Being blind meant I was a living example of sinfulness. According to the religious police – sorry, priests – or teachers or lawyers, or whatever they liked to call themselves, I had no legitimate place in the community because I was born blind and that was obviously my fault. Or it was my parents’ fault. Or their parents’ fault. Or … you get the picture. I was never quite sure how far it might go back. Point was, I was a bad lad. Cursed from birth. A curse from birth. It was – apparently – the judgement of God. Even if I knew nothing about it. Even if I couldn’t do anything about it. I was bad. I always thought it was a load of rubbish. I didn’t have much time for a God who was into random acts of cruelty. It did mean I could work on Holy Days, since I was outcast anyway. The Pharmacy was allowed to stay open too, being that people needed medicine. So, this Holy Day, a bunch of voices were involved in a discussion about why I was blind. Was it my fault or my parents? Right in front of me, of course. Not for the first time. But like I wasn’t there. Which, technically, because I was an outcast, I suppose I wasn’t. But I was. And I’m blind, not deaf. When I was younger, I would have joined in. People hadn’t liked it when I’d done that. Getting caught out by a blind man. Having an outcast dare to speak. But it didn’t always go well for me. Whacking a blind bloke’s not a high-risk strategy. After I copped a few hidings, I tried a strategy of feigning a fit. That usually got rid of them fast. But, sometimes, there’d be one who’d try and look after me, and that made me feel bad. And it lost me customers. In the end I’d decided to be deaf as well. Like it mattered what they thought! Anyway, this group seemed to be asking one bloke what he thought. Sounded like they considered him the boss, the smart one. Called him ‘teacher’ or ‘Jesus’. Kept nagging at him to tell them who was right and who was wrong. Next thing I knew, footsteps came right up close to me, and a voice started to speak. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who 73
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