
sp; I nodded.

  “Okay. Have you made a public profession of faith? In front of a church body?”

  I shook my head. “Not yet. I do intend to, though.”

  He nodded slowly as he tried to look me over to see if I was lying. “Good. What church do you attend?”

  “Well, I don’t. I’ve been up at my grandma’s house up until a couple of days ago.”

  Patricia interrupted. “We know that. Where do you plan on attending? . . . Or do you?” She had one eyebrow raised, as if she wanted me to misspeak so she could throw me outside into the snow.

  “I know church is important. I’m going to Calvary.”

  They both raised their eyebrows. Patricia asked, “Don’t you live pretty far from our church? I think Emily said you live over off of North Freya?”

  “I do, but I don’t think that matters. I’ll make the drive. It’d be nice to attend where Emily does.”

  “I see,” Steve replied.

  They were acting weird. I looked into the foyer where the stairs were. I asked, “Where’s Emily?”

  “She’s upstairs getting ready.”

  My mind immediately jumped to wanting to understand how that was possible for her, but I tabled that question for a later time, and for Emily.

  “What are your intentions with our daughter?” Patricia asked. Her eyes didn’t look mad—they looked fearful. She came across more worried than anything else when she asked it.

  “I want to get to know her. I’ve been talking to her for a while now, and I just . . . really love the type of person she is. She has a beautiful perspective of the world.”

  Patricia smiled and tipped her head to one side. “She really does have a good perspective, but I worry about her.” She looked at me and her smiled dropped away. “She’s going to be blind her entire life, Kyle. You need to understand that. There’s no cure for her.”

  “I get that,” I replied with a nod.

  Emily finally came down the stairs. She looked amazing, and she looked dressed to go out on a date, not just up to The Abby. When she came to the bottom of the stairs, I got up and walked over to her and met her in the foyer near the door.