Free Interrupted Romance by Topsy Baxter Page A

covering be placed across his eyes to relieve them.   He explained that it was to protect the healing eyes and that each day Adam would be allowed to uncover them for longer and longer periods of time, until such time as the covering would be taken off permanently.   Probably another four or five days would be needed for this to happen.   It depended on how quickly the eyes healed.

    When Dafna arrived that day to visit Adam, she found him sitting on the bed with a suppressed smile on his lips.

    "Soon," he told her, "I'll be allowed home without covers on my eyes.   But I must not go out in bright sun without very dark glasses for another few months.   But I could see movement today, Dafna.   I knew how many people were in the room with me.   They were blurred, but they were there!" he finished excitedly.

    That evening, when Dafna called his parents to give them the news of the day, they were all so excited and his mother cried, his sister was laughing happily, his father thanked the Almighty.   It had been a long, hard wait for them.   They asked when Adam would be travelling back to Israel.   Dafna couldn't answer their questions other than to say that Adam was intending to see the surgeon in a month's time, before travelling anywhere.   She explained that his vision was still very blurred and that he had to be careful not to strain it too soon.   He would call them as soon as he came home.   With that they had to be content.   His mother thanked her for calling again and they hung up.

CHAPTER 12
    Adam had been out of hospital for over a week.   He spent many hours sitting in the garden with Dafna and her mother.   It was still necessary to wear very dark glasses, and as an extra precaution he wore a wide-brimmed Akubra.   The hat was a present from Dafna to give him added protection from the sun.   Dafna's mother was enjoying the company, especially when Dafna had to go out shopping.   She was improving dramatically herself day by day.   Most of their lunches were eaten under the pergola, at an outdoor table that Dafna had moved from another area to make life easier for herself now that she was preparing three meals a day for three people.   Until the sun moved across the sky to shine into the pergola, it was their sanctuary from the heat of summer.   By late afternoon it was too hot there and they would adjourn inside the house to listen to music and talk some more, watch television.

    Dafna had taken Adam to the local library for a selection of 'talking books', which were designed especially for the blind.   The stories were read by well-known actors and helped to fill in the time for Adam.   Dafna's mother also enjoyed sitting and listening to them.   In fact, it was a kind of bonding period for all of them.   In the evenings when the television programmes weren't inviting enough to tempt them, the talking books would be part of their entertainment.   They would discuss the story line at the end of each book and share their opinions of the plot.   This was a very pleasant way to fill in the hours and all benefited by the companionship it entailed.

    As Adam's health improved, Dafna ventured out with him to the Opera House for a concert or two.   The imposing building, right beside the harbour, at Circular Quay, overlooked historic 'Pinchgut', the colloquial title given to Fort Denison, which guarded the harbour from an impending attack by the Russians prior to the turn of the 20 th century.   She described the outstanding scenery to him before they went up the stairs into the concert hall.   Dafna also made a mental note to take Adam to Fort Denison at a later date.   The short trip from Circular Quay, by ferry, was a pleasant one, and the tour of the little island would interest him no end.   The guides made the visitors feel as though they were living through the 'old days'… from the traditional firing of the 'one o'clock gun', to the dim, dark powder room, to the tower holding the