An Eye For An Eye

Cinq

The food was set out on the plate using the clock method. He was sitting at the head of the dining table and looked sort of regal with how he sat. He had told me to sit on his right so I set my plate down in front of the seat on his right.

“Okay,” I said, realising I’d have to explain it to him as I sat his plate down. “Okay, so, the plate is like a clock. 6 is closest to you, 12 is furthest away from you. Meat is always at 6 because it’s easier to cut it when you don’t have to reach over other foods to cut it.”

Deucalion hummed in acknowledgement and tapped. “Where is everything else on the plate?”
“Roasted broccoli, which is disgusting, by the way, is at about 2 o’clock and the mash is from about 9 to 11.” I sat down and placed my own knife and fork either side of the plate. It was a habit from eating with Kara that I also used the clock method. It was also a lot easier to pick out what I wanted to eat. My plate had a distinctive lack of broccoli.
“Alright,” said Deucalion as he nodded.

“Are you left or right handed?” I asked.
“Right handed,” he said. I reached over to place the fork on the left side of the plate and the knife on the right side.
“Fork is at 9 and the knife is at three. The glass for water is between 1 and 2, all of them off of the plate, of course,” I explained as I picked up my fork. “The glass has water in it but I filled the jug with water so if you need to refill it I can teach you the pinky trick with it.” I smiled and he tilted his head slightly.

“I feel there’s an irony in eating a French dish called hunter’s chicken,” he said as he picked up the knife and fork.
Smiling a little wider. “I know,” I said before cutting a piece of the chicken off. “To figure out how big the piece you’re going to eat is, you judge by the weight. You can use the knife to help judge the size of things to and to push food onto the fork.”

He nodded and started eating and every so often, I couldn’t help but get distracted by him. He was oddly graceful and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was more confident with little things like this before he was blinded.

“So, how do I refill the glass?” he asked. Looking over, the glass was empty.
“Okay, get the jug and put the spout bit to the rim of the glass, you should be able to feel it,” I instructed and Deucalion followed what I had said. Smiling, I then said: “Now put your pinky on the other hand over the rim and sort of in the glass and pour the water until you can feel it with your pinky.”
He did so and then set the half-filled jug of water back down on the table. “Done?”
“Yeah, you did it,” I said with a smile.

“You know, I can tell you’re smiling,” he said.
“How?” I asked, furrowing my brow as I finished eating.
“I just can.” But his eyes weren’t glowing red so he hadn’t shifted to use his vision.
“You know, I don’t understand you sometimes,” I mumbled, mirroring what he had said. He chuckled as he set his knife and fork down on the plate.

“I’ll put the plates in the dishwasher,” I said. I didn’t have much else to do. “Besides, I’m the last person to finish eating.”
“If you want to,” he said but he stayed seated at the table.
“You can go and do other things, you know.”
“Like what?” he asked, turning to look in my general direction. Shrugging, I put some mashed potato in my mouth.

“Audiobooks?” I suggested once I had finished eating the mouthful of food.
“I don’t have any.”
“Shit, yeah, I only have them because of Kara,” I muttered. Humming, I tried to think of something else. “I mean, other than tv, I’m not really sure. I usually bake with Kara, even if I do most of the baking, we just tend to sing and dance to whatever is on the radio. Sometimes we go for a walk or something.”

“Do you spend a lot of time with her?”
“A fair bit, yeah. We grew up together, pretty much,” I said. Frowning a little, I wouldn't be able to call Kara and make sure she was okay. She must be so worried about me.
“You said you wrote short stories,” he said. I was almost certain there was a point to him bringing it up but I wasn’t sure what. “Perhaps if you write one, I could listen to it.”
I had to try to not spit out my food in shock. “Um… I don’t know?”
“You don’t have to,” he said. “I’m just curious.”