Blinkers

Mathew Murdock strode down the street, fully confident in both his progress and his destination. He stared straight ahead, eyes on the prize and no blinking. His focus was so great that he failed entirely to notice the man and the boy coming in from the side, until they were both right upon him. He was not surprised by their appearance however. His peripheral vision often failed him, though it was not something he would give a moments thought to. Anyway, he had been expecting to meet the man that now stood in front of him. They shared the same destination after all.

“Hello Issac” Mathew said, greeting the man warmly and shaking his hand. “Looking forward to the vote?”
The man, who allowed his hand to be shaken, laughed dryly. “Looking forward? No, not really. But at least there are other choices available to me”
“Now now Isaac,” said Mathew, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “You’ve known for some weeks now that this has been coming. And about time to if you ask me. It really is indecent that a certain type of man is to be excluded from holding public office”
“And I see, quite clearly in fact, that the certain type of man you are referring to is of course yourself” Isaac replied.
“Indeed” said Mathew. “I’ve made little secret of it”
“An enemy in plain sight” muttered Isaac.
“Ha yes very good. But we live in a civilized age, and it is only fair that the disabled have equal access to the opportunity of serving the people as anyone else”

Mathew nodded to himself in agreement but Isaac stared at him incredulously. He gestured to the child, who had been standing patiently at his side, bright eyed and alert. “You remember my son Nathanael?”
Mathew nodded and beamed down at the child.
“Keep watching him then” Isaac told him. Mathew obliged and looked on. He saw Isaac giving a sandwich to the boy. He saw Issac whispering something in his ear and the boy nod. And he saw the boy stride away to a vague harmless looking shape. The rest was indistinct, until the boy returned, empty handed.
“What just happened?” demanded Isaac.
“I don’t know” confessed Mathew. “Nothing important I’m sure”
“Well, I guess that’s just your point of view. Not that I expect you to be troubled by it, self maimed as you are”

“Nope” Mathew said happily. “However, there is something I wanted to say to you” He put his arm around Isaac and drew him away from Nathanael. “Listen,” he said in a confiding tone. “I don’t want to tell you how to raise your son, but don’t you think you’re being cruel? I mean it’s important to protect our children and…”
“Lie to them?” cut in Isaac.
“We think nothing of telling them there’s a large red man coming down the chimney once a year to give them presents. Anyway, if you continue being the kind of parent you are, and letting your son be like that…well I can’t in good conscience allow him to play with my kid. Nathanael’s already upset him several times, and when he comes crying to me and asking why he can’t see what your son does, I have to answer some very awkward questions”

He looked at Isaac beseechingly, and said in an even lower voice “If it’s a question of money…”

Isaac sneered at him “I hear the fashion is now to get Blinkers installed right after the umbilical cord is cut”
“Well it’s certainly convenient, given that you’re right there in the hospital. And they do have a lifetime guarantee on them”
“I guess if you had them since birth, then you would never know of any other world, than the narrow, grey around the edges one that you see in front of you”
“Looking nowhere but ahead means you get there quicker. You’ve seen the great work I’ve done, and how efficient I am about it. I have helped a great number of people, there’s no denying it”
“Only those whom you see eye to eye with”

Mathew finally lost his patience “Look, live your life staring into the shadows and loosing your self in them, but I intend to walk the path of the straight and narrow. And let me tell you, once I take your job, I will have child protection services onto you. It is cruel to let Nathanael see the world as you see it, and we will get him a set of permanent blinkers, like me. And all the pain and suffering that you’ve made him bear witness to, it will all become nothing but a glimmer at the edge of sight. Then we shall see what’s what”

Turing stiffly, he strode down the road towards public office, where the vote would be held. Shaking his head, Isaac walked besides him, though of course Mathew could not see this.

Walking some slight distance behind, Nathanael brought up the rear. When he passed another small wavering shadow, he gave it a little doll he had been given for Christmas but thought too girly for himself. He had heard little of the conversation, and instead had been thinking about the silly thing his gran had told him earlier that day. It made no sense, how could he have his fathers’ eyes?