As the days went on, Cyril was starting to get the hang of his blindness. Of course, he still refused to have any help from the others, but he was getting better at avoiding walking into walls. Unfortunately, disaster was about to strike. As usual, Cedric and Sophia were working on getting Forest to walk, and Cyril was just sitting around, listening in.
"Okay, Forest," Cedric said, holding the baby's hands. "You can do it. Just some short little steps to Mommy."
"Come on, sweetie," Sophia said, holding her arms open to Forest. "Come to Mommy."
Cedric let go, and Forest tried to get moving, but he ended up (as usual) crashing. Both Cedric and Sophia sighed.
"I don't think he's ever going to get the hang of this," Cedric said, picking up the baby.
"At least not for awhile," Sophia replied.
"Gee, what a shame," Cyril replied, a little distantly. He didn't want to admit it, but he was a little upset that he wouldn't be able to see Forest's first steps, even if the blindness was only temporary. He was afraid that even though he would get his sight back, he would miss a major milestone in his grandson's life. But he didn't say anything about it.
As Cedric and Sophia set Forest up again, the Pigs came into the room with the day's mail.
"Mail call, sir!" Lloyd shouted.
"Not more bills, I hope," Cyril grumbled. "I've got enough things to worry about."
"Well, some," Lloyd said. "But there's something interesting here."
"What is it?"
"An invitation to a party. Lady Baden Baden is throwing a dinner party to show off this vase she just got, and you, and Cedric and Sophia are all invited."
"Oh no! No! Count me out! I am not going! I am not about to have Knox see me like this!"
"Are you sure, Pop?" Cedric asked, looking at the invitation. "It might not matter. You've been doing okay with your business so far without your sight, and no one's really noticed. Maybe Mr. Knox won't notice, either."
"If I know Knox, he'll notice," Cyril said. "Besides, somebody's got to watch the baby."
"We could do that," Lloyd said. "We've done it before."
"And you lost him in the process!" Cyril shouted. "The three of you are never baby-sitting Forest again!"
"We could call Ralph, or Melissa, or Bert," Sophia suggested.
"But they'll probably be invited to the party, too," Cedric said.
"Exactly," Cyril said. "The two of you go. I'll stay here."
And that was all there was to it, until the night before the dinner party. Cedric and Sophia were about to leave for it. Cyril was sitting on the living room sofa with Forest on his lap, waiting for them to go.
"It's too bad you don't want to come with us, Pop," Cedric said.
"Yeah, too bad," Cyril said.
"We'll give Lady Baden Baden your regards."
"Yeah, you do that."
"And we'll tell Mr. Wallace about your business."
"Yeah fine."
Cyril didn't realize what Cedric had just said until a few moments later. He put Forest on the sofa, shot to his feet, and ran over to his son, accidentally running into the wall again.
"Wait a minute!" he shouted, just as he smashed into the wall. "Ow!"
"Are you okay, Pop?" Cedric asked.
"Fine, fine," Cyril said, straightening out his nose. "I've been meaning to get a nose job, anyway. Did you just say that a Mr. Wallace is going to be there? As in Mr. Douglas Wallace, owner of Wallace Incorporated?"
"Yeah," Cedric replied. "Why?"
"I've been trying to do business with him for years!" Cyril shouted. "I'm going to this party!"
"But what about the baby?" Sophia asked.
"I'll leave him with the Pigs," Cyril said.
"I thought you told them never to baby-sit again," Cedric said.
"Good point," Cyril said. Then he thought it over. "I got it! I'll leave him with the Pigs, and then I'll tell them to call their mother!"
And that was that. The Pigs agreed to call in their mother to baby-sit for Forest while Cyril went to Lady Baden Baden's dinner party with Cedric and Sophia.
Lady Baden Baden's place was packed with the social elite of the Evergreen Forest. Cedric's hunch about the Raccoons being there was right. Bert, Ralph, and Melissa were around, taking pictures for the newspaper.
"Now remember," Cyril muttered to Cedric and Sophia. "Not one word about me being blind to Knox! You got me?"
"Sure, Pop," Cedric said. "Not one word."
"We promise we won't say a thing," Sophia said.
At that moment, Lady Baden Baden and Mr. Knox walked over with a well dressed walrus.
"Ah Mr. Sneer!" Lady Baden Baden shouted. "So good of you and your family to come to see my priceless vase!"
(Incidentally, Lady Baden Baden pronounced the word as "vahz")
"Yes, good to be here," Cyril replied.
"Why are you wearing those dark glasses?" Lady Baden Baden asked. "You look terribly tacky."
"Well, ahh, I like being tacky at times," Cyril said.
"So I've noticed," Mr. Knox said. "Mr. Sneer, I'd like to introduce to you Mr. Douglas Wallace of Wallace Incorporated. He's been doing business with me."
"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Wallace," Cyril said. He reached out and grabbed what he thought was Mr. Wallace's hand, but it was the branch of a plant. Cedric and Sophia wanted to say something, but they had promised Cyril they wouldn't say a word about him being visually impaired to Mr. Knox.
"Mr. Sneer, you're shaking hands with my fichus," Mr. Knox said, giving Cyril a strange look.
"I . . . . meant to do that," Cyril said. "Little joke there. Heh, heh."
"Well, no matter," Lady Baden Baden said. "Time for dinner. This way!"
Once Lady Baden Baden and Mr. Knox (and Mr. Wallace, for that matter) were out of earshot (or so when Cyril thought they were), he leaned over to Cedric and Sophia.
"Why didn't you tell me I was shaking hands with a plant?" he hissed.
"We promised to keep our mouths shut," Cedric said.
"Never mind! Just get me to the table, and make sure I don't hit anything!"
"Right, Pop."
Cedric and Sophia led Cyril to the dining room table, and he managed to sit down without any problems.
"Hey Cedric," Bert said. "How's it going?"
"Not easy," Cedric replied. "Oh do me a favor, Bert. Don't let on that Pop's blind. He doesn't want Mr. Knox to know."
"Gotcha," Bert said, nodding. Then he leaned over to tell Ralph and Melissa not to let Mr. Knox know about Cyril's blindness. They agreed to keep quiet.
Dinner was pretty much normal. Cyril managed to get through the first course without any problems. And he seemed to impress Mr. Wallace as he talked about his business. Disaster didn't strike until the second course.
"Oh Mr. Sneer," Lady Baden Baden said. "Be a dear and pass me the salt, would you?"
"Salt?" Cyril asked. "No problem. Let's see here . . . ."
Cyril reached for the salt, but ended up knocking over his wine glass, and spilling red wine all over the white table cloth.
"Oh!" Lady Baden Baden cried out. "My grandmother's best table cloth!"
"What'd I do?" Cyril whispered to Cedric.
"Spilled wine on the table cloth," Cedric said, with a slight grimace. "Red wine on the white table cloth."
"Ah heh, heh," Cyril said, nervously. "Sorry about that, Lady Baden Baden. Just send me the bill. Now let's see . . . . where's the salt . . . ."
"To the left, Pop," Cedric said.
"Thank you," Cyril said, reaching for the salt. Unfortunately, he went the wrong way, and knocked over Sophia's wine glass. Red wine spilled all over the front of her dress. She let out a scream, and shot to her feet.
"Your other left, Pop!" Cedric shouted, a bit exasperated.
"What now?" Cyril asked.
"Spilled the wine again. This time on Sophia."
"Oh. Well . . . . what color is she wearing?"
"Red."
"It'll blend in."
"Is there a problem, Mr. Sneer?" Mr. Knox asked. "You seem to be a little disoriented tonight."
"Maybe a little too much drinking over the h'ors deourves," Cyril said. "Now, where in the world is the salt?"
Cyril felt around the table for a moment or so, until he felt one of the shakers. He smiled, and picked it up.
"Ah ha!" he shouted.
"That's pepper, Mr. Sneer," Sophia said.
"I'll pass Lady Baden Baden the salt," Cedric said. He grabbed the salt shaker and gave it to Lady Baden Baden.
Cyril wanted to disappear. Even though he couldn't see them, he could feel everyone staring at him as if he were completely crazy.
After dessert, Lady Baden Baden showed off her vase. It was large, painted orange, with big, bright pink flowers and olive green leaves painted on it. It was the ugliest thing Cedric, Sophia, and the Raccoons had ever seen in their lives.
"There are only three of these vases in the world," Lady Baden Baden said. "Mr. Knox and I were lucky enough to find it!"
"I can honestly say I've never seen anything quite like that vase," Cyril said.
"You should count yourself lucky, Cyril," Bert muttered to him. "That's the ugliest vase I've ever seen in my life."
"Go take a closer look at it, Mr. Sneer," Mr. Knox said. "It really is quite fascinating."
Cyril shrugged and walked forward to get a better look at the vase sitting on the pedestal. But he was heading too close for it. Cedric, Sophia, and the Raccoons wanted to say something, but they promised to keep their mouths shut. Finally, Bert couldn't take it.
"Cyril, watch it!" he shouted.
"What?" Cyril asked, just as he ran smack into the podium. The vase fell from it, and crashed to the ground, smashing into a hundred pieces.
"Oh no!" Sophia shouted.
"Don't tell me," Cyril grumbled. "I broke the vase, didn't I?"
"Mr. Sneer, what is the matter with you?!" Mr. Knox shouted. "That was a priceless vase you just broke! You act as if you were blind or something!"
"That's because he is," Bert said. "Oops!"
"Nice going, Bert," Ralph said, sarcastically.
The silence was practically deafening. Cyril slapped his hand to his forehead, stood up, and started walking away.
"Well, Lady Baden Baden," he said. "Thank you for a lovely evening. Just send me the bill for the table cloth and the vase, and I'll take care of them."
Cyril walked to the door, and went outside. Cedric and Sophia raced after him.
"Pop, wait!" Cedric shouted.
"Leave me alone, Cedric!" Cyril shouted. "I can find my own way back home! I don't need any of you!"
Cyril stepped into the road. Both Cedric and Sophia grabbed him by the arms and held him back.
"Let go of me!" Cyril shouted. "I'm warning you!"
Before anything else could happen, a truck came down the road, and it would have hit Cyril if he had gone into the road. Cyril had heard it, and stopped cold.
"Pop, listen to me," Cedric said. "You can't walk all the way home by yourself. You'll get hurt!"
"Maybe you're right, Cedric," Cyril said. "If you two hadn't stopped me, I could have been killed."
And with that, Cyril let Cedric and Sophia lead him home. For the next couple of days, Cyril spent most of his time laying around doing nothing, except wallowing in self pity. Cedric and Sophia weren't sure what to make of this.
"Pop, you can't just sit around and do nothing all day," Cedric said. "You've got a business to run."
"How can I run a business without my sight?" Cyril asked.
"You were doing fine before."
"Forget it, Cedric, it's over."
Cyril got up, and began wandering around. Cedric sighed. He didn't like to see his father like this, but there wasn't all that much he could do about it.
That night, Cyril wandered past the nursery. He heard Sophia inside, reading to Forest.
"And so, Cinderella and the handsome prince were married," she read out of the book she was holding. "And they lived happily ever after. The end."
"Putting the baby to bed?" Cyril asked.
"Yeah, the usual night time ritual," Sophia said with a nod, even though she knew Cyril couldn't see it.
"Would you mind if I tried to put the baby to bed?"
"If you want to."
"Don't worry about me tripping over something. Just clear a path to the crib. I know the room like the back of my hand. I spend enough time in here, anyway."
Sophia handed the baby to Cyril, cleared some of the toys off the floor, and put them in the toy box.
"All set," she said.
Cyril then walked forward, one arm tightly holding Forest, while the other was outstretched so he could find the crib without bumping into it while holding the baby. Once he found it, he gently put Forest into it, and tucked him in.
"You have it easy, Forest," he said, feeling around for Forest's ears. He found one of them, and began rubbing it between his thumb and index finger.
"It doesn't matter to you that I can't see," he continued. "But it's a real pain in the neck."
Forest giggled. He didn't understand what his grandpa was telling him, but Cyril didn't really care. Forest reached up and grabbed Cyril's hand. He pulled on it a little, and then gave it a kiss. Cyril sort of smiled, and patted the baby on the head.
"Goodnight, Forest," he said.
Cyril reached up, and turned on Forest's mobile. Then he left the room, thinking to himself.
"What am I so down about anyway?" he said. "I managed to run my business while blind before everyone found out. I'm sure I can do it again!"