Written: 8–14–13
Edited/rewritten: 2–16–18
I closed my eyes and listened. Listened to the sound of water falling over the edge, hitting the rocks, and slamming into the river below. I could feel the cool water mist from the impact on my skin, relaxing me. I listened to the leaved in the trees rustle as they hit each other, moved by the slight breeze in the air, the branches moving slowly, barely touching each other. I heard the birds’ cries as they spoke to each other, moving the branches as they landed. I listened to the response of another bird and wondered what they were talking about. I heard crickets chirp, warning each other of oncoming predators. The sound of something jumping from the water, making a splash as it landed, reached my ears; it might have been a fish jumping, or a bird swooping in to get a fish from the river right in front of me. I heard the sound of a breaking branch and wet leaves as the weight of something crashed down upon it.
My eyes jerked open, my head jerked to the right, but I could not see what came up next to me.
“It’s just me,” his voice said calmly, cautiously. I looked back ahead at the waterfall I could not admire. We stood in silence for a minute, listening to the quite breathing of each other mixing with the sounds of nature.
“Describe it to me, please.”
He took a deep breath and I felt his warm fingers brush against my hand. I grabbed it, holding tightly, scared he would walk away and scared it wasn’t as beautiful as I imagined. What if it wasn’t what I thought it was?
“The flowers are the most beautiful, vibrant colors I have ever seen in my life. There are pink ones, purple ones, blue ones, and one yellow one, way up at the top of the waterfall. There’s a bird up on a branch, right over there ⏤ sorry, to your left ⏤ and it’s an amazing dark blue. It’s a small bird ⏤ oh! Another one just landed right next to it. You hear that water?” I nodded. “It’s a tall waterfall, but not so tall we can’t see the top.” He squeezed my hand, then loosened his group. “It’s a mesmerizing kind of blue, but clear at the same time. You can see the fish swimming it, fish of all different colors and sizes.”
“What about the crickets? I can hear them.”
“They’re on the rough bark, on the trees, on the ground.” I couldn’t help but smile. He tries so hard to make sure I could visualize it in my mind. Every time he describes something to me, he gets better and better at it.
“It sounds beautiful. Is it beautiful?”
“Of course; the second most beautiful thing in the world.”
I knew I was so lucky the first time I heard his voice. The first time we met when he helped me get on the bus. I had just started losing my eyesight then. Everything was foggy, glassy and I had tripped over the steps. I knew I wouldn’t find any better the first time he described what something looked like when we went to the grocery store and I almost cried because I couldn’t see to pick the good food out and when I picked up a tomato or an apple and he told me what it was like while I felt it. He made me feel independent.
“Thank you,” I said, smiling even bigger.
