Seeing

Leah adjusted the wrapping around her eyes and head. The wrapping moved a bit while she slept, and she had to make certain it was in place before she rose to meet another day.

Her little sister had begged to decorate the wrapping today, and Leah didn’t have the heart to tell her no. She sat at the little table in their kitchen, and could smell the warm scent of her sister near. Little Talia was six, and she smelled of the morning air, full of green and dew. Leah reached out and pulled the girl to her, hugging her and breathing in that innocent air.

“May I decorate it now?” she asked quietly, gently. Leah nodded.

Leah could feel a slight pressure here and there as her sister did her work. She smelled flowers, roses, around her. When Talia said she was done, Leah slowly moved her hands up to her face and then touched the decorations delicately, making certain nothing moved. She could feel what she had smelled, roses, and she felt a small sprig of something at her crown, possibly baby’s breath.

“Thank you, Talia,” she said, “I know it is lovely. And I love you so much.” Then tears slid out from under the wrapping from her eyes, and ran down her cheeks. She felt her little sister’s soft fingers brushing them away. Talia left Leah and walked to the other room where their mother was sitting, staring out the window.

“When will Leah take off the wrapping?” Talia asked her mother. Her mother turned to her and said nothing for awhile.

“When she is ready,” was her reply.

“Because she doesn’t want to see anything after she saw her friends get killed?” Talia asked.

“That is what I think,” her mother answered.

“But seeing nothing now will not take away what she already saw. I don’t understand,” Talia said.

“Perhaps she doesn’t want to see anything else. Perhaps this is how she honors her friends for now, by only seeing them. Remembering.”

Talia began to cry quietly and sat on her mother’s lap. “But it is too much pain. She won’t be able to stand it,” the little girl cried.

“We will help her. We will be right here for her and hug her and love her and remind her of what good is left in this world. We will let her mourn and cry and we will mourn and cry with her,” and Talia’s mother brushed away her own tears. “Why don’t you go and make your sister some tea?” she suggested.

“I will make some for us all,” Talia said and went to put on the kettle. Tomorrow she would make Leah walk with her to a place where they could remember her friends together.

The image is from Jeff Hardi on Unsplash.

The image depicts a woman in a white blouse. She cradles her face in her hands. There is a white gauze wrapping around the top of her head and covering her eyes. Affixed to the gauze around her temple are seven pink roses and some baby’s breath flowers.