Damn Braille

[Petra Davis-Shelley]

She couldnt stop her hands shaking. There were to many people, staring at her, at the bandages around her wrists. They all knew what she did. She felt their eyes burning her pale skin. The voice in her head whispered at her. It wouldnt shut up. She needed to be somewhere quiet. The libary.

She moved like a ghost, gliding silently through the books to a small dark corner between the shelves. She slid to the floor, drawing her knees to her chin. Her icy eyes trailed to her wrists, tears suddenly falling. She pressed herhand to her mouth, trying to stifle her sobs.

Kennedy Snow

[Kennedy Snow]

Rumors can be hard. They can be painful for children. There were lots of rumors as to why Kenny could not see or why she had her stammer when she was a kid. They hurt. So when she was in the Library and she heard kids mentioning a girl and throwing off different judgmental words in her direction. Kennedy stood up and for the first time since being her took somewhat of an assertive staff like role. 

"KN...KN..KN..KN..KN..KNOCK IT OFF..........PL...PLEASE"

She yelled out to the kids in the library, she felt bad doing it but the library was a place to relax and study or get away from real life in a book. The judgments were all to be left at the door. She knew they were teenagers and it would happen anyway. But being blind and having amazing hearing she would just rather not hear it. Then her head cocked to the side as she got the sound of sobbing from the corner.

Talking to people was definitely not Kennedy's strong suit...I mean she even stammered out a please when yelling at people..But she wanted to help the girl and stop her from crying. Kenny felt around and grabbed a book off of her desk then she reached up her hand and pulled her hair out of its bindings. The students either thought this was really cool or really creepy usually. She usually had her hair up to avoid that because she knew her way around the library usually. Her hair knew where she wanted to go and tugged her in the direction of the sobbing girl. Kenny walked over to her. Then she sat down beside the girl. Kennedy's hair moved and gave the girl a hug.

"M..m....mind if I s...s...sit here?....D...d...don't m...m...mind my hair I c..c..can't con..con..control it.."

Bringing up her hand Kennedy tugged her hair away from the girl and put it back up so she could sit there without the girl being weirded out by a bunch of super soft blonde hair touching her. Kenny's hand came up....Yeah she knew it was not the way people should do things but the world was different to her. She touched her hand to the girl's face for just a split second letting the girl's tears be felt on her fingers.

"Wh..wh...why are you cr..cr..crying?"

Yes she had heard the rumors about the girl. But Kennedy always dismissed rumors until she found out herself. it was her way. 

[Petra Davis-Shelley]

The girl knew they were talking about her. Glancing at her through the shelves. She tried to block them out, coveirng her ears with her shaking hands. But it never seemed to work. She didnt notice the blind libarian move towards her and sit down. It was the hair that pulled her out of her own mind.

She looked up with a slight gasp, feeling the soft blonde tresses touch her pale skin. She wantd to pull away, but was almost frozen in shock. She was thankful when the woman pulled her hair away, icy eyes trailing over the libarians face. She noticed the milkiness of her eyes. She remained still as soft fingers trace her skin, picking up one of her tears.

She took a shaky breath, rubbing her eyes quickly with the back of her hand. You should know why. Everyones talking about it. She held her wrist out, pushing it into Kennedy's hand so she could feel the bandages.

[Kennedy Snow]

Taking the offered hand Kenny felt the bandages then brought up her other hand and run it on the other side of the bandage. Poor girl. Troubled in such a way that she would try to end it. Try to take her own life. So young and not even close to the end of her life. Kenny felt bad for her and wanted to help but was not sure how. She also felt awkward for her hair hugging the girl that must have been weird. Then the weird blind Librarian touching your face. This girl must be in a bad place right now.

"Wh...wh...why did you d...d...do this to yourself l...l...luv?"

The new zealand slang slipping through in her accent that is barely noticeable yet very funny with her stammer. Then she wanted to help but did not really know how. But her mom used to kiss her wounds better and make her feel better at least. Figured might as well give it a try. Kennedy grabbed her rist and kissed the bandage.

"All...all...all....all better....No m...m..more tears....tell..tell..tell me what's wrong m..m..m..maybe I can help..."

[Petra Davis-Shelley]

The girl flinched slightly as the librarians hands ran over the bandages, even the light pressure still hurting the cuts. She sighed gently, pulling her hand away and wiping her eyes silently. The same reason every one tries to kill them selves. I wanted to make the pain stop. She felt her voice waver slightly, turing her face away to breath deeply and stop herself from crying again.

Petra gasped and tried to pull her hand away when Kennedy tookk her hand, but she stopped when she felt the woman press her lips to the bandages. She looked at the woman in shock, before se suddenly burst into tears, leaning into Kennedy and covering her face with her hands.

[Kennedy Snow]

When it worked and the girl leaned into her crying she was caught off guard. It had been a while since she had consoled someone and even longer since she had gotten a hug. But her hands came up without hesitation and wrapped around the crying girl embracing her in a hug and Kenny's hair flung around and hugged her as well. Her hair did that sometimes. Kenny really wanted to help the girl but when the girl was saying that she wanted to end her life to end the pain Kenny felt that there was noting that she could do because nothing short of ending the pain for the poor girl without killing her would make her stop trying. Pain can be a harsh thing. If it was physical pain Kenny could offer asprin but felt like that would be redundant. If it was emotional pain the most she could do was maybe help the girl take her mind off of it. But how?

Then Kenny got an idea. She always turned to books for an escape. When she needed to forget something or take something off of her mind she would engulf herself in a book and within minutes it would all go away at least until she stopped reading. So even if it was for short amounts of time it might help this girl get a little bit of reprieve. But maybe reading with your eyes didn't invoke the imagination to do it. Then it came to her. Maybe she could teach the girl to read braille.

Grabbing one of the books that she had with her that she was currently reading which was Alice in Wonderland. She still held the girl tightly with her other arm and her hair started to try and make the girl laugh by forming itself into puppets of different kinds.

"Wh...wh...when I wa...wa...want to make some..some...something go a..a...away....I let m..m..my imagination t...t...take me into a w...w...w..world of ad..ad..adventure and forget about it and it g..g...g..goes away at least f..f..f.or a while...Books help me with th..th  th...this...I.....I could t..t..teach you...I mean you prob...prob..pr..probably know how to r..r...read...but I can t..t...teach you to r..r..read with your eyes cl..cl..closed and your imagination o...o..ope...open...If....if...you want.."