The Blind Boy who Could See

Quin and Jir'lin looked bored. Lena got the sense that their boredom verged on desolation so she decided to tell them a story. They were staying at the Shades Mountain Inn and Tavern. There was a crackling fire in the hearth that emitted the plasant smell of wood smoke now and then as wind wooshed down the chimney. It should feel cozy and cheerful, Lena thought.   A wind raged outside and snow flew in the wind making visibility almost impossible. If they hadn't stopped here when they did, she could imagine they might have been lost. The road had turned into a trail and then shrank even more as the snow blinded them but now they were here.   "Did I ever tell you about the blind boy who could see?"   Jir'lin answered, "No," without even looking up.   Quin reluctantly said, "No, but I'm guessing you're going to tell it."   Lena wondered what was wrong with the two of them but decided to plunge ahead. First she ordered three pints of ale and waited for the barkeep to bring them.   Once they all had a drink in front of them, Lena began her story.   "As you know, I grew up fairly near to the coast. When I was a teenager, my friends and I would have slumber parties."   Quin interrupted her, betraying at least some degree of interest. "What's a slumber party? And you had friends?"   Lena laughed and nodded, "Yes I had a few friends. A slumber party is where you get together with your friends and have a sleepover at somebody's house. It's traditional to play somewhat naughty games like 'Spin the Bottle' or to try to contact the dead by using a witch board."   Before Lena could continue her story, she had to explain to Quin what 'Spin the Bottle' and a 'witch board' was.   "You mean non-magical people can summon the dead?" Quin asked.   "Well, if you had asked me that before the blind boy who could see appeared, I would have said no. Even now I have to wonder if there wasn't some budding magic in one of us that ...." Lena trailed off for a moment.   Jir'lin cut in, "Please tell the story."   Lena looked up at him and smiled. She was glad to see he was showing some liveliness after all.   "Okay then." Lena took a mighty swallow of the ale before beginning again.  

There were five of us. We were just 14. Somebody pulled out a witch's board. Four of us held our fingers on the felt disk and began asking questions. The other girl held a pencil and paper and she would write down anything the witch board said to us. First we asked it if anybody was there. At first nothing happened. Then the disk began moving slowly across the board landing on letters. We would say the letter and Shay, the girl with the pencil wrote the letters down. The board seemed to spell a lot of letters and we were all giggling because we each thought someone else was moving the disk.   Suddenly Shay called out, "Listen!" And we all quietened down. She read out what the letters had spelled. "I am blind Simon. And I can see you."

Lena paused in her tale. Quin and Jir'lin noticed that she seemed to shiver for a moment.   Lena noticed that the room had gotten even quieter than it had been before. The other customers seemed to be listening, she thought.   "Those words had a real effect on us all, let me tell you. We all looked around the room half expecting to see some boy ghost or something but nothing was there. Then my friend, Ruby shushed everybody and asked the board another question."   "How can you see us? You're not even real and if you were, you're blind!"   "Well the disk started moving right away, it skated across the letters so fast we had trouble keeping up but Shay was writing down the letters. When the disk came to a stop again, we were all quiet this time. Then Shay started reading out what the letters said."  

I am blind Simon but I can see you because I'm a ghost. You're wearing pajamas, Ruby. You called me here and now I'm here. If you want to see me, go look in that mirror near the closet.

"I let go of that disk like it was poison. I thought that maybe if we weren't touching it, the ghost boy would go away, if there really was a ghost. I mean, I still thought soebody had been pushing the disk. But it turns out they all thought the same thing. We were scared. But Ruby who always seemed like an adult or something said she would go look in the mirror. The four of us huddled close together and I was just looking for the lantern to light a lamp when Ruby approached the mirror."   "Suddenly, she screamed like there was a bloody murderer in the house. But she seemed frozen in front of that mirror. I yelled, 'somebody turn on the lamps!' but nobody moved. We heard footsteps on the stairs and suddenly the door opened and it was Shay's father."   "What the bloody hell are you girls doing up here?"   "The light from the stairs came into the room just enough for him to see we were playing with a witch board. Then he saw Ruby whose face was frozen in a silent scream. He ran over to her and asked her if she was okay. She didn't answer right away and he took her arms and kind of shook her like she was asleep or something. She just pointed at the mirror. Shay's dad looked in the mirror and his eyes widened in shock."   He said, "Bloody Blind Simon!"   "Then he led Ruby by the hand and shouted at us all to follow him. We went down the stairs with him into the parlor which was all lit up. We were all pretty shaken up," Lena continued.   "That's when he raced up the stairs and we weren't sure what he was going to do but we heard the sound of shattering glass and he came running back down the stairs with the witch board. He threw it into the fire while we watched, feeling scared and shocked at seeing an adult act like that."   Shay's dad finally turned around to face us from where he stood in front of the hearth. "I'm sorry girls. That was my fault. I could have sworn I burned that witch board before you were even born, Shay."   Shay asked, "Dad, what was, how did you know who or what that blind Simon thing was?"   "Shay, all you need to know is that he won't ever bother you again. I'm sorry but I'll have to get you a new mirror."   "Dad, you can't just leave it like that! You have to tell me."   Her father sighed and finally he said, "Okay I guess you deserve to know the truth. Blind Simon was a boy from the neighborhood. He used to get picked on by some of the other kids. All he wanted to do was play with us like any kid would want to. There was a bully that we were all afraid of but we always went along with him because, well because we didn't want him to bully us. He told Simon he could play with us but he would have to pass a test first. He would have to go stand on this old rickety chair on the pier for 30 minutes. If he didn't fall off, he could join us. Then we all left Simon standing on that chair and went off playing some other game. I am ashamed to say I forgot about Simon until it was almost dark. When I remembered, I reminded the other boys and we all went running down to the lake to see if Simon was still standing on that dumb chair. He wasn't. Then it came out the next day that Simon's parents had reported him missing. None of us ever told a soul. I'm ashamed. About 4 years later, Simon's body came floating to the surface of the lake. It was terrible but the townsfolk thought he had just fallen in the lake and drowned. And well, he did but...."   "Oh Daddy, that's a terrible thing. But it's not your fault!" Shay shouted loyally.   Shay's father said, "Thank you for saying that, Shay. One night, not long after they found his body, my cousin came to visit from out of town. He had a witch board and we managed somehow to summon blind Simon. He told me to look in the mirror so I could see what I had done to him. And, well, I did - - he was pale and wearing the same clothes he drowned in. He urged me to come closer and said he would change places with me. I was almost like hypnotized and started towards the mirror but my cousin came and grabbed me and stopped me."   Shay's father looked at Ruby then, shaking his head. "I don't know what would have happened but I think Simon wants to trade places with whoever is on the other side of the mirror."   Quin looked at Lena skeptically. "Did that really happen or are you pulling my leg?"   Lena looked at Quin and said, "It really happened. Sometimes I think it must have been a nightmare, it felt like a nightmare but I'm just going to advise you now; don't ever use a witch board. I think they're dangerous."   "I finally worked up the nerve to ask my dad if he had ever heard of a kid named Simon who was blind. He told me all about him. He didn't know of course that those other kids had made him stand on that rickety chair on the pier. He just knew that the kid went missing one day and his body was found years later."