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Abbey’s heart sank a little but she lifted her chin as she answered.
“In that case, my aunt Rose will ring you up in just a minute as soon as she finishes with that other customer.” She nodded in the direction of her aunt’s voice—she was talking to a woman who had just come in about a delivery to a local nursing home.
“Why can’t you ring me up?” her customer demanded. “I’m in a hurry here! I have to get back to work.”
Mentally, Abbey sighed but she kept her best customer service smile pinned to her face as she answered.
“I’m sorry, Sir, but I can’t work the register unless you’re paying by card. You see, I’m legally blind.”
“What? Blind?” His blurred form got closer as he leaned in to look at her eyes. “You don’t look blind!”
“But I am,” Abbey said patiently. She had to deal with this all the time—she was used to it, even if she didn’t like it.
There was some motion in her field of vision and then the man said,
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
“I don’t know, Sir. Because I’m legally blind,” Abbey repeated.
“You do too know—you’re just lazy!” he exclaimed. “Ring me up right now or I’m leaving!”
“Excuse me,” Abbey heard her aunt say to the customer she was helping. “Hi there—what can I do for you?” she asked, coming over.
“This girl is claiming she’s blind and refusing to ring me up!” the man exclaimed.
“That’s my niece and she is blind,” Aunt Rose said sharply.
“She is not! I watched her walk all around the store—she even put together a whole bouquet of roses for me!” the man snapped. “How could she do that if she couldn’t see anything?”
“Abbey is able to see colors and blurs,” Aunt Rose explained stiffly. “And she knows the shop like the back of her hand—that’s why she was able to help you. But she doesn’t have any fine vision—she can’t see any details like the denominations on money. If you’d like to pay by card, Abbey can help you because we have accessibility software on our register. If not, I’ll be with you in just a minute as soon as I finish with this other lady.”
“This is bullshit!” the man blustered. “I don’t have time to wait just because she’s too lazy to do her job!”
“Excuse me, did you say your niece is blind?” It was the other customer—Abbey recognized her by her voice.
“Yes, she’s legally blind. She has a rare form of optic neuropathy,” Aunt Rose said.
“Oh—my cousin is legally blind,” the woman returned. “He has macular degeneration. It’s terrible.”
“She’s not blind!” the man insisted. “She walked all around the shop—I could see her looking at things!”
“Just because someone can still ‘look’ at things, doesn’t mean they’re seeing what you’re able to see!” the other customer snapped. “It doesn’t mean they’re not legally blind.”
“But she doesn’t look blind,” the man repeated. “I mean, where’s her guide dog? Where’s her white cane? Why isn’t she wearing sunglasses to hide her eyes?”
“So you don’t think she’s blind because she doesn’t look the way they portray blind people in the movies and on TV?” the woman demanded. “Don’t you know that only ten percent of blind people have complete loss of vision? The other ninety percent usually have at least some vision, but that doesn’t mean they’re able to see well enough to do everything a fully sighted person can.”
Abbey thought it was nice to have someone else explaining all this instead of having to do it herself—clearly the woman was close to her blind cousin and had taken the time to really learn about his disability. But she didn’t love the way the man still sounded so angry.
“You can say whatever you want—I think she’s just lazy!” he snapped at the woman.
“How dare you attack someone with a disability like that?” the other customer demanded, clearly getting irate. “Don’t you think her life is hard enough as it is without assholes like you insulting her?”
“That’s it—I don’t have to take this. I’m leaving!” the man shouted. There was a flurry of movement that Abbey couldn’t follow and then a crash as the large glass vase of roses she’d placed on the counter was knocked to the floor.
“Oh no!” she heard Aunt Rose exclaim.
“Hey, you asshole—come back and pay for those!” the other customer was shouting.
