Eye Contact

The bandages were beginning to get really uncomfortable; mostly due to her impatience at the immanent moment the doctor had been talking about for the last ten minutes - and she had been dreaming of her entire life - the moment when they would find out if the surgery had worked.

She could hear the doctor explaining her recovery, the chances that the surgery hadn't worked and what could be expected when the bandages came off. Jenna just wanted to tear the damn things off! The anticipation was physically making her skin itchy and her muscles felt like they were contracting. She wanted to scream.

"OK, Jenna, I think it's time." Jenna could feel the expectation, the nervous energy in the room.

"Jenna, I need you to have your eyes closed when we remove the bandages." Jenna closed her eyes tightly, like a child waiting for a surprise. She could feel the bindings around her head loosening, then disappearing. As the last of the material fell from her eyes, she could see light through her eyelids. She could see light. Jenna's heart rate accelerated and she wanted to open her eyes wide. But the doctor had told her to take things slow.

Jenna could feel someone stroked her hand, from sensory memory, and a life time of getting to know the feel of those hands, she knew it was her mum. 

"OK, honey, when you're ready, open your eyes." Jenna was beaming, and could hear her mother's voice break a little. 

Slowly, Jenna opened her eyes and, bit by bit, let the world in. At first, it was all a blur of light, colour and shapes. But then things began to come into focus. 

She. Could. See.

As the world around her came into focus, there was only one thing Jenna wanted to see: her mum. 

"I thought you said you had blue eyes, mum, they look grey." As tears fell down her mother's cheeks, at the age of seventeen, Jenna Fox looked her mother in the eyes for the first time.