Page 65 of Leather and Longing
“What you pay me for? Laundry, in this instance.”
Adam sighed. “Can it wait? At least until I get downstairs? I need to figure out how to use the damn washing machine.”
“Who washed your clothes before I came on the scene?”
Adam flushed. “Caroline. Just the once, mind you. Don’t forget, I haven’t been here all that long.” He straightened. “I’ve been thinking about how much you do around the house. If you’re going to be my PA, then it stands to reason you’ll have enough to occupy you without adding household chores to it. And I think it’s about time I did more around the place.”
Paul smiled.I am so proud of you right now.
“I’ve been thinking too, about the PA part. We’ll talk more later.” He chuckled. “And we’ll save laundry lessons for another day. I have something much more important to discuss.”
Adam stared at him. “That’s it? That’s all I get? I may well die from the suspense.”
Paul chuckled. “I think you’ll survive.” Then he left the room.
By the time Adam surfaced, Paul had the washing machine going, the kitchen shining, and the library dusted.
Adam paused in the kitchen doorway. “My, you’ve been industrious this morning.”
Paul stopped and stared. “How do you know?” It took him a moment to realize what was different.
Adam wasn’t wearing his glasses.
He chuckled. “I can smell lavender furniture polish in the library, the washing machine just entered its spin cycle and in here it smells of disinfectant.” He folded his arms across his chest and grinned. “How did I do?”
“You get a pat on the head for being observant.” Paul was definitely feeling bolder. “And I need to talk to you.”
Adam grimaced. “Not on one mug of coffee, you don’t.”
Paul laughed and went to pour out another. By the time he turned around, Adam was seated at the table. He joined him and sat opposite.
“What was the important thing we need to discuss?”
Paul leaned back. “It’s something you’ve mentioned a couple of times, but I wanted to know more. You said you went to Torquay. Why there?”
Adam took a long drink from his mug before answering. “When I left the hospital, the therapists there arranged for me to stay at a rehab centre for the blind in order to acclimatize myself to my future. I stayed at the manor house for a month, and spent the time working one-to-one with a tutor. The aim was to give vision-impaired people the skills and confidence they needed tocope independently at home. They got us to master finding our way around a kitchen…”
Paul thought quickly. “I don’t understand. If that was the case, then why?—”
“Why am I so hopeless?” Adam interjected. “Because back then I didn’t want to know.” He sighed. “A lot of it has to do with my mind-set at the time. It was too soon after losing my sight completely. I’d retreated into a very dark place inside myself and the last thing I felt like doing was trying to learn a whole new set of skills.” He shook his head. “I was a terrible student. I didn’t want to listen.”
“You didn’t get a lot out of the experience, then.”
Adam’s face fell. “No. The most useful part of it all was finding this.” He tapped his watch with a finger. “At least I could see how quickly time was passing.” He snorted.
“Did they teach you braille?”
Adam shook his head. “Even if I’d had enough focus to pay a little attention, that wouldn’t have been enough to do something as complex as learning braille in only one month. Not that any support worker would ever consider teaching someone braille during that crucial time. Their time was limited, teaching newly blind people how to safely navigate around their home without hurting themselves, using their phone to call for help, using the bathroom, doing basic food prep… That’s assuming the support workers could even read braille properly in the first place.”
“I had no idea it took so long to learn,” Paul admitted. “So what happened after you left the rehab place?”
Adam snorted. “My friends decided to give me a wider berth, as if they didn’t want to be associated with disability.”
“Did youwantthem to see you?” Paul asked, lowering his voice.
Adam hesitated before responding. “That’s actually a fair point. I wasn’t the same person after I’d lost my sight.”
“In what way?” Paul wanted to know more.
