Wingless and Beautiful

Chapter 2

“Pain is like fabric: The stronger it is, the more it’s worth.”  - The Fault In Our Stars, now in theatres!

Chapter Two

The next day, Meredith dropped me off at CRC.  She doesn’t say it, for fear of jinxing it maybe, but I know that she was happy that I wanted to come back.  She had a client meeting, but she promised to pick me up in the afternoon.

I immediately went to side of the building, towards the path of trees that leads to the woods.  Last night, I thought about the words that Hunter said to me.  I felt like with the limited words he said in the short span of time that I spent with him… he really did speak to my soul.  He spoke the words I couldn’t say to Meredith… the words I could not even admit to myself.  In a way… Meredith was right.  I do need to talk to somebody.  I just needed time.  And somebody who knew exactly what I was going through.

I saw him there, sitting in the bench, lost in his thoughts again.  Listening to every little sound around him.  I knew that he knew I was coming even before I was standing in front of him.  The minute I sat beside him, he took a deep breath.

He was wearing a pair of jeans, a white shirt over a red jacket.  His hair was disheveled and he was wearing those sunglasses again.

“Good morning.”  He said to me.

“Good morning.”  I greeted chirpily.

Silence.  None of us spoke for a while.  For the first time in many months… I actually felt like I could be me again.  I didn’t feel like a ghost… with nightmares chasing me.

“How old are you, Allison?”  Hunter asked.

“Sixteen.”  I replied.  “And you?”

“Sixteen too.”

I felt sad but I tried to keep a steady face.  But inside I thought… how bad is it for a handsome, athletic and smart sixteen year old boy to lose the most precious gift of sight?

“Do you get visitors often?”  I asked.

He shook his head.  “They gave up on me.  They only come when I call them… if I needed anything.”

“Who’s they?”

“My Dad.” He replied.  “Some relatives.  They just read my progress reports from here.  And then they wait for me to call.”

“Are you… having any treatments in this institution?”

He shrugged.  “The doctors check on my eyes every other day.  But mostly it was just… counseling.”

“Why did you say that your parents gave up on you?”

He sighed.  “Just my Dad.”  He corrected me.  “We fight all the time.  He wanted me to undergo… some… more aggressive treatments.  I don’t see his point.”

“Why?  Don’t you want to… you know?”

“See again?”  He asked.  I didn’t answer.  “Didn’t you just say yesterday that seeing is not always a gift?”

“Yeah… I shouldn’t have said that.”

“But you were right.  If I am able to see again… I would see that my mother is no longer with me.  And I would remember that it  was my father’s fault she wasn’t herself when she drove our car into a tree.”

I felt a pinch in my heart when I heard him say that his mother was gone.  Because I remembered… mine was gone too.

Two gunshots.  The first one was for my stepdad, so he could no longer hurt me.  She saved me.  She made sure that I would live and the months of physical abuse that my Stepdad inflicted on me would be over soon.