Ten Blinks Of An Eye

• Rhiannon Leatham, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2016

My mum tells me everyday that I have the most beautiful hair in the world, I would believe her but I have never seen my hair or my face or my hands, legs and stomach. I have been cursed from the time I was born. I can only open my eyes ten times in my whole life, so I’m practically blind. My mum says that I have a gift and that I’m blessed and all but I know differently.

I first opened my eyes when I was born. My eyelashes smacked against my eyebrows and I saw my mum and dad for the first and maybe last time. All I can remember is the beautiful blue diamond explosion I noticed in my mum’s eyes. My dad’s eyebrows were brown and thick as they rose with excitement; their happiness could be seen all around the room. In every nook and cranny I could see their white teeth spreading with delight. I still don’t know if it was a figment of my imagination, maybe I’m trapped in a dream. Maybe I have been trapped in a dream for nine years.


My birthday is tomorrow; I am turning ten years old. After lots of thought I have decided to open my eyes for the second time. I want to see clouds, fluffy pink clouds with a beautiful orange and purple sunset. My mum has promised that tomorrow we will fly to Ireland and on that aeroplane I will open my eyes and see the magic wonder of what apparently looks like heaven. For ten years I have been trapped in a box with my own thoughts. When I turn twenty I am going to open my eyes for the third time and I am going to look in the mirror, am I as pretty as my mum tells me? What do I actually look like?

When I turn thirty I am going to open my eyes for the fourth time and I want to see all my family, every single Irish relative, my mum and dad, all my cousins and of course my grandparents all standing together as they smile and wave right into my eyes. When I turn fifty I want to open my eyes for the fifth time and see the world. My mum plans to collect pictures from across the world and string them across my room, that way I get to see the world all at once. When I turn sixty I am going to open my eyes for the sixth time and see the beach, the flowing waters and white mellow sand. As my feet dig into the sand I can ponder on the beautiful sight of a beach, paradise.


When I turn eighty I am going to open my eyes for the seventh, eighth and ninth time. I want to be able to blink more than once and know what it feels like to have my eyelashes repeatedly move up and down beating against my face. When I turn around ninety years old and I am on my deathbed I will open my eyes for the tenth and the last time. I want to look up to loving faces and see life for the absolute last time. My last breath but more importantly my last blink.


My name is Sandra. I am nine years old. I am an only child and I have opened my eyes once. Some days I just want to leave this mysterious earth, not that I have seen much of it. I feel I am constantly in pain. Maybe it’s my eyes or perhaps it’s my heart, my heart longing for sight. The painful thing is that I can open my eyes whenever I want but I choose when I can feel the sun, snow or even just a zephyr crawl across my eyes. I count down the days, one second at a time.