“…Eyeballs…” Book II: 18. The Zipper Creep
Hey! You Got Eyeballs In There?
By Kate Chamberlin
As Grace grows up, some of her stories are happy, some trying, some enlightening, and a few themes are sad, but, they’re all the warp and woof of what goes into the tapestry of life we call Family. The daily living skills and techniques demonstrated by the fictional characters in these stories are valid, tried and true.
Book II: The Teenagers
#10. Bad News
#11. Grace’s Day One
#12 Knight With Shining Flatware
#13. The Locker Fiasco
#14. Lost In Thought
#15. The Musician
#16. Day Two And Beyond
#17. First Date
#18. The Zipper Creep
Grace was nervous about being in large groups. It was so hard to know when someone was talking to her if they didn’t say her name and then their own name. At the bonfire, word spread that there was going to be a party at Heather’s house after the bonfire. Grace knew it would be noisy and there might be drugs. The other three really wanted to go, so Grace felt she couldn’t say no.
As they got closer to Heather’s house, there were cars all over the place.
“Aw, Man. We’re going to have to walk two blocks just to get to the freaking party!” Joe moaned.
Even from that distance, they could hear the music. As they came closer there were bursts of loud, raucous laughter. Grace tried to calm the uneasy feeling that was growing in the pit of her stomach. As they walked into the house, they were immediately sucked up by the crowd. People were shoulder to shoulder, butt to belly, with only smoky air to breathe. Ken and Grace became separated from Edie and Joe although Grace couldn’t tell who was where anyway. She was glad Ken had a strong hold on her hand.
She could barely hear Ken when he yelled into her ear, “Here’s a chair. I’ll try to find us a soda and be right back. Okay?”
She nodded her agreement and sat down. She checked her talking watch for the time, but could not hear the tiny voice. She thought ruefully how loud it sounded in church when she’d accidently bumped the time button.
“Hi, Grace,” a nameless voice hollered and passed on before she got out her, “hello.” As people passed by her, she detected a sweet smell. She’d heard that marijuana has a sweet smell and wondered if this was the real thing. She reached out her hand to try to figure out what was near her. To the left she felt a wall with flocked paper on it. Her chair had a caned back and seat with curved wooden arms and straight legs.
From the arm of her chair, she gently reached to the right. Her fingers felt denim. It was just a quick touch but she recognized the feel of fabric over a zipper. With her face flushed and turning redder, she stammered, “Oh, excuse me.”
A stranger’s thick, deep voice mumbled, “That’s Okay, Honey, I’ll give you a half-hour to stop!”
Grace rushed up out of her chair and felt a cold liquid slosh on her head.
“Grace, for crying out loud. Where are you going in such a rush?” Ken asked trying to keep hold of the red Solo cup of Coke she had just smashed into.
“Oh, gosh. What a mess. Do you see a napkin or something?” She yelled at him to be sure he heard her above the noise.
“I’ll go get something. I found the kitchen on my way to the drinks,” he hollered back.
Grace didn’t know what else to do but to sit back down in the chair and hope the zipper creep had moved on. She sipped her Coke but found that it made her queasy. She bit her lip to calm her stomach. She checked her watch again but, of course, it did not speak any louder than the first time she tried it. Her cold, sweating hands stuck on the wood arms of the chair as her fingers rubbed up and down on them. How long had Ken been gone she wondered.
To take her mind off her rising frustration and panic, she tried to eavesdrop on the conversations that were around her. The smoke was making her feel sick.
She thought she heard a boy say, “Ken’s pretty lucky. He can leave this one out here and make it with Heather, too.”
“Yeah,” came a reply. “Heather really knows what she’s doing. What a piece of…” but, the rest of his comment was lost as another conversation burst into loud laughter.
Grace needed to get to a bathroom quickly. She had no idea where the bathroom would be. She didn’t even know where the door was to get out of the house. She stood up and took a step. She felt someone’s foot pull out from under hers just as she put her full weight on it.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Could you tell me where the bathroom is?” she said as she steadied herself.
“Why sure, Gorgeous, it’s upstairs on the right. I’ll go with you.”
At first she thought he recognized that she was blind and he was being helpful but the way he draped himself on her and sloshed his drink on her, she changed her mind. With a quick “no thanks.” she twisted out of his grip. The twisting motion disoriented her. She had no idea which direction to go to get to the door. Her panic was heightened as she bumped from person to person. Her shoulder hit something hard and her hip slammed into something even harder; a doorknob.
As she turned the knob, she prayed that this was the door out and not a closet. Grace tried to remember if they had walked up three steps, across a small patio, and then two steps up to the door or was it two steps up to the patio and three steps up to the door? Her breathing was shallow and irregular with her heart thudding in her breast, she opened the door. The cool air hit her face. She felt for the step with her foot. Once she let go of the door, she’d be in limbo with no solid landmarks. Her foot found one step. Then she found the next step. Was there two or three? Her mind was a blur, her hands were sweaty and cold, and she thought she would surely throw up. Her foot didn’t find another step. That meant the three steps were going to be from the patio to the sidewalk. She tried to think. Did we turn left after coming up the three steps or did we go straight? She turned right – right into a wall. She turned back and felt with her foot for whatever was there. The little voice in her head said, “Never ever go anywhere without Crackers or at least your long, white cane.” Her Mother’s words about new opportunities also popped into her head.
Her foot went down and she felt herself fall forward. Her knee hit the edge of the sidewalk and her hands smacked down on the hard packed grass.
Rough hands helped her to her feet. “Whoa, too much to drink, little lady?”
Her mind raced as his hands began to brush the dust off her and pull her in for a hug and more. She felt the saliva begin to well up in her mouth, her palms began to sweat again, and there was that awful taste in her mouth as all the contents of her nervous stomach shot up and out all over the man who was helping her.
“Get your hands off of her, fella!” yelled Ken, dropping the case of sodas Heather had asked him to get from her van. “Grace, are you okay? Why did you leave the party? I told you I’d be right back.”
“I’d like to go home. I’m not feeling well,” was all Grace could say.
The walk back to the car seemed longer than two blocks. No one spoke. No one knew what to say. Grace was confused. She wanted to believe Ken but everyone knows how easy it is to fool a blind person. So much depends on trust. Could she trust Ken again? Maybe it just wasn’t worth the emotional investment.
kathryngc1@verizon.net