THE JACOBS

Cindy Jacobs was standing beside the cooking gas in the kitchen of their apartment in Abingdon Street. She is in her mid-twenties, with blonde hair and eyes ever sparkling that you could hardly figure the disaster that befell it in recent times. A white cane is leaning on one of the kitchen cabinets, waiting on Cindy like a servant waiting patiently on his master. There was a dark, oval-shaped sunglasses sitting close to her. She hardly wore it around the house but had forgotten to take it off when she returned from the grocery store earlier with her brother. She was humming a song as she prepared noddles for dinner.

She knew she had to be fast before Jerry, her younger brother come crying of hunger. Jerry never liked it whenever she needs to hurry up with cooking, yet busy singing. But she does that on purpose, that is her own way of easing being unnecessary tensed in such situation.

She miscalculated and spilled the water she was trying to place on the cooker.

"Gosh!" she exclaimed. The anger she was feeling was not only because she messed up the kitchen floor and had to undergo the stress of tidying it up, but also that she had to start the process all over again.

With a long, loud and frustrated sigh, she made her way through the room and fetched another water in the pot. She carefully searched out the burner this time around and lit it.

"Thank God!" she exclaimed in relief and gently placed the pot in it. She carefully searched out the mop and started cleaning the water she spilled on the floor, humming still as she does.

True to her guess, Jerry, her cotton-headed, smart and blue eyed brother walked into the kitchen shortly. He is in his late teen, though he looked a little smaller in size than his age. He loves food, and can hardly skip a meal without breaking down physically. So used to food was he that Cindy knew better than making him to miss any.

As he walked into the kitchen, he was looking pale as though he had never eaten for days, normal with his look anytime he is seriously hungry. Cindy was breaking the noddles into the pot when he came. The moment he noticed that Cindy was nowhere close to finishing with the cooking, he hissed and turned to go out of the kitchen.

"Jerry!" Cindy called out to him.

He stopped at the door without saying a word. She waited for him to answer but he was quiet.

The silence grew colder as Cindy waited for him to respond to her call.

"Jerry I know you are there!" she tried to get him talking but he just turned to look at her, then walked out of the kitchen.

"Jerry!" she called one more time when she heard his footsteps walking away. She was heartbroken.

Few minutes later, the sitting room was almost quiet, except for the low voice of a reporter that was talking on the television. The sound of a stick tapping from a distance can be heard as Cindy made her way from the kitchen to the dining. She appeared out of the kitchen, holding a plate of noddles in one hand and her white cane in another hand.

Her face was glowing with a radiant smile, happy that she was finally done with the dinner. Though she was incapacitated in several ways, she loved to do all she can to always meet Jerry's needs.

"Jerry!" she called out. "Your noddle is finally ready, garnished with eggs and fresh fish like you requested."

She carefully searched out the table with her white cane and set the food on it. She became silent for a while as she could not feel her brother's presence.

"Jerry!" she called him again in a low voice, thinking he was waiting for her at the dining. She waited for him to respond but got nothing, the whole place grew quieter, so quiet that she wondered if something bad was about to happen.

She picked her white cane and searched carefully for Jerry, hitting on every chair from the one closet to her to the furthest. Alas! Jerry was not there!

She sighed heavily and sunk into one of the chair.

"He had gotten tired of waiting for her and had gone out to see his friends," she whispered regrettably to herself.

She felt useless. She could not even help her only brother that had no one to look up to but her. She was at first tempted to blame herself for not being a fast cook but refuted the thought because it was not truly her fault that she suddenly became a slow cook.

If only she still had her two eyes, she wouldn't be that slow in making common noddle for her kid brother. But now things have become what she had no control over. Fate was to blame for her ordeal, not her. She wished her brother would understand that with her.

Ever since their parents passed away in a ghastly car accident that also made her blind, he is all she got, apart from Chloe, her childhood friend in their former neighbourhood at Peter's street. She wished she could confidently go in search of him. But after she recovered and returned from the hospital, they had to change location to avoid being constantly reminded about their parents. She had not gotten used to this neighbourhood as she did that of their former apartment in Peter's Street. She had gone out on her own few days before and ended up missing her way home. The trauma she went through that day was still fresh in her memory and she knew better than to pull another stunt. She had to wait for him to come even though she knew that was not the best choice.

Cindy loved her brother so much. The love more than doubled when they lost their parents. As she sat there hoping Jerry would come back home and eat his food before he break down again, she reflected over how they were forced by fate into the condition they found themselves.

It was on Cindy's twenty third birthday. She, her mum, her dad and Jerry were all in the car returning from Crosby Beach in the night. They were all highly elated, having not spent such time together in a long while due to the demanding nature of Mr. Jacobs' new job at the time. Jerry and Cindy watched in amazement as their parents thrilled them with dance steps as though they were kids. It was more of a family get-together than a birthday party to Cindy. She had hoped three years ago to celebrate her twentieth birthday. But her dad was far away and there was no way she could have done it without him. So painfully, they did nothing until her dad showed up on the eve of the twenty third birthday and announced a surprising trip to Crosby Beach, Merseyside. Nonetheless, she was over joyed by her parents' show of love.

They were all singing to a popular song that they all got used to because of Mr. Jacobs' love for it when all of a sudden, a drunk driver missed his way and ran into their car. Both cars summersaulted severally before stopping.

When Cindy woke up from coma in the hospital, it was several months already since the accident happened. She could not remember all that happened. All she could remember was that she had her eyes closed as they were all in the car singing cheerfully when she heard a big-bang sound on their car. Her eyes had been closed since then.

Jerry was sitting at the bedside of Cindy. He puts his head on the bed as he sleeps. Not knowing what had happened to her eyes, she opened it and discovered that she could not see. Everywhere was dark, completely dark that she became afraid where they had kept her.

The doctor was standing by her hospital bedside checking to see how she was responding to treatment. No one was aware that she had come out of coma. She made to stand up but the doctor held her still.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Take it easy" the doctor pleaded.

She felt the hand and looked up to see who was holding her but could see no one, not even his figure. From the sound of his voice, she knew it was a male voice, an adult that was speaking with her. She knew it was not her dad but could not figure out who he was, neither could she figure out where she was.

"Where am I?" she asked curiously.

Jerry woke up at the sound of her voice and lifted up her head from the bed. He was excited when he saw her sister awake.

"Cindy!" Jerry shouted, full of joy. "You are finally awake!" he hugged her, putting his head across her body on the bed and threw his arms around her shoulder.

"Jerry!" she tried to see him but could not. She searched for his face briefly and grabbed it with both hands.

"Where are we Jerry? Why is the room so dark?" she quizzed.

Jerry, not understanding why she think the room was dark, looked up at the doctor for explanation but the doctor kept mute.

"Where is mom and dad? Are they also here?" she asked further.

It took several days before she was told what had happened. Only the drunk driver and Jerry were left unaffected by the accident in any way. She had lost her parents and the complete use of her both eyes in one single night.

The door to their sitting room opened suddenly and snapped her out of her thought.

"Who is there?" Cindy asked fully afraid. Jerry, in his jovial manner refused to speak. She became alarmed that it might be an intruder so she picked her white cane.

"Hello!" she spoke as she got up, ready to shout if the person remained silent.

"It's me, Jerry!"

She relaxed her cane.

"Is the noddle ready yet?"

"Yeah!" Cindy replied, holding out her hand for him to take. He walked up to her and took her hand.

"But where have you been? You almost got me worried to death," Cindy said as she squeezed his hand jokingly to remind him that he had broken the rule of not going out without telling her where he was going.

"Ouch!" Jerry shouted as the grip of Cindy on her hand sent pain all through his body.

"I was only gone for a minute to get some air," he protested. She laughed at how childish he was trying to defend himself.

"That's alright little' man," Cindy said still laughing at him. "Let's hurry up, the food is getting cold already."

Jerry led her to the dining. They sat down on opposite sides. He started eating hurriedly. After taking few spoons, he noticed she was not eating. With the spoon halfway to his mouth, he held it still and looked searchingly at Cindy. He withdrew the spoon from his mouth.

"And why are you not eating?" Jerry asked.

Cindy smiled and search for his hand on the table. He helped her to locate the hand quickly.

"I just want to watch you eat! So go on," she spoke with a broad smile on her lips. Jerry could not hold himself back as he burst out into hysteric laugher.

Cindy was surprised that he was laughing. She was being real in what she just said to him.

"What is funny young man?"

Jerry controlled his laugher. And took a quick sip from the water on the table. He cleared his throat.

"You said you want to watch me as though you can now see me," he said jokingly.

That did not go well with Cindy and Jerry knew that very well. Her countenance changed immediately.

"Oops!" he exclaimed. "I guess I shouldn't have said that."