5.
~ Daniel woke up in a strange place. The mattress was thin and lumpy. The sheets were scratchy and the air here smelled like kitty litter and rotten take away meals that had been left out.
He couldn't hear traffic. He always heard traffic and it was reassuring to him. With traffic noises, he knew where the streets were. He knew when to stop when the sounds of noisy cars got too close. He knew what direction to walk by the sounds they made coming and going. Right now, he couldn't hear cars over the noise of a Bugs Bunny cartoon blaring.
Daniel didn't like TV. Not the way Dominic and Darcy did. It was just noise to him. The action wasn't narrated and it was a lot of pointless sound effects that meant nothing.
"Hello?" he called out as his feet hit the cold ground and he realized his shoes had been taken off.
'Why would they take my shoes?' he wondered. He reached out a hand and felt a wall. His voice didn't echo here, which meant the room was small. The floor was linoleum, and he could feel sunlight streaming through a window.
'A window. Maybe I can get out that way.' he thought as he backed up and let the sunlight hit him.
The man from the theater had picked him up and put him in the back of a car. He was told to be quite or else they would kill his mommy and daddy.
Daniel didn't say a word as they drove for a long time. He didn't know if they were still in the city or not now.
He was carried again to this apartment and they gave him something to drink. After that, he didn't remember much until now. Hid small body becoming too tired to stay awake.
He didn't want to listen to Bugs and Daffy fighting anymore. He liked the music, and Dominic had tried to narrate it all for him, but it moved too fast for him.
He found the annoying TV, his fingers fumbling for the buttons below, and he snapped it off.
"Don't like cartoons?" came a voice behind him.
It was a woman's voice. In his mind, all women were mother's or friends of mothers. She would help him.
"Please, I got lost. I need to call my parents. Can I use a phone?" he asked.
One of the things he learned in school was how to use a phone. How to memorize your home phone number and how to dial it.
"Sure." the voice said and handed him a smooth device with no keypad.
"Is this... a smart phone?" he asked feeling the urge to cry. "I... I need something with a key pad, please."
"I'll dial it for you." the woman's voice said as she suppressed laughter.
He sensed she was making fun of him and tried not to start crying. Crying was what babies did and he wasn't a baby anymore. Papa never cried and he wanted to be like papa.
He told the lady his number and trusted this stranger to dial it for him.
She handed him the smart phone back and he listened to the ringing on speaker. It rang and rang and no one answered.
"Maybe their not home." the woman's voice teased.
Daniel could tell by her speech and they way her voice had clipped, fast words, she was a teenager. She even sounded mean like teenage girls always were.
"Please, I want to go home." he moaned. He didn't like this place. It smelled like too many cats lived here and old fast food.
"I don't think you're parents are home, kid." The teenage girl teased. "You hungry? I'm supposed to feed you."
"I'm not hungry, I just want to go home." Daniel said.
"I can't let you go on the streets." she laughed. "A blind kid? You would get hit by a car!"
"I'll be fine." Daniel said as he didn't like this girl. Didn't like this apartment.
"My boyfriend is bringing up something for you to eat, then I want you to watch-" she caught herself. "Well, listen to the TV."
Daniel felt a pit in his stomach that had nothing to do with hunger. He couldn't leave here. He was trapped.
"What is it you do all day anyway?" the girl asked. "I mean, you can't really watch TV or movies. Can't play video games or go online. What? Do you sleep all day? Cuz that's really all you can do."
Daniel was incensed. He did a lot of things. He watched documentaries about Egypt with papa all the time. He like Egypt and his papa would bring him replicas of pyramids and once they even went to a museum where he was allowed to touch things.
He played plenty of games at home with his brother. Thats what brothers were for. He didn't play video games like the ones mommy worked on, but his brother would always play trucks with him and hide and seek. Darcy was always teaching him to dance and grandpa was teaching him to play piano. Already he could play some songs and grandpa said that he was better than he was at the same age. And grandpa was a famous composer!
He did a lot of things besides sleep!
He decided not to answer. He didn't want to tell the girl that new TV's came with a visually impaired option that would narrate the story to fit the dialogue so that he could follow the show. He didn't explain his school had special computers that allowed the students to go online all the time.
This girl was stupid and didn't understand things. She was mean, and that's why she made fun of him.
When she realized he wasn't going to answer her, she walked away. Daniel could hear her jewelry clacking together as she moved. Hear her going to another room. But most importantly, he could hear traffic out the window now.
The TV must have muffled the sound. Even now, Daniel could hear another TV in other room blaring away with some reality show. These people couldn't seem to stand it if there wasn't a TV on, he learned.
He ran his hands over the window. Feeling if it was old or not. If it was new, he was in trouble because it might not open easily. But it it were old, and made of wood, it might slide open.
He smiled as his fingers felt worn, splintery wood. He forced the window open a crack and heard traffic and birds. That was a bad thing. Birds meant he was up high. He wasn't on the ground floor and the traffic noises were far below him.
He tried to force open the window a little more and feel for a fire escape. The teenage witch was still watching TV, and he didn't hear her jewelry move, so he knew he was alone.
He reached out and didn't feel anything.
The child jumped when he heard a door slam and man's voice telling the girl to shut the TV off.
Daniel was quick to shut the window and find his bed again. He even laid down for good measure.
'Yeah, all I do is sleep.' he thought with a giddy sense of rebellion.
~ The girl's boyfriend was even stupider that she was.
"He can feed himself?" he asked as he handed the little boy a box of fried fish and chips.
"I guess so." the girl said.
"Hey, kid. I got you a soda. It's on the table right beside you." the boyfriend said.
Daniel reached out on his side looking for the table.
"No, your other side." the boyfriend said as the girl laughed.
"I'm not allowed soda." Daniel informed him.
That wasn't true. There was no soda in the house, but papa bought them it as a treat when he took them to the petting zoo or when they were home alone. Mommy could never find out about it, which made it more fun.
"No soda?" the boyfriend laughed. "What do you drink?"
Daniel found the soda and ran his hands over the lid, looking for the straw.
"Shit, that kid really is blind." the girl said.
"Shut up." the boyfriend told her. "Don't listen to her, kid."
"It's okay. I know I'm blind." Daniel told him as he safely put the sugary drink back on the table and opened the box of salty fish and chips.
"Well, she still shouldn't have said it, kid. I'm sorry." the boyfriend said.
"When can I go home?" Daniel asked.
"In a few days." the boyfriend promised.
"My mommy is going to be really worried. I should call her. Or, you can just put me on a bus. I'll ask the driver to take me there. The blind get free bus rides you know." Daniel said.
"Sorry kid. You just have to stay here a little while. But you have to behave yourself. I don't want to have to lock you in a closet." the boyfriend said.
Daniel said nothing as he ate. He normally was never allowed fast food. Mommy cooked almost every dinner and they always ate healthy.
"Beside, a blind kid isn't exactly going to escape, are you?" the boyfriend laughed.