Blindness Read Online Free PDF

direction. Jim
follows after, leaving Cody and me alone. Alone!
    I’m wrestling with my napkin in my lap,
wondering how I can join the others without being rude, how I can
get out from under whatever spell Cody seems to have over me, when
he kicks me under the table. I look up with surprise, and he’s
smiling—barely. “You didn’t know about me, did you?” he asks. I
shake my head no, ashamed, not that any of this is my fault. He
laughs under his breath and scoots his chair back from the table so
he can lean forward and prop his elbows on the edge and rub his
temples with his fingers.
    I’m mesmerized by the movements of his hands.
They’re so strong, rough, and nothing like Trevor’s—which are neat
and groomed. His thumb is wearing a thick, silver ring, and there
are small words tattooed on a few of the other fingers. I’m trying
to read them when I hear him take a deep breath; I instantly feel
my face burn. I’ve been caught. I shake my head, looking back at
the table.
    “Shelly’s my mom. She married Jim after my
dad died. Trevor’s my stepbrother. There, now you’re all caught
up,” he says, standing and throwing his napkin on the table. He
heads to the opposite hall, leaving his family in the kitchen.
    “If they ask, just tell them I went to the
garage…they won’t ask, though,” he says over his shoulder. Before
he rounds the corner, he pauses for a second and looks up, his eyes
catching mine one last time before he’s gone. They’re full of
something that seems far heavier than sadness, and I’m fighting
this foreign instinct to run to him, care for him, and find out
what he’s hiding.
    I sit there for minutes trying to sort out
everything and wishing like hell I had another place to live. When
I realize no one is coming back to join me, I pick up my glass and
walk into the kitchen. Trevor is sitting atop the counter and
smiling, and Jim and Shelly are both doing the same. It’s like a Twilight Zone , as if the dinner I just endured had never
happened. As soon as they see me enter, everyone gets quiet and Jim
and Shelly leave the room. Trevor starts putting dishes into the
washer, so I pick a few up and carry them over to him.
    For a few minutes, I think I may be okay with
pretending—maybe I can just unravel this mystery on my own, but it
doesn’t take long for my gut to tell me I can’t, and I slam a plate
down next to Trevor. “Okay, what the hell is going on,” I
say, leaning away from him so he can’t distract me. He just sighs,
shuts the water off, and leans on the opposite counter.
    He twists his bottom lip at first, thinking.
“Cody and I…well, we don’t really get along. We’re different,” he stops, I think hoping that I’ll find that to
be enough of an explanation, but I urge him on. He rolls his eyes a
little and swings his feet as he lifts himself to sit back on the
counter.
    “Okay, here’s the short version. Shelly’s my
stepmom. My real mom died when I was really little, so don’t feel
bad. I don’t remember her. I mean, at all. My dad married
Shelly about five years ago. Her husband died, and she was working
at my dad’s firm. She had a son, Cody. He thinks I’m an asshole.
And, well, he’s real a prick to my dad—sorry, don’t mean to be
crass. But he is,” Trevor stops after that, and waits. I try to fit
all of the pieces in with everything I already know. “I’m sorry I
didn’t tell you. I guess, I just waited so long to introduce you to
Cody, and like I said, he’s not really around much.”
    He just stops there, and I feel like I’m
waiting on a ledge. His face is conflicted as he stares at me, his
hands looped in his pockets now, and his shoulders tense. I can
tell there’s more, probably a lot more, buried deep. I’m
willing to wait it out, so I match his silence and hold his eyes,
nodding forward, and raising my brows slightly to push him.
    Trevor takes in another deep breath, and goes
back to work on the dishes, I think so he can avoid