Chapter 2

Zack POV

After lunch, I led everybody back to my room, where I pulled a bunch of scarves out of my bottom dresser drawer.

"What are the scarves for Zack?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah it's not even cold outside." Said Chuckie.

"Oh no no no no guys, these scarves aren't to wear around your necks, they're to wear over your eyes." I replied.

"Our eyes?" Chuckie asked nervously.

"Yep, our eyes, for the rest of the day, you're going to see what it's like, to be blind." I said, as I put everybody's blindfolds on.

"Wow, where did you learn to tie scarves?" Phil asked.

"I learned on some Miss Carroll video the last time I had to sit around at Angelica's house with Angelica and our babysitter Taffy." I replied.

"Zack it's dark under here." Chuckie screamed when I securely fasconed his blindfold.

"Of course it's dark Chuckie, that's the whole point. When you're blind, you can't see. The world is dark." I replied.

"But I'm ascared of the dark." Chuckie replied.

"Don't worry Chuckie, this is gonna be fun!" Exclaimed Tommy.

"Well, if you say so." Said Chuckie.

"So, what do we do first?" Tommy asked.

The first thing I showed them was the proper way to do sighted guide. If we were all going to stay together, it was the least I could do.

"Here's the proper way to do sighted guide. Tommy, stand slightly behind me, and put your left hand right up above my right elbow." I said, leading his hand to the correct place. I continued to do this with everybody else.

"Since I'm the only sighted person here, I'll be the leader, giving sighted guide to Tommy, who will sighted guide Lil, who will sighted guide Phil, who will sighted guide Kimi, and Chuckie will bring up the rear of the line." I continued, as we walked out of my bedroom and into the tiny backyard.

"But why aren't you blindfolded?" Kimi asked.

"The rule of the blindfold game is that one person has to be sighted, so they can help the other players out if necessary, or give tips. And since I'm the most experienced here with my aunt, I'm gonna be that person, giving you guys, the totally blind experience." I replied.

We went out into the backyard, where I lined everybody up against the fence.

"Ok guys, we're gonna have a race to see who gets from the fence to the backdoor of my apartment first." I said.

"But how are we gonna do this if we can't see?" Asked Chuckie.

"Remember when Miss Applebee told us about the five senses." I asked.

"Oh yeah, ears, eyes, nose, mouth and hands." Sang Lil.

"Right, very good Lil. Well, now that you don't have your eyes, you have to use your other senses. Use your ears, what do you hear? Use your hands and feet, what do you feel?" I asked.

A little while later, they all started to run while I waited up by the living room sliding glass door. I saw Phil and Lil fall in the mud.

"Wow Lil, being blind is fun!" Exclaimed Phil.

"Oooh the mud is all squooshy." Said Lil.

"Yeah, mud's even more fun when you're blind." Giggled Phil.

I continued to watch them play in the mud, when I saw Chuckie run into a tree and then tumble over into my sandbox. He coughed up some sand in his mouth.

"Outch, I don't think I like being blind, and sand doesn't taste very good." Said Chuckie, as he touched at a scrape on his nose, and brushed the sand out of his face.

I continued to watch as Tommy came closer. I noticed Tommy had taken his shoes off.

"Why did you take your shoes off Tommy?" I asked.

"I can feel the ground better with no shoes." Tommy replied.

Tommy then bumped into me.

"Um, I'm right here Tommy." I said.

"Oh, sorry Zack." Tommy replied, touching me on the shoulder.

A little while later, everyone else was up near the door.

"Well, the winner of this race is, Tommy!" I said excitedly.

"Wow Tommy, how did you do it?" Asked Lil.

"Slow and steddy wins the race, and, taking your shoes off helps." Said Tommy.

We all took our shoes off and kept them off the rest of the day. Back inside, I seated everyone around the table with empty bowls and a box of Reptar cerial.

"Ok guys, your next task, is to fix yourself a bowl of Reptar cerial blindfolded." I said.

I passed the box to each person. Tommy went first, and poured perfectly into the bowl. Kimi went second, and she only dropped a little bit of cerial on the table. Phil and Lil reached their hands in the box, grabbing large handfuls of cerial and dumping them into their bowls, and poor Chuckie dumped his cerial into his lap.

"Oops." Said Chuckie.

"Just use your hands Chuckie. Pick the cerial up from your lap and put it in the bowl." I said, guiding his hands to his lap.

Once everyone had their bowls full of cerial, I left the table and went over to the futon in the living room.

"Ok guys, I want you to carry your bowls of cerial into the living room. Just follow the sound of my voice." I said.

I continued to talk, guiding everyone towards me. Everybody walked slowly, being careful not to spill their cerial. Tommy almost dropped his, but grabbed it just in time. They all found me in the living room, and climbed on the futon, putting their bowls of cerial in their lap.

"Ok guys, good job. Now, have a seat on the futon, we're gonna watch a movie." I said, pulling the DVD of Reptar 2010 off of the shelf.

"But how are we gonna watch the movie if we're blind?" Kimi asked.

"I give you, Reptar 2010, with Descriptive Video." I said excitedly.

"Oh wow I remember that movie, but I don't remember the end of it. The tape broke at Tommy's." Said Chuckie.

"Uh, Chuckie, we made up our own endings. Remember?" Tommy said.

"Oh yeah." Replied Chuckie.

"Well guys, this one won't break, this one's on DVD. So now you can see what really happened. And, the descriptive voice will explain the sighted parts of the movie. Just listen and you'll see what I mean." I said as I put the DVD into the player and selected the descriptive track from the main menu. The movie started.

"50 thousand years ago, dinosaurs ruled the earth." Said the movie narrator.

"A large green dinosaur stomps through a deserted area surrounded by other dinosaurs." Said the descriptive video voice.

"Is it surprising that one of these horrific creatures should be hurtled, through the centuries, to a world he's never known, a world of our own people. This is his story." Continued the movie narrator.

"Words appear. Reptar, 2010." Said the descriptive video voice.

We watched the rest of the movie in descriptive. After it was over, I led the gang into the kitchen, where we played with the Braille magnets on the refridgerator.

"Guys, this is Braille. You feel the bumps, and each combination makes different letters. It's how blind people read." I said, guiding each of my friends fingers over the letters, as we recited the alphabet.

"If that's how its read, how do you write it?" Tommy asked.

"I'll show you." I answered, leading everybody to my aunt's Brailler.

I got out some paper and put it into the Brailler, and explained how it worked. Then, I guided each one in typing their name in Braille.

"Ok Kimi, here's how you would write your name. K, dots 1 3 together. I, dots 2 4 together. M, dot together, and another I, which is dots 2 4 together." I said, as Kimi pressed the buttons on the Brailler.

Then, I took Kimi's hand and showed her what her name felt like.

"Wow, that's neat!" Kimi exclaimed.

I did the same with everybody else, and they all seemed to like it! Even Chuckie found it to be neat.

Some of the other things we did that day was draw pictures by outlining them in wikki sticks and coloring them in with cented markers, and later, we were playing in my aunt's room, when I went over to the computer.

"Hey guys, check this out." I said, pressing alt control j on the keyboard.

"JAWS for Windows is ready." Said the synphosized voice from the computer.

"What's that?" Chuckie asked.

"That's the computer. It talks. Here, we can go write letters and read stuff online." I said.

"You mean the computer talks to you?" Phil asked.

"That's amazing!" Added Lil.

"I know, my aunty and I use it all of the time! It and her teaching me Braille, have allowed me to learn how to read and type while still only in preschool!" I said.

"Wow Zack, what other neat stuff can we do?" Tommy asked.

Just then, the house phone rang.

"4 0 5, 6 7 0, 9 3 2 6." Said a robotic man voice near the computer.

"What was that?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, that's a talking caller ID box. It tells my aunty what phone number is calling." I replied.

We overheard my aunt talking from the other room.

"Hi Didi. Oh yes, Tommy is having a lot of fun here today." Said Aunty Celeste from the other room.

"Hey, that's my mom's name." Said Tommy.

"Hmmm, my aunty must be on the phone with her." I said.

"So the ID box read off my phone number? Neat!" Said Tommy.

We got back on to the computer, everybody hitting random keys on the keyboard to hear what JAWS would say. A little while later, my aunty Celeste walked in.

"Um, Zachary, are you and your friends playing on the computer?" Asked Aunty Celeste.

"Yes." I replied.

"You know, you really should ask me if it's ok to play on the computer." Replied Aunty Celeste.

"Oh, sorry." I replied.

"That's ok. And, I've got some excellent news! I spoke with your parents, and because I'm the special helper tomorrow, which means I'll be bringing you to preschool anyway, you all can sleep over tonight. Your parents will be by with your toothbrushes, pajamas, and a change of clothes for tomorrow shortly." Said Aunty Celeste as she turned to leave the room.

We all jumped up and down excitedly.

"Wow being blind is even more fun than I thought." Said Kimi.

"Yeah, we never got to have sleep overs on school nights when we could see." Added Chuckie.

End of Zack POV

End of Chapter 2

So, what happens at the slumber party? We'll find out, in chapter 3.