Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley

Author:Steven Rowley [Rowley, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781471155123
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

2.

The sun is hot and it’s burning my eyes, and the tighter I close them the more they itch with heat and sweat. I scrunch my eyelids, then loosen them; a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns floats in front of me. TV static, paisley, comets trailing fiery tails, sunbursts, tornados, violence, calm—all happening in the darkness behind my closed eyes. I wonder if this is what Lily sees, blinded as she is, if she can sense light, if her blindness is rich with colors and patterns. Or is it just darkness, her eyes painted in the total blackness of octopus ink?

I prop myself up on my elbows and slowly open my eyes to see the blue waters of Trent’s swimming pool. I look over at my friend. He’s lying on his stomach with his sunglasses hanging crooked on his face. I can’t tell if he’s awake or asleep. I reach for the plastic tumbler under the chair in the only shade to be found, but produce a bottle of sunscreen instead. When I find my glass it’s empty.

“Shall I make us more drinks?” Trent’s voice is groggy and thin and disappears into the ambient sound of the afternoon.

I turn to Trent, who still hasn’t stirred. “I’ll do it. In a minute.” My body is cemented to the lounge chair. There is no graceful way to get up, and it feels good in the sun. I’m almost relaxed, the most I’ve been in weeks. Lily would like this, the warm afternoon, the soft grass, a quiet backyard filled with smells. But since the octopus took her sight, I can’t trust her around water. A casual stroll across the yard could result in an unexpected dip in the pool.

Home life has been an adjustment, but we’ve managed. She has the layout of the house down from memory, but she can sometimes miss a doorway by a few inches or so. Our efforts remind me of the old Helen Keller joke: How do you punish Helen Keller? Rearrange the furniture.

Doogie was not surprised to hear of Lily’s blinding, although there wasn’t anything he or his staff could do to bring her eyesight back; our options are as bleak as ever. Instead, he said to pick a spot in the house to call “home base.” When Lily gets disoriented I’m to place her there, always facing the same direction, and say out loud, “Home base!” It’s like pressing a reset button to instantly orient her again. I always feel stupid doing this (Marco! Polo!), but it seems to work and Lily responds with appreciation. Slowly, we’re figuring this out.

How did Helen Keller meet her husband? On a blind date. Why was Helen Keller’s leg wet? Her dog was blind, too.

Over in the grass near the deep end, Weezie slaps around an inflatable beach ball. She’s easy to spot in her orange life vest made specifically for dogs. You don’t usually associate English bulldogs with swimming, and she looks a bit out of place—like Winston Churchill at the beach.

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