Who is a companion? How long your companion can be with you? Do you believe life some companions are forever & even after death...
Ruth (hold her 6years old son in arms): Doctor please hurry up my son is burnt....(ruth cries aloud).
Alex (the father): Ben, baby hold on daddy's gonna make everything right. Alright!
Ben (Cries, in pain and loses consciousness).
Nurses and Doctors ran to the child to investigate what happened.
Doc: Please, fill up the form for surgery, Ben need immediate surgery!
Ruth (the mother sobs): Oh my god! I am such a bad mother Ben I am sorry baby!
Alex: Shut up Ruth it's no time to lament hold Ben's hand and let me fill the form asap.
Ruth calms down a bit and held her son's hand tight. Ben's burnt face was the last thing Ruth wanted to see. But now little Ben lies in the hospital waiting for surgery to be performed. Alex finished the formalities while the doctors rushed Ben into the operation theatre. Ruth sat like a stone on one of the benches outside the operation theatre only tears were rolling down her eyes. Alex sat beside her to console her but a mother's heart can never find solace in anything until the safety of her child was ensured. Alex held her wife's hand and tried to comfort her while they both sat in silence. Anxious tears never stopped rolling down from both of their eyes.
After 5 hours of a critical operation, the Doctor came out and told the anxious parents that their son was out of danger. They have operated out all the remains of the firework from his facial skin and eyes. However, the cornea of both of Ben's eyes was badly punctured. They tried their best to save Ben's eyes but now they can just pray that he doesn't lose his eyesight. Ruth turns to Alex and murmured, "look what have I done to Ben, our son, our little Ben can lose his eyesight. Alex, scrape my eyes out of my face and give them to Ben so that he can see the world". They held each other's hand and Alex said "it's not your fault Ruth. If I were a better father and capable of watching Ben he would have never got into this accident". Alex then continued "we lost Coco as well. How will I answer Ben when he would return home and not find Coco anywhere". The couple sobs inconsolably.
It was Chinese New years everybody was busy preparing festive food and getting ready for the amazing firework show. Ruth and Alex were not Chinese but they had been living in Taipei for 10 long years. Both worked in the cosmetic industry of Taipei and researches Chinese traditional methods of making cosmetics out of natural ingredients. In this busy beautiful city of China, they have built a business and a beautiful family in due course of 10 years. They have a 6years old son and a 1year old daughter who need time to time nursing at that point. To top their happiness they adopted a rescued Pug from a Chinese puppy farm and soon he became their son's best friend. In short, they had a picture-perfect family and happy life until one dreadful night of experiment with firework gone wrong.
Ben was constantly asking Ruth and Alex to help him light one of the fireworks they have purchased to participate in the firework show to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Ruth was putting her daughter to bed while Alex was cooking some dumplings to eat. Little Ben was impatient and to the horror of the parent's little Ben took off with crackers on his own and left home. Soon as Ruth realized that her son was missing and Coco the pet pup was nowhere to be found she understood its time to find him right away. She knew they might have left with some fireworks to play with. By the time the couple found their son his clothes already caught fire and the dog was also badly burnt. They rushed both the pup and boy to the hospital but soon they received a call that the puppy passed away on the way to the hospital. Ben was somehow saved with help of immediate operation and care but his parents were now waiting for the doctors to open Ben's bandages to find out if his eyesight was still fine.
Two weeks post-operation Ben's bandages were removed. Alex and Ruth were heartbroken to find their worst nightmare come true. Ben has lost 100% of his eye-sight. Ben was only six and his parents were devastated to know that now their son will not be able to see the world like normal children. Ben discovered he can't see anymore and didn't take it well. He was terrified by every noise around him. He was traumatized because of the accident and now he couldn't see. That was way too much for a little boy to handle after all. Ruth was constantly worries because she had 1year old daughter as well who required constant care. The anxious parents decided to put Ben in a school for children with special needs. They also decided to hire a personal trainer cum carer to help Ben to learn methods to deal with his blindness and continue life as normal. But the doctor said they must do all of there only when Ben's was able to accept his blindness and let go of the trauma after counselling.
The day Ben arrived home from the hospital he almost slept the whole day. Alex and Ruth were anticipating that Ben would soon ask about Coco and they had no idea what to say. So they decided to keep mum until Ben really asks about Coco. Ben spent his whole on the bed but in the evening when the sun was about to set Ben was nowhere to be found. Ruth started crying in horror. She cried out her son's name. She heard Ben's voice from the room in the attic. Ruth ran to the attic to find Ben but to her surprise, Ben was sitting all calm and composed facing the window as if he could see the sun setting on the horizon. For a moment Ruth was thought her son may be able to see again. She cried and asked Ben if he was able to see the sunset? And also asked how he came all the way up to the attic.
Ben broke into tears and said he wasn't able to see a thing. He just wanted to sit there like he used to do to watch the sunset when he was able to see it. Ben didn't answer how he walked all the way up there but Ruth was too overwhelmed to see little Ben cry she forgot to ask him about that. She took ben in her arms and sat with him promising one day everything will be alright.
Ruth's mother came to her rescue the next day. Ben was kind of happy to find out his grandmother came to visit. Grandma Miranda said to Ruth she can nurse her daughter now cause she would be taking care of Ben all the time. A few days passed and Ben was ready to go for counselling. They hoped the counselling would really help Ben. The night before the counselling was scheduled, Alex and Ruth were talking in their room. They were talking about their expectation from the counselling session. Alex said he find one thing very weird that Ben never asked about Coco. They were best of friends and were practically inseparable. Ruth assured Alex it was because Ben was too traumatized to remember about Coco. Ruth said, "Ben is just 6 years old after all, we have to be patient with him Alex". Alex nodded in agreement, Ruth requested her husband to get a glass of water because she was nursing their little daughter and didn't want to wake her up. Alex agreed and left for the hall to grab a bottle of water.
Alex almost got scared when he found a little boy standing in front of the refrigerator. The door of the refrigerator was open to lit the boy to be visible. Alex asked, "Ben is that you?" The boy turned to Alex and said, "yes dad". Alex asked, "how did you manage to come here in the dark without your grandma?". Ben had a bowl of ice cream in his hand, Ben answered in his calm voice "but my world is always dark dad". The bowl of the ice cream fell from Ben's hand and he fainted. Alex ran to grab Ben and find out what happened. Alex took Ben in his arm and carried him to his bedroom. After a few tries when the boy did not gain consciousness Alex called a doctor for help.
The doctor arrived and checked Ben carefully. He prescribe a shot which Alex purchased immediately and after the shot was given to Ben regained consciousness. The doctor asked what happened before Ben fainted? He listened to everything only to advise Alex and Ruth not to talk about things that can trigger Ben's trauma about the accident. Alex felt very guilty about asking Ben, how he managed to walk in the darkness. He didn't realize for blind people it's always dark. Ruth said, "it's ok Alex things happened don't feel bad I know you didn't mean to hurt Ben. Alex we are also new to this and we are human to make mistakes. Don't worry we will gradually learn everything".
Although Alex was very sad about the whole incident, but the question lingered in his head. How could Ben know where the refrigerator was? How could Ben grab the bowl of ice cream? How did he know which one is the bowl of the ice cream? How did he figure it out? Alex kept on tossing and turning in his bed and tried to reason the whole incident but he couldn't find any logic. For one he thought was Ben lying about his blindness? Why would he do so? If he wasn't blind why would he be traumatized? Why would a 6-year brilliant kid lie about not being able to see? Did Ben's grand Ma helped him to reach the refrigerator and later left when she saw Alex coming because she got Ben ice cream at night? Alex's brain was stormed with millions of unanswered questions. He thought of confronting his mother in law about the ice cream incident and finally fell off to sleep.
The next morning when Alex woke up he saw Ben sitting right next to him. Alex stroked Ben's back to comfort him and said "I am sorry Ben, forgive me if I have hurt you". Ben turned his face towards his dad as if he was looking straight into his dad's eyes. His beautiful blue eyes turned grey-blue after the accident. For a minute, Alex forgot Ben was blind. Alex looked into Ben's eyes as if he could establish eye contact and Ben said in his calm voice "you don't need to be sorry dad. I am sorry for stealing ice cream at night. But trust me I didn't mean to scare you and grandma didn't get the ice cream for me I took it from the refrigerator". After saying that Ben slowly walked away from Alex towards his room. Alex was surprised to see his bling son walked fine and also felt as if his son could read his mind. Alex was lost in deep thoughts, "Why Ben never stumbled upon things while trying to walk. After all Ben was blind right!'. Alex was nervous, anxious and didn't know what to do how to react? He should be happy that blindness did not leave Ben helpless or he should be concerned because Ben was way too perfect for a little blind 6 years old boy.
Why was Ben able to walk fine even without a stick or help? Was Ben lying? Why would a 6-year-old boy lie about his blindness? To get the answers must read the 2nd part of The Compannion.