Writer: Farah Raafat
Editor: Maram Mohamed
I once had my own glasses. I used to see through them just fine. I used to see the golden sand and the red sun. I didn’t really recognize I had them on. I guess I was born with them. Until the saviors kept telling me how bad they were for my eyesight. I started taking them off. One lens at a time. Gradually. Unnoticeably. But my eyesight was only getting worse and worse. So, I told the saviors. They weren’t surprised at all. It was as if they were waiting to give me new glasses. I was so excited to the point where my eyes couldn’t stop blinking. But I had to keep them open.
I saw things. It’s just that I didn’t know what those things were. I saw new colors. And new shapes too. At first, it was terrifying. But the excitement, oh the excitement. It clouded my senses. I started learning about those colors, turns out they’re called blue and black. And the shapes with their endless names, I learned them all by heart, a hundred or two per day, I guess. And I worshipped them. I glorified them. I devoted myself to them so much that I forgot what the red sun and golden sand corns looked like.
One day, at a moment of mere nostalgia, I searched for my old glasses, the ones that were bad for my eyesight. I found them buried under a pile of wigs. No, a pile of suits. Or maybe some pairs of jeans? I’m not sure. I went ahead to remove my new glasses. Just for a change. But I couldn’t. The pain was excoriating, and I screamed. The saviors came to save me. “Oh, haven’t we told you? We installed the glasses into your skull. They’re perfect for you. Why would you want to remove them, anyway?”. I told them I missed red and gold. “Oh, those outdated useless colors! Trust us, you don’t need them. We are living without them and we’re doing great, don’t you see?”. I stared at them. “Don’t you see?”, they asked again. And again. And as they were waiting for a response, which they thought would be a solid “better than ever”, I forcefully extracted their parasite from my body. With blood all over my hands, I reached for my old glasses and put them on. I no longer could see the saviors, nor could I see blue or black. I was terrified, but the minute my eyes saw the red sun, I steadily replied “I see. Oh yes, I see.”
