Living is easy with eyes closed

CHAPTER ONE: SOUND AND FEELING

A single tear ran down her smooth, pale face. "Okay."  She wiped it away with her black shirt sleeve. "I'm okay." Her last family member was gone and this was all the emotion she allowed herself. Standing up she proceded to walk along the cobblestone streets, she could hear her heels clicking with every single step on the cold white stones of Napley. Click click clack click clack click clack. That steady, everchanging beat was the same as her heart's. She smiled... she didn't know why, but she did. Of course it was unusual for her to smile with her brother being dead and all, but she did. She wasn't thinking about her brother any longer, she wasn't thinking at all. She was listening.

It was always easier to listen. Face the entire world all on your own for five minutes and then listen. NOT just hear... NOT just look... to feel, to close your eyes and let the sounds and feelings of the world wash over you.

"Mmmmmm..." Tristan closed her eyes, she could hear the saprano saxaphone playing just around the corner. She swayed down the street to the music. At this point she was holding her shoes in her hands, she didn't want the saxaphone player to hear her coming up the street. She knew who was playing the music, it was Willie. Willie was always playing his saxaphone, but what else was there for him to do. His music was his life and he embraced it... Tristan envied him.

She turned the corner and there was Willie playing the blues, Tristan placed her shoes down next to Willie and spun around in circles... her feet didn't make a sound against the cold white stones and she didn't want them too. She didn't want Willie to know that she was there, that way they could each BE for themselves and not for each other. The streets were completely empty except for the two of them. Tristan's brother's funeral had not gotten out yet and everyone in the small town was there. Willie and Tristan could have a moment to themselves... they could enjoy the others company without knowing they were there. Willie with his music and Tristan her feelings.

Willie was blind, he had been born that way and had never seen anything his whole life. He didn't regret it though... he embraced it. Willie always embraced things, he didn't want people to pity him he just wanted to be happy with himself and what he was doing.  Tristan was born with sight, but she didn't use it. She never really SAW anything. She was always closing her eyes to listen and move, what did she need to see? Sight only brought sorrow she could find true release in movement and music.


CHAPTER 2: FEEL FOR THEM

The music slowed as the sun began to set, and soon Willie would fall asleep on the corner. Tristan sensed that their evening was coming to an end and slowly walked over to Willie to pick up her shoes. She reached down and grabbed them both in one hand by the straps, slowly walking away she hummed the tune to Willie's song.
"G'Night Tristan!" Willie shouted from the corner.
"Good night Willie!" Tristan yelled back, "thank you for that beautiful music!"
"And thank you for your dancing!" replied Willie.
Although Willie could not see, he was very good at sensing people's feelings. He always knew when Tristan was dancing with him, even when she tried to be stealth about it because she put her heart and soul into her movement and he could feel her energy encircle him. He could even feel for people he had never met... people on the other side of the planet.  This is how Willie came to be without a home.

One day when Willie was 15 years old he was learning about how many orphaned chlildren in China were tortured and often killed when no one could provide a home for them. He couldn't see the pictures that were being shown to the rest of the class, he couldn't see the pictures of the deformed children whose arms looked like toothpicks and heads too heavy to be supported by their beaten and malnourished bodies. He couldn't see any of this, but he could feel it. In his ears he could hear their music calling to him. He could hear them calling out their blues to him. This is when Willie dropped out of school, he ran to the library to find out what he could do to help these children he didn't know. The librarian gave him a list of charities that he could donate to in order to save the children. He folded up the list and put it in his pocket , all the way home he thought about the kids in China and how they had never been to school. He wanted to help them but he didn't know how.


CHAPTER 3: HIS LIFE IN BOXES

Willie layed in his bed. His eyes were shut, but he wasn't sleeping. Willie stayed up all night thinking about the children in China. Without a bed and without a home around them. He thought about their lives and how aweful it must be for them. Willie couldn't understand why he had more than he needed to survive and they didn't have enough. Surely he was meant to help them.

At some point in the night Willie must have fallen asleep because the next morning he woke up. It was a new day and Willie knew exactly what he had to do. After his mother left for work he began his ascent up the stairs to the attic. Willie searched beneath his old toddler clothes his mother had put in the attic a few years back. Finnally he found the boxes he had been searching for. He dragged the big brown boxes down the attic stairs to his room. Immediatly he began packing all of his belongings. He had memorized where everything was in his room, so he was able to pack it all very quickly. The only thing that Willie didn't pack were the clothes on his back and $50. In less than one hour Willie had packed his entire life into these boxes, or so he thought.

At the time Willie lived down the street from the post office, which was next to the metro station that shuttled people in and out of town. He dragged the boxes one by one to the post office, making a total of nine trips back and forth from his home to the post office.  When he finnally had all of the boxes he asked the lady at the desk if she could be troubled to label all the boxes for him. Willie could do a remarkable amount of things for someone who was blind... but labeling packages exceeded him. The lady said that it would be no trouble at all and asked where he would like to ship them to. Willie said that he wanted to ship them to the charity that he had circled on the list the librarian had given him. The post woman looked at the list and told Willie that he was asking her to send the packages to China. Willie nodded.

"Well, sweetie that's not cheap. That's gonna cost ya 'bout $40." Willie could tell that she thought he was younger than he was. He handed her the money. "Allrighty then hun. They'll get there within the month."

Willie smiled.

"Thank you maam."