Mama's hand is big and strong but it's also cold. Still it means we are going on a walk. "Cane?" I ask, reaching out for it. "Oh you want it today? Well that's a change from yesterday." I of course have no idea what she means. A stick with soft bumps is placed in my hand and I close my fingers around it. It makes a nice clack clack sound as I tap it on the hard floor. "Outside!!" Mama lets go of my hand and I feel my stomach drop and a quiver in my lower lip. Something presses under my chin, it's mama's finger. "You can do this. Im right here, but you have to do this your self. Remember just feel what the cane feels." I swallow and nod bravely. After mama helped me with the stairs we're in the grass. I like the soft smell from it. It's firm under my feet but sometimes a little bumpy. I try to use my cane and feel where the bumps are. I keep walking and sneeze when something feathery and soft brushes my face. I reach up with my free hand. "Dog?" I asked my it doesn't feel like a dog. "Reeds" mama says. I run my fingers through it again. "Now listen," mama says and he concentrates really hard on the sound. A very high pitched peeping sound, Brup brup, that ones a frog he remembers it. "Shhhhhhh," mama says. "Hear it saying shhhhh." He listed really hard scrunching up his face. "I hear it! It's kind of.... it's like the sink." "Yes, it's like the sink because they both have water. Now I want you to take two big steps back. Ok take two big steps back." I do as she asks and feel around with my cane. "Follow my voice, feel with your cane." I walk with my cane moving. "Side to side, baby. Not up and down. Side to side. Touch the ground ahead on one side then the other." I grin and try it. I reach out my hand and feel something like a wall but it's not as smooth, and it feels more like up and down lines. "This is the fence okay?" "Fence." I tap it with my cane. It clacks like the floor, but the sound is a little duller. "This fence keeps you safe because of the pond." There's a musical note, the doorbell ringing. "Mama, door!" I tap the fence. I run toward where I'm pretty sure the house is and my shoe catches in a pit. I fall in and the ground is hard. It tastes yucky and bitter and I spit. "Aaaaghhhgh!!!" I grab grass in my hands and feel the satisfying rip as I pull it up.
