Without external noise, without the sure evidence that the world still did exist, I often felt scared. It didn t make much sense, considering everyone is blind when they are asleep, but when you never wake up, when it s always dark, it s a whole different story. The doctor told me, You re used to constant stimuli, and you don t even know it. You wake up, you open your eyes, and you have colors, movement, everything. So Mariana bought a radio for me in every room, even in the bathroom.
Every room is tuned to a different station.
The bathroom is on the all-news station, so I would be informed of all the happenings of the world when I was on the can. That s funny, she said. She took my hand and put it against her cheek. I ran my hand from her right cheek to her chin, to her left cheek and up to her forehead, down with thumb and index gliding over her eyelids, her eyelashes long and curled at the ends, to the bridge of her nose and to the tip, jumped to her left ear, and her right, and back to her right cheek. I told her that I had no idea what she looked like, which was true.