4. Abbey

4

ABBEY

Abbey and her aunt cleared the table together and loaded the dirty dishes into the dishwasher before heading to Aunt Rose's car. Abbey brought her cane with her in case she wanted to run out for anything. CVS was just a few blocks from the shop and she didn't have any problem going there because she knew the way so well.

She still missed her guide dog, Major, whenever she went though. He had served her long and faithfully and after he died she hadn't had the heart to apply for a new dog.

Soon though, she thought as the traffic hummed outside her window while Aunt Rose drove. I need a dog if I'm going to be more independent.

Plus, she missed the companionship. Major had been a German Shepherd and intensely loyal and loving. He had saved her from so many dangers—including that night with Henry…

Abbey pushed it out of her head. She didn't want to think about that night. It was too awful.

Soon Aunt Rose parked and they walked arm-in-arm into the store together.

Rose's Roses was a family owned and operated Florist Shop that Abbey's grandmother—who was also named Rose—had opened years before. The shop had nearly gone under after big places like 1-800-Flowers came on the market and started undercutting local businesses and stealing all the customers. But now they were doing fine.

Despite her loss of vision, Abbey had gotten a degree in business administration and marketing. It had been her idea to pivot in a new direction and market their flowers based on scent rather than pure visual appeal.

Because major growers of flowers—roses in particular—had been breeding flowers for years to be more hardy and less prone to diseases, the gene for scent had been bred out of many of them. Which meant that while most bouquets you could buy at a florist were beautiful to look at, they didn't smell of hardly anything at all.

Abbey had noticed customers remarking on how much they missed the scent—especially the scent of roses, which were one of the most popular flowers to buy and to give. She had done some research and found local growers who could supply them with roses that still smelled like, well, roses.

After the change, business was booming. They had new customers constantly, who had heard about them from reviews on the internet as well as the ads that Abbey placed. People who walked into the shop often said things like,

"Oh, this is how it used to smell!" or

"It smells so good in here!"

"Yes, Ma'am—our flowers smell as beautiful as they look," Aunt Rose would reply proudly. "How can I help you?"

They had been anticipating a busy day today—it was just a few days until Mother's Day which was the biggest flower holiday of the year, followed only by Valentine's Day and Christmas. And sure enough, once the OPEN sign was turned on, a steady stream of customers made their way in.

It was only the two of them, so they were constantly busy. Abbey couldn't run the register if a customer was paying with cash, but other than that she was able to do everything Aunt Rose did. She was even able to help people choose what flowers they wanted. Using her color sense and the fact that she had memorized everything in the store, she was able to make lovely bouquets. Often, her customers didn't even know she had anything wrong with her vision at all.

Part of that was because Abbey was excellent at "masking"—or pretending to be sighted. She could still make a semblance of eye-contact by looking at the top part of the blob that was the customer's face—and she moved so naturally and easily through the small shop, no one who didn't know her would have guessed at her disability.

This usually made life easier for Abbey…but sometimes it backfired, as it did later that morning, just an hour before lunchtime.

She'd been helping a rather surly man put together a bouquet of American Beauty roses for his wife. He was brusque and rude but Abbey was her best professional self, ignoring his bad manners as she waited on him.

"There you are, Sir," she said as she placed the vase full of roses carefully on the counter. "Will that be cash or charge?"

"Cash—I only do cash," the man snapped.

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.

But the tinkling of the shop bell in the doorway told Abbey that the man she'd been waiting on was already gone.

Abbey felt a mixture of rage and helplessness sweep over her. Of course, this wasn't the first time a customer had reacted badly to her blindness, but it was one of the more extreme examples of people being assholes due to her disability.

"Honey, are you okay?" she heard Aunt Rose ask as she touched Abbey's arm lightly.

"Fine—I'm fine." Angry tears pricked at her eyelids but she didn't want Aunt Rose to see her cry. "I'll just go in the back and get the broom and dustpan."

"You do that—I'll pick up the roses," she heard her aunt say, but she was already hurrying to the back of the shop.

Just as she was closing the door marked, "Employees Only, No Admittance," she heard the shop bell jingle again. And then a deep, familiar voice said,

"Hello—I am looking for Abbey."