Colours - Short Story

The moment that I had been waiting for, had finally arrived. The bandage covering my eyes was being removed. I was impatient. At the same time, I was scared that it might not have been a success. I opened my eyes to the lovely colours, I had been dreaming of. I was in the hospital surrounded by my friends and family. My friends were all brightly dressed as I had requested them to, before the surgery. I cut the cake which my mother had baked and we all celebrated the beginning of my new life with colours.

As I sat by the window enjoying the view, I let my mind run about ten years back in time. As I slowly remembered my life those days, I realized how much I had missed.

I remembered how my friends used to speak about all the colours the environment had provided. The brightly coloured butterflies, the golden sun, the rainbow with its seven colours, the pale blue morning sky with puffy white clouds and the silver moon; these were some of the things I had never experienced. I remembered some children admiring my dress, but I didn't know what colour my dress was or what it looked like.

Then, I remembered how the tsunami, a natural disaster, struck my home town. The tsunami took all my possessions and even our house, leaving only my parents for me. We were taken to a camp close to a temple. I went to the temple everyday and prayed that I get my eyesight. Just as if God was answering my prayers, a group of experienced doctors from America visited the camp. They had come to examine the persons at the camp. I was examined and told that there was a remote chance that I would be able to see again. I was thrilled and I tried to imagine the colours of the environment that my friends had talked about. I was very excited at the thought that I might be able to gain sight.

On the day before the surgery I asked my mother if she could tell all my friends to wear different colours and stay in my room, so that I would be able to see many colours at once. I was taken to the operation theatre and given an injection which made me unconscious. Afterwards I could not remember anything.

I suddenly jerked back from the past to the present. I ran to my parents and looked at them properly for the first time, noticing everything in them. After I got into my new clothes, I went for a walk with my parents. When I saw the green grass, the setting sun and the orange sky, I experienced the wonderful environment full of colours.

While the tsunami had brought misfortune to many people, it had brought colours into my life.