Zac jerked upright in bed, an alarmed look on crossed over his face. His mouth was positioned to speak but no sounds were coming out.
Finally, as if a damn broke, the words spilled from his lips. "I can't see! I can't see!" His voice became frantic. "I can't see! It's black! What happened? I can't see anything! Help me, why can't I see anything?"
Panicking, his hands waved in the air around the bed looking for answers, before he became hysterical. "Help! Help! I can't see anything! I'm blind! Oh my God! Oh God, I'm blind! Help me! Someone help me!"
"Zac? Zac!" Taylor screamed loudly, trying to shake his brother awake.
Isaac was beside him as well. Trying to hold down his flailing arms that kept striking him, Taylor, and himself.
Grabbing tightly onto the arms that were restricting him, Zac kept looking around the room frantically.
Then light exploded in the dark room and he blinked rapidly to become accustomed to it. He craned his neck, and turned his head towards the doorway.
"All you alright? Zac, are you okay?" His mother's worried voice asked quickly.
He gave a weak and strained smile, but nodded his head slowly. "Yeah." He said shakily. "I just had another nightmare, that's all." Was his explanation while he ran his hand subconsciously through his sweat-dampened hair.
It took a few minutes for his mother to be assured that he was okay, but both her and his father went back to their room, and Zac tried to settle back down in his bed. His eyes burned from the sudden harsh brightness of their room light, but he grabbed for his eye drops to calm the irritability of them.
Sighing gratefully, he felt the cool liquid soothe his burning eyes almost instantly. The pain dulling before going away. Closing his eyes gently, not wanting to feel the stabbing pain again, he shifted until he got comfortable.
Then the silence was shattered once again.
"You've had your sight back for a week now, Zac." Taylor said softly. "Are you going to be able to handle this?"
Groaning inwardly, Zac struggled with his sheets to turn and face his brother's bed. "Sometimes I forget that I was once blind. Sometimes I forget that I can see. Sometimes I have trouble remembering which I am."
He sighed loudly in frustration. "You don't know what it's like." He said groaning from the internal pain of it all. "I was thrown from light to dark, back to light. I don't know how I'm supposed to handle this."
Isaac closed his eyes listening to his younger brother talk. "You're handling it, Zac." He said softly. "That's all that matters. At least you aren't giving up."
Zac shook his head. "I could never give up." He admitted fiercely. "Never."
Waking up, Zac had trouble focusing on the ceiling above him. His back ached from sleeping on it, so he carefully rolled onto his side, and moaned when a pain shocked through the center of his back.
He slammed his hand down on the loud beeping clock next to his head on the floor. "I hate that stupid thing." He mumbled while he tried to stand without falling over.
Steadying his hand and balance on the wooden bunk beds his brother's shared, he clumsily went towards their dresser and shifted through the drawers looking for fresh clean clothes that were his.
Grabbing the selected clothes of his choice, he waited in the hallway while someone occupied the bathroom. After his five-minute wait, the door swung open and Mackie walked out with his hair spiked with some of sister's hair gel.
Zac chuckled lightly; "Did Jessie say that you could use her hair stuff, Mack?" He asked curiously.
Mackie grinned at him and nodded quickly. "She said I could."
Smiling, Zac patted him on the head, only to get a handful of the grease, while Mackie complained and he grimaced at the stickiness. "Mom'll fix it for you." He told his younger brother while walking into the bathroom.
"Before this ends, Zac, I wanted to know how you are doing today?"
Zac shook his head and shrugged. "I'm doing okay so far, Misses. McPherson. My parents say that this is my last visit with you."
The middle-aged woman smiled and nodded. "It is. We all feel as if the nightmares will go away once you've become re-accustomed to the seeing world again."
He shuddered at the thought of it, sometimes wishing he were blind again. "You know," He said softly. "Even when I was blind, I could see." He stated.
Mrs. McPherson cocked her head to the side to access him. "What do you mean by that, Zac?"
He gave a small smile. "I knew exactly when someone was lying to me. I could see the looks on their faces when some didn't know how to handle me, or when others didn't even notice my handicap at the time. I know what your daughter Summer looked like when she was ready to kill me for being so snappy at her."
She smiled back at him. "She did say she wanted to do something back to you for that."
Zac laughed lightly, "And she had every right to." He admitted nodding slowly.
When they heard the chiming of her clock, Zac looked up at it and scowled. Wanting more time with her, but he simply shook his head and shrugged it off.
Standing he reached into his pack and removed a cassette tape, a shy smile spread about his lips. "I want you to give this to Summer." He said cautiously. "Tell her she was my inspiration for it, and that I've titled it 'Summer' as well because of her."
She smiled at him as she took the tape from his slender fingers. "She'll be ecstatic."
He gave her a bright smile. "I hope she is."
With that said, he left her in the office, and met with his parents in the hallway. He smiled and assured him that he was okay, and that he just wanted to go home, and enjoy the nice scenery on the way.
Mrs. McPherson was clearing off the dinner table when she straightened. "Oh!" She said unexpectedly.
Summer jumped from doing the dishes. "What?" She asked worriedly. Looking over her mother to see if she was hurt.
She laughed, "I forgot." She said smiling at her. "I have something for you."
"What?" Summer asked curiously as she and her sister looked at each other.
Leaving the room, and then coming back with the present in her hand, she handed it over to her. "It's a gift from, Zac." She said grinning. "He wanted me to give it to you, and say that you were his inspiration for it all, and that he even named it after you because of it."
Summer gawked at the tape box, her fingers numb and growing shaky.
Mrs. McPherson laughed and nudged her towards the hallway. "You go and listen to it, while Lex and I finish in here."
"Mom!" Alexis whined.
But the look her mother gave her made her quiet quickly.
Nodding, Summer started her way down the hall and into her room. Taking a few moments to collect her thoughts, she slipped the tape into the tape player her and her sister shared, and listened intently.
The sounds of a slow but beautifully strung ballad hung thickly in the air of her room. It was as if the notes that were pulled together, portrayed the emotions of sadness, betrayal, hurt, anger, love, pride, and fulfillment.
A small smile etched across her lips, He must of felt all this through the whole time. She thought with wry amusement. Mom told me he recognized my picture on her desk… somehow he knew.
Somehow he saw it all.
Zac stood up in choir stands in church; he was alone except for Taylor and Isaac, who stood behind him.
Smiling down at his parents and siblings that occupied the first row, he opened his mouth to sing his now favorite song.
