(500 words)
As a man who’d been almost stone-deaf since birth, meeting women was something out of Christian Brown’s comfort zone. They may have smiled, but from their eyes, and replies, he knew he was less than intelligible.
Now he was shown to a seat in the Koh-I-Noor restaurant. He took a deep breath and looked around at the mainly empty seats, then at his watch. 7.55 p.m. His councillor and psychologist, Susan, had arranged a blind date for him with a lady called Stephanie. She’d told him nothing about her, just that she was attractive, divorced and in her early forties.
But he trusted Susan. Over the past three years, she’d helped him gain social skills and a measure of confidence. Looking in the mirror, he recognised his good looks, despite the hearing aids behind both ears.
A woman with a white stick and sunglasses passed his table, aided by a waiter. “Are you Christian?” he inquired.
Hearing the dull thudding of his own voice, Christian responded that he was Church of England. He must have been intelligible after all, as he saw the woman stifle a laugh. The waiter struggled with both Christian’s pronunciation and the joke, reiterating the question.
Christian read the lips of the woman, presumably Stephanie, as she stood at the table. “Are you Christian Brown? May I join you?” From the way she felt the table and edged around it, he realised she was blind.
Stephanie had likewise been told very little about Christian, and now sat, trying to understand his strange manner of speaking. Susan had said he had a good heart, and that was what she now needed most in a man. She asked Christian if he could lip read and heard a noise that sounded like ‘yes.’
Christian admired her long chestnut hair and judged from the parting that it was her natural colour. She had high cheekbones and perfect teeth. He felt a strong attraction building and told himself to relax, to let her feel at home with him. To his surprise, a waiter brought her a beige plastic-coated card, covered in small bumps.
Stephanie skimmed it with her fingertips. “May I have Chicken Vindaloo and Tarka Dahl, please?” She smiled in Christian’s direction, “I like things spicy!”
Christian read her lips and felt his face flush, then, with relief, realised it didn’t matter.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned. It was Susan, all smiles at seeing the two of them together. She gestured in sign language to him, whilst speaking it out loud for Stephanie’s benefit. “Hello, Christian, are you all right?”
Stephanie felt a kiss on her cheek and Susan’s hand on hers, and a whisper in her ear.
“Are you OK with Christian?”
They both smiled at Susan, one seeing, one unseeing, one hearing, one unhearing, realising that this wise and compassionate woman was trying her best to bring much-needed romance into both of their lives. Neither felt inclined to object.
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Featured in the book, Flash Friction: To Cut a Short Story Short, vol. III: 72 Little Stories
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This short story shows an incredible lack of understanding of either the Deaf community or blindness. It just uses the “disability factor” as a trite sympathetic pull on the heartstrings. Being a good writer means when you choose to use a trope that encompasses an entire group of people, you must be willing to research them. From reading your story, I don’t think you did.
I won’t read any intent into this story but it reeks of condescension and infantilization. I know personally Deaf people who work for Fortune 500 companies, who have Ph.Ds, who are CEOs, are internationally known artists, and are film makers. Although I will admit the movies are terrible, but bad filmmaking is universal.
Deaf people don’t even consider themselves disabled…
I’m sure the rest of your writing is fine, I haven’t seen it. I’m not here to criticize your ability to write.
Hi, thanks for your comment and I’m sorry if you didn’t enjoy the story. It was based closely on real people I know and was intended to be sympathetic, as well as light-hearted.
Hi Simon.
Thanks for your reply. Your politeness puts me to shame.
I wrote the above comment without having any coffee and was more sharp-tongued than usual.
No worries, I will think over your points in any case. And enjoy your coffee! 🙂
I’m not a fan of romance, but this warmed me up so much. In a way, it was so ordinary, but so different in the other. It’s not often that one sees stories about the love life of persons with disabilities. Kudos to you for writing this.
In fact, I even shared it with a friend of mine, and she loved it too.
What better complement than to have one’s story shared! Thank you 😊
Thank you, Anisha. The assignment was to write about a romantic date. I thought the disability angle would give it a different twist. “What if …?” The characters were all based on real people I know. I’m pleased you liked it!