Chapter 4: Broken glass and dark shadows

It was Friday night and Evelyn was standing on an ancient looking step ladder screwing light bulbs into their fixings in Sands' house. Nino was holding the rusty ladder steady but Evelyn still didn't feel very safe. Sands was sitting in his favourite chair in the corner, he wasn't facing completely in their direction and he knew it but he was listening to them. Evelyn knew he was listening too; he seemed to prefer listening to talking. She guessed he had needed to listen a lot when he was in the CIA; maybe it just came naturally to him. She looked over at him; she couldn't really imagine him fighting the good fight. Had losing his eyesight changed him dramatically? She didn't know anything else about Sands' past, ever since talking to those two Mexicans she hadn't mentioned Sands to anyone and Sands had not told her anything more.

"Careful senorita," came Nino's voice. Evelyn had not been concentrating on what she was doing at all. She was jolted back to reality and realised she was leaning too far over; she gave a little cry as the ladder wobbled dangerously beneath her. The light bulb she was holding slipped from her hand and smashed as she began to fall. She screwed her eyes shut but never hit the floor. Instead she felt two strong arms catch her and she opened her eyes. Sands was holding her close to his chest, he had caught her. For a moment Evelyn was speechless, Nino did not have that problem.

"Oh senor!" he cried in amazement, "You saved her!" The rest of his words were in jubilant Spanish.

"Are you ok?" Sands asked quietly while Nino continued to celebrate.

"Yes," Evelyn said as she found her voice again. Sands gently set her on her feet, glass crunched as she put her weight down on the floor.

"Thank you," Evelyn breathed. Sands gave one of his rare quick smiles and stepped backwards so they weren't so close.

"You should be more careful," he said, a trace of laughter in his voice. Evelyn gave a shaky laugh. She looked around.

"I better clean this mess up," she said as she took in the remains of the fallen light bulb.

"I would help," said Sands shrugging as he returned to his chair. Evelyn went into the kitchen to locate a dustpan and brush. This left Nino and Sands alone.

"She was smiling senor," said Nino as he picked up the bigger pieces of glass and placed them carefully in the palm of his hand.

"What?" asked Sands abruptly. The boy sounded pleased with himself, Sands hated it when he got like that.

"You made senorita smile," Nino said suggestively just before Evelyn returned. She began to sweep up the mess.

"I'm so clumsy," she said, "I really am sorry, I just can't seem to do anything right." She felt something inside her fighting for release but held it at bay.

"That's not true," said Sands who was once again not facing her but facing the far wall instead, "You can cook."

"Ok," admitted Evelyn, "But that was only one meal on one night."

"You can't expect to be good at everything all the time," said Sands fairly.

"I'd like to be good at something though," said Evelyn as she straightened up, "Something no one can take away."

"Everything can be taken away," said Sands bitterly and Evelyn saw one of his gloved hands had balled itself into a fist. Evelyn almost asked him then, almost asked how he had become blind, she probably would have asked if Nino hadn't chosen that moment to interrupt.

"Do you want coffee senior?"

With all the glass safely cleared away Evelyn sat down. She sat on a chair near Sands who adjusted his sunglasses absently. Evelyn was watching him closely when he turned to her, with amazing accuracy considering he could not see her.

"What is it you want to find here Evelyn?" he asked, "Is it money? Security? Freedom?" Evelyn thought about this before answering.

"I don't know quite what I want," she replied, "I suppose I do want security, who doesn't? I want a place away from everything that has gone before."

"Want my advice?" asked Sands.

"Of course," said Evelyn.

"Don't ever look to other people to give you what you want, because if someone can give it to you then someone can take it away." Sands looked deadened for a moment.

"Do you trust anyone at all?" Evelyn asked.

"No," said Sands truthfully, "I learnt not to trust people...the hard way."

"You trust Nino," pointed out Evelyn.

"He is young," said Sands somewhat wearily, "He doesn't know any better than what I teach him. Besides, I need someone around, don't I?"

"You pay him don't you?" said Evelyn, "He told me."

"Of course I pay him," said Sands defensively, "He would never get as much money as I give him doing anything else."

"He seems very devoted to you," Evelyn said truthfully.

"It's the money that keeps him here," Sands said but Evelyn didn't believe him. She could see the affection in Nino's face and the understanding way he dealt with Sands. Evelyn was surprised to realise Sands' expression had darkened. His pale face fixed in an expression of hatred.

"No one takes advantage of me," he muttered, "No one." Evelyn kept quiet, he wasn't talking to her.

A silence fell between them so Evelyn looked around. Her eyes fell on a book on Sands' right. It looked far too advanced to be something Nino would attempt, she felt a pang of pity as she realised it must belong to Sands.

"What are you looking at?" Sands demanded. Wondering how he had known Evelyn answered, "Your book." Sands looked mildly surprised. He reached over and picked up the book with no trouble at all. He gave a short laugh.

"I was halfway through it," he said turning it over as one hand stroked the hardback cover, "I've been trying to teach Nino...but he's just a kid."

"I could read it to you," said Evelyn tentatively unsure how this suggestion would be received, "If you want me to."

"You'd do that?" Sands asked his eyebrows slightly raised.

"Of course I would," replied Evelyn, "It would be a pleasure, I love books."

Nino found them sitting together. Evelyn had a beautiful reading voice; it seemed to bring the words smoothly to life with no effort at all. She had her legs tucked up beneath her and with the light shining down on her she looked very pretty, her face shining with passion as she lost herself in the story. Sands was listening motionless, his head slightly to one side. Nino crept into the room on tiptoe so as not to disturb them and curled up on a chair to listen too. He didn't understand every fifth word but that didn't matter, it was nice just to let the story wash over him.

"That's the end of the chapter," said Evelyn half an hour later as she closed the book with a soft thump. Her mouth felt dry from all that reading aloud. Sands seemed to be savouring the moment so she got up and got herself a glass of water. When she returned Sands said, "You read very well." Her voice was softer than the one that haunted him, much softer.

"Thanks," said Evelyn and for some reason a warmth spread through her whole body and she felt unjustifiably proud of herself. She cast a look at her watch.

"I should probably leave," she said when she saw it was already quite late.

"Where's Nino?" Sands asked.

"He's fallen asleep on a chair," said Evelyn looking over at the sleeping boy.

"Which chair?"

"The green one."

"The green one?" repeated Sands dryly.

"The one by the kitchen doorway," Evelyn corrected quickly.

"Ah ok," said Sands, "I'll look after him."

"I can..."

"I can manage," said Sands shortly cutting Evelyn off.

"Ok," said Evelyn quickly, "Well, thank you for having me round."

"Pleasure," said Sands. He stood up and Evelyn felt awkward, how could she say goodbye without causing offence or being inappropriate? She decided to go for the hug, Sands was certainly surprised.

"See you soon," Evelyn said feeling her cheeks burning magnificently. Sands looked a little sour but decided to let her parting words slide.

"Good night," he said. He listened to her footsteps dying away and wished he could be walking her home. He wanted to know what she looked like, how she smiled, what her expression was like when she looked at him. He forced himself to think about something else but while he covered little Nino with a blanket all he could focus on was all the things he couldn't see. Stupid things came to his attention, things most people didn't care about, things like he didn't know what colour T-shirt Nino was wearing, he didn't know what his own furniture looked like or whether it was night or day. Then more important things surfaced like the fact he couldn't go out of the house safely without Nino, he couldn't cook or read or watch TV. In all respects his world had been in darkness for the last six months so why, now there was a ray of light on the horizon, did some shadows seem to be deepening?

Thank you once again to everyone who reviewed! I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.