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Firework displays are common this time of year, especially for the duration of the festival. By all accounts, the fireworks lighting up the sky seemed perfectly ordinary--until, suddenly, a light flashes so brightly that it immediately blinds everyone who was watching. For those staring directly at the explosion, they may find that their vision takes 2-3 days to return; for those who caught only a glimpse of it or were further away, they may still be affected with less severe vision loss. (Please see tomorrow's prompt for more information on vision recovery! You may respond to this prompt at any point in time or backdate, but this event will always have ICly occurred on the night of June 20th) To anyone who viewed the firework, it was unlike any other firework before; it was a beautiful array of colors and was accompanied with a loud boom and a strange gust of wind. Destiny City has reported that it was not an approved display but do not have further information on the firework’s origin.
Daisy had considered the balcony of her apartment to be the best possible venue for watching fireworks. She didn’t have to deal with crowds of idiots and if she got tired of the smoke and noise, she could always retreat back inside and close the blinds. This display, though, seemed fair on the way to outdoing all the others. She’d happily settled her butt into a folding chair that she kept for just such occasions and watched the fireworks with a grin plastered across her face. The colors were just spectacular and the different explosions made such lovely patterns in the sky. And given the way the fireworks seemed to be speeding up, she wondered if the finale was close.
Or maybe whomever was running the show was just enthusiastic. She wasn’t going to judge.
Instead, she watched the show and idly flipped a small amber star charm that she’d been given earlier in the day between her fingers. Reaching down for the wine cooler that sat by her feet, Daisy tried to keep her eyes on the fireworks. She truly didn’t want to miss a moment of the display. Unfortunately, blindly groping for the bottle resulted in her managing to knock it over and quite liberally splashing her bare feet with boozy goodness.
“Oh ******** me,” she muttered as she leapt up, eyes turning from the sky to asses the damage at her feet. She would need to clean up quickly unless she wanted every fly in the area to come for her. She was about to head inside to clean up when a sudden brilliant flash of light illuminated the sky, accompanied by a bigger boom than she’d ever heard from a firework in her life. Crying out a little in pain, Daisy slammed her eyes shut instinctively and felt a gust of wind whip her hair for a brief moment. The sudden quiet might’ve been alarming if it wasn’t for the fact that when she opened her eyes, Daisy found that her vision was dimmed and blurred in a way that she knew wasn’t normal.
Biting her lip to keep from crying out, she closed her eyes again and then re-opened them. She could make out… dimly colored blurs? No details, no distinctions. Just... a mass of blur. Breath catching in fear, she could only assume that the brilliant flash she’d just the edges of, so to speak, had been bright enough to still hurt her eyes.
Holy hell, if I’d been looking up when it hit…
Who had ever heard of fireworks blinding someone watching them? Yet, she was certain that was what had happened. Moving carefully, she shook her feet off to rid them of any remaining wine cooler droplets and then went back into her apartment. Thank goodness she kept things clean and organized. She felt her way to the couch and sat on the arm, reaching for the phone and remote that she’d left on the cushions. She gently felt for the power button on the remote and tried to remember what she’d last been watching. Regardless, she knew it had been network rather than cable, so local news would show up sooner or later.
Then, blessing herself for having a nice, new cell phone, she cleared her throat and spoke to the device.
“Okay, Siri. I need you to call the Doc.”
She’d purposely programmed her doctor into the phone as The Doc, knowing that if she’d ever needed to call quickly, voice dialing would be best. And the simpler the name, the more likely it was that the call request would actually work. She knew her physician wouldn’t be open now, but they’d be there in the morning and they’d find a way to squeeze her in.
“Hey Doc, it’s Daisy Grace. I think I need to come in tomorrow for a kind of emergency. Just finished watching the fireworks and I think the last one kind of ******** me up. Please call me in the morning, thanks.”
She hung up and sighed, counting the TV as nothing more than background noise until certain words pierced through her worry.
“... reports of sudden vision loss from citizens watching tonight’s fireworks display. Destiny City officials are reporting that tonight’s display was unauthorized and they’re searching for the origin of the fireworks. Further details will be provided as we receive them. In the meantime, for everyone’s safety, please be aware of anyone who might be suffering from sudden blindness and offer assistance if possible.”
Sliding from the arm to the couch proper, Daisy flinched. Oh, that sounded so bad. She at least had her blurs and colors. It sounded like some people didn’t even have that much. She wasn’t going to let herself think about having been rendered partially blind for life. Instead, she was going to rest for a moment and then carefully make her way to the bathroom and clean herself up. Really, it was either that or sitting and wailing in fear and worry. And frankly, she’d never been much of a wailer.
Word Count: 848
