Questions
Annie had known Auggie for quite a while but there were still a lot of things, she did not know about him. Auggie was not the type of guy who liked to talk about himself and about his feelings. He kept everything close to the vest and he rarely opened up to others about his life as a blind man. Annie wondered how hard it was for him to make everything he did look effortless and easy. She decided to ask him a few personal questions and to leave it up to him whether he would like to answer them or not.
Half an hour later Annie was back in Langley and on her way to the DPD. She had two cups of hot coffee in her hands and strolled along the hallway, making her way to Auggie´s Tech Ops office. Her high heels clicked with each of her steps and the scent of Joe Malone Grapefruit announced her presence when she opened the glass door of Auggie Anderson´s office.
"Good morning Annie" Auggie smiled, putting down the headphones he had been wearing whilst reading a bunch of emails that had piled up in his inbox.
His sense of hearing and the scent of Annie´s perfume told him who was about to walk over to his desk.
"Coffee at your 10 o´clock" Annie smiled and set the coffee mug down onto Auggie´s desk.
"Thanks, I really appreciate that personal service" Auggie smiled his broad smile that Annie loved so much. She sometimes asked herself whether he really knew how mesmerizing he was when he smiled.
"Have you got any plans for tonight?" Annie asked after she and Auggie had taken their first sip of strong coffee with milk and sugar.
"Nope, I guess I am gonna curl up on my couch and relax, it´s been a tough week so far and I need some time to unwind-"
"What about me coming over and we share some Chinese food
whilst we listen to your Mingus collection?"
"Yeah, sounds like a good plan, it ´s been a while that you came over to visit and I have not had Chop Suey with rice lately."
Annie finished her coffee, threw the empty plastic mug into the trash can under Auggie´s desk and turned, walking towards the door. Reaching for the door handle, she turned again and said "6:30, I am gonna give you a ride home after you are done here, okay?"
"Yeah, 6:30 is fine" Auggie said, feeling for his headphones on the desktop in front of him before he continued working.
The hours passed quickly. Auggie had so much to take care of and Annie worked on a number of pages, that Joan had asked her to translate. A couple of Russian documents had come in and Joan wanted to know what they were about. Annie´s language skills were a blessing for Joan and the entire DPD. There were not many operatives that were as multi-lingual as Annie.
Auggie had to solve a variety of technology problems. A number of desktop PCs in the DPD had caught a virus and he and his team had to fix it ASAP. It took him, Barber, Stu, Hollman and the rest of the crew a whole working day to remove the virus and get the whole system running again. Even after so many years Auggie´s colleagues were still amazed at his ability to deal with tech stuff of all kinds. His visual disability did not stop him from doing an excellent job. Provided with adaptive equipment of all kinds he was as good as any other sighted tech-expert.
At a quarter past six Auggie shut down his computer. He stretched his arms and legs to remove a bit of that tension that had built up in his muscles after so many hours sitting behind his desk. He had just finished putting away all the folders and Braille lists, that he had used, when he realized a familiar sound. Click, clack, click clack...the sound of heels came closer and seconds later the glass door of his office was slid open. Then a well known scent filled the room again.
"Hey handsome, are you ready to go?" Auggie could hear the smile in Annie´s voice and grabbed his cane from the desk drawer before he finally took Annie´s arm and let her lead the way out of the Langley building.
Five minutes later Annie put Auggie´s hand onto the door handle and walked around her red VW before she slipped behind the steering wheel of her car. Auggie listened to the sound of the car motor and fumbled a bit with the folded cane on his lap. Being in a car was mostly boring for him. He could not drive anymore and even as a passenger he could not do anything but sit and listen to the sound of the engine. The world outside was invisible to him like so many other things.
After a few minutes of riding in silence Annie asked "What do you want me to pick up from the Chinese restaurant?"
"I´d love a spring-roll and chop suey with rice."
"Good, chop suey it is" Annie repeated "I guess I am gonna take some chicken with pineapple sauce and soy beans."
Shortly after Annie parked her car in front of "Hong Kong Palace" their favourite Chinese restaurant. She got out of the car "I´ll be back in a few minutes"
Auggie listened to her clicking heels again before he unlocked the screen of his Iphone with a quick swipe of his fingers and checked his messages. He had received a number of text messages from friends and listened to them. This was the perfect distraction whilst Annie was away, picking up their dinner.
Fifteen minutes later Annie was back. The scent of chicken, springrolls and soy-sauce filled the car.
"Here" she said and handed Auggie the plastic bag with the food boxes. Touching the back of his right hand.
"Smells fantastic" Auggie stated when he took the bag and set it on his lap.
Shortly after, they arrived at Auggie´s loft. Auggie opened his cane when he got out of the car and walked straight ahead to the entrance of the building. In his usual environment he was as good as any other sighted person.
After he had slid the door of B7 open. He folded his cane, put it onto the tray on the sideboard and walked over to the kitchen to get some plates and cutlery. He set everything on the counter and added a bottle of red wine and two wine glasses. Now Annie took a seat on the stool beside him and they started enjoying their meal.
"Hmmm...yummy..." Auggie said between two bites. "I have not had that in a while" He slowly felt for some more Chop Suey on his plate.
Annie watched him. She was always fascinated and surprised at how easily Auggie dealt with every day tasks liek eating, cooking etc . as a blind person. She was not sure that she would be able to accomplish all that.
"You are staring at me, right?" Auggie´s spidey sense had told him that Annie was watching him.
"Yeah, I have to admit I was fascinated at how you manage eating with Chop Sticks"
"Well, I guess you were not that amazed if I could see, right?"
"Probably not" Annie admitted. "Speaking of which...there is something that I have wanted to ask you for a while"
"And what would that be?"
"Well, I don´t know exactly how to start...I mean...I know you cannot see...but on the other hand I wonder how you can make everything you do look so easy."
"Like what?"
"Things like: pouring you a drink, finding your way around in Langley, reading Braille. It all looks so effortless to me"
"Do you want me to tell you a secret? It does only look effortless. Instead, it is all the result of hard work."
"How difficult is it to pour yourself some coffee or a drink when you cannot see?" Annie asked.
"Hard to explain. Do you wanna try ?" I can show you a couple of things when we have finished our meal. They ate in silence for a while, finishing what was left of the Chinese food and then
Auggie got up from the couch, climbed the four stairs to his bedroom area, opened the closet and got a scarf out.
"Here we go" he said and handed the scarf over to Annie "Wrap it around your head, so that your eyes are covered and I am gonna show you a couple of things"
"Hmmm..." Annie hesitated. Asking Auggie was one thing, but trying to accomplish things with her eyes closed and blindfolded was something else. And if she was honest, she was scared. Being unable to see was something dreadful for her. But she wanted to do Auggie a favour and so she did what he told her and wrapped the scarf around her forehead so that her eyes were covered.
"Ready for a lesson in blind skills" Auggie asked with a grin and Annie noticed that she could hear the grin in his voice
"Hey, you are grinning" She said astonished.
"Yes I am. So I take it that you heard that in my voice ,right?"
"Yeah" Annie was stunned
"There are a lot of things that you don´t need to see." Auggie said before he felt for her hand, put it onto his right elbow and led her over to the kitchen counter.
"Reversed roles, uh..?" Annie remarked
"Yeah, or a lesson in the blind leading the blind" Auggie smirked. He put Annie´s hand on the stool by the counter, let her take a seat and went over to get a glass from the shelf. Then he opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of orange juice.
"Lesson one, pour yourself a glass of juice"
Auggie felt for Annie´s hand again and handed the bottle with juice over to her. Then he set the glass on the counter and said
"Feel for the glass on your right, put your right index finger across the rim and slowly pour the juice into the glass. Stop pouring when your index finger gets wet.
Annie opened the bottle, put her finger across the rim of the glass and started pouring. She had poured too quickly and all of a sudden she felt that the juice had flown over the rim and the countertop was getting wet.
"Auggie, I guess I spilled it" she said
Auggie got a cloth from the kitchen sink, felt for the glass and the orange juice puddle on the countertop and started cleaning up.
"I am sorry, I guess I would be a rather clumsy blind person" Annie said
"I don´t think so, it is all a question of time and practice. After a while you are getting used to doing things the blind way" Auggie comforted her and walked over to the sink again, rinsing the cloth with some water from the faucet.
Annie had taken a few sips of juice and had listened to Auggie´s activity. She remained on her stool, scared to walk on her own, fearing she might stumble or fall.
"How do you find the matching clothes?" She asked now
"Well that is pretty easy" Auggie replied. "Many of my clothes have Braille tags, so I can distinguish patterns and colours. For the other things I have a colour detector. That little thing looks a bit like a torch. You press a little button on its side, and press the front of the device onto the fabric. The colour detecter will then announce the colour."
"Wow ,that is impressive. I have always wondered how you could dress up so neatly without help"
"Let me show you how that works"
Auggie felt his way over to Annie, put her hand on his elbow again and the two walked over to his bedroom area.
"Stairs" Auggie announced when they had reached the four steps to his bedroom. Annie slowly followed him up the stairs to his closet. Auggie slid the door open, felt for one of the coat hangers with a shirt and put it into Annie´s hand.
"Here, feel for the tag across the inside of the collar"
Annie slightly touched the collar of a white shirt with grey stripes and confirmed
"Yep, there are a couple of dots that I can feel."
"That would be a white shirt with grey stripes" Auggie explained before he put the shirt back into the closet. Then he felt for the shelf on the right and took the colour detector. He switched it on with a little beep and handed it over to Annie.
Annie took the little device and waited for Auggie to guide her hand to a sweater on one of the shelves. "dark-grey" the device announced when Annie touched the fabric with the front of the color detector.
"That is really cool" Annie smiled before he handed the colour detector back to Auggie.
And then she added "I have never really thought about how much extra work it is to perform simple tasks as a blind person. You really have given me some new insight into all that"
"It was a pleasure to me" Auggie smiled before he felt for Annie´s forehead and removed the blindfold.
Annie blinked, glad she could see again and said "Thank You Auggie" before she placed a kiss on both of his cheeks.