Delilah

Chapter 28

It took weeks for my strength to return. At my insistence, I was left alone much of the time while the others went about their daily chores. Myra would come and talk to me sometimes. Korah liked to sit and tell me simple stories. Alian tried to get me to resume evening talks with him and Naomi, but I spurned all of his advances. Naomi urged him to be patient, while encouraging me to do as much as I could for myself. Gradually I learned my way around the roof. It would tax me just to make my way across the space, but I had nothing but time on my hands and could rest wherever I tired. I learned to cross to the water jar and dip water. I discovered how to pour it into both a bowl and a cup without spilling. This was no problem as long as no one minded my finger being momentarily inside their cup. I learned to take care of my own physical hygiene, but I remained dependent on others to empty my chamber pot. Naomi brought a hand mill to the roof and let me learn to grind grain. She brought a loom and helped me to weave by feel.

I soon recognized the tread of each member of the household. I also noticed that each had a distinct smell. I became adept at listening for the nuances in voices. Twice I warned Naomi that some of the boarders sounded like they were concealing something from her, after I overheard them talking in the courtyard below. Both times she discovered that the men were attempting to steal from the household, and they were sent away.

Eventually all of the bandages on the various parts of my body were removed, and my full strength returned. The last bandages to be removed were those on my eyes. After Naomi removed them, I asked to be left alone. I sat and explored my damaged face with my hands. I was so intent that I did not hear Alian approach.

"You are still beautiful, Salome," he offered softly.

"Do not lie to me, Alian," I countered harshly. "I am blind, not stupid. I suffered no brain damage. It would be better had I been left a simpleton."

He reached out and ran his finger down my nose. I batted his hand away, demanding that he leave me be.

"Not this time, Salome," he said with iron in his voice.

Again he reached out his hand to touch my face and again I tried to push him away. Suddenly I found myself pinned to the floor with Alian across my chest, my arms trapped by my sides. I thought to scream but would not give him the satisfaction of humiliating me. Instead I lay stoically, not moving a muscle, trying to show him my indifference.

Alian raised his free hand to my face. With his fingers, he gently followed the contours of my face. He ran his hand from the base of my jaw, up to the top of my cheek bone, following it to the top of my lip. He slowly traveled across my lips, around the other cheek bone and back down to my chin. Then he slowly ran his finger up my crooked nose and across one eyebrow, traversing my forehead, tracing the other eyebrow back to the top of my nose. I felt him playfully tweak my mended ear, before running his finger through my ear and around behind it. He then pushed my short hair, that had begun to grow in, back from my forehead and followed the scars left on my scalp. I steeled myself for him to caress my eyelids, the only part of my face left unexplored. Instead I felt his weight shift as he leaned forward, and I felt his lips softly brush my permanently closed eyelids.

While my eyeballs were mangled and the muscles in my lids no longer allowed them to open and close, my tear glands were unharmed. As I felt Alian slowly shift his weight away from my face, I felt the tell-tale trickle of hot tears on my cheeks.

"How could you so tenderly touch something so hideous," I choked out.

Softly he responded, "Ah, Salome. You cannot even see your face and yet you call it hideous. I have not lost my sight or my mind. Sure, I miss your beautiful eyes, except when they would shoot fire," he ended with a soft chuckle. "But your face is still expressive, you know. You try to be stoic, but your emotions still show on your face, at least to someone who knows you well."