Blindness

The asylum is now overpopulated, and the mix of crowding and blindness leads to widespread filth. The lavatories have become “fetid caverns such as the gutters in hell,” and many have taken to relieving themselves wherever they see fit. Even the grounds are covered in feces. The disgusting conditions are driving the doctor’s wife to the end of her rope, and she tells her husband that maybe if she confesses she can see, she can put the whole asylum to order. Her husband warns her that more likely she will become nursemaid, laundress, and go-between all rolled into one: “Some will hate you for seeing,” the doctor tells her, “don’t think that blindness has made us better people” (133). The doctor’s wife goes to bed resolute, but that commitment wanes by morning.

Since the last food free-for-all, the first ward has developed a system for distributing rations. Two members go pick up the boxes of food, and then they set up a distribution station at one end of the ward. People then go up two at a time to grab their meals, which are handed out equally. This morning, the two people designated to pick up the day’s food rush back to the ward, exclaiming that a group of blind internees had refused to distribute the rations, claiming that “from now on anyone who wants to eat will have to pay” (136). The doctor, his wife, and the first blind man go to speak with the other blind inmates, who have armed themselves with poles from their bed frames and sticks. One blind woman goes to the main gate to ask the soldiers for help, but they pretend not to hear her. In fact, they have received strict orders from a captain that if the internees end “up killing each other, so much the better” (138).

Back in the asylum, the leader of the blind thugs takes out a gun and fires it into the ceiling. Once he has everyone’s attention, he tells them they are to bring all their valuables to them in exchange for food. When the doctor’s wife starts asking questions about process, the lead thug threatens to shoot her. He declares that they will decide how much each ward deserves to eat based on how much loot they can offer.

The group returns to the first ward and shares the news. After a brief back-and-forth, the group decides to comply and starts collecting their valuables. As the doctor’s wife goes through her things, she realizes that she has a pair of scissors. She hangs them off of a nail on the wall well out of reach of groping blind hands. Once the goods are collected, the doctor and the first blind man return to the blind thugs’ ward. As they hand over their belongings, the doctor realizes that they have someone taking notes for them. At first he thinks it is a second sighted person, but he quickly realizes that it is a “normal blind person” (146) writing in braille. Once the goods are tallied, the thugs release three boxes of food. The doctor protests, saying that they typically get four boxes to feed the first ward. The lead thug pulls his gun on the doctor, who backs down, takes the food, and leaves.

On the way back to the ward, the doctor tells the first blind man that he should have tried to grab the gun. The doctor laments his cowardice, but the first blind man gently explains that taking the gun would have started a war. The doctor begrudgingly agrees. When the two return with only three boxes of food, a few of their ward mates accuse them of not standing up for their rights. When the men explain what happened, the dissenters retract their objections and everyone eats their reduced rations in peace.

The old man with the eyepatch does not turn his radio over to the blind thugs, assuming they would not think it valuable. Instead, he keeps it and listens to it alone under his blanket. Once he gets the news, he summarizes it and shares it with the people closest to him, who then pass it around the ward not unlike the game of telephone. Soon, the old man has no news to share because the news anchor—and presumably, everyone in the studio—has gone blind. All that comes through after the news anchor’s anguished exclamation of “I’m blind” is static, and the old man cannot help but weep.

Everyone in the ward goes to sleep except the doctor’s wife, who keeps mulling over her husband’s initial impression that the blind thugs had someone they could use as a spy. She realizes that she can do the same thing for her ward. She gets up quietly and walks barefoot through the slick, sludgy halls in search of the third ward. As she passes blind people sleeping in the hallway, she notices a young man and woman having sex. She stops to watch for a moment and wonders how they found each other, if they were struck blind together, or if they found each other at the asylum by some incredible twist of fate.

She continues to the third ward, making as little noise as possible. She stops outside the door across the hall from the blind sentry, who is slowly waving a stick back and forth to feel for any intruders. He seems to sense that someone is there, but the doctor’s wife stands very still and waits for him to relax. She creeps forward enough to count the people in ward three and realizes there are only “nineteen or twenty” (158) occupants. As she stands there, the guard sits on the bed they are using as a blockade and drifts off to sleep. The doctor’s wife watches him for a second and feels “a strange compassion” (158) for the man before being struck by bone-deep weariness. She turns around and sneaks back into bed with no one the wiser.