Bright Light Shines Through The Blind

By Sam N. Smoker

This is a story of triumph over adversity. Of the impact of youthful vision and leadership. A young girl musters up the courage to launch a movement of real consequence. A movement that wages war on behalf of undernourished poor kids all across America. The success of the movement requires overcoming severe limitations, and recognizing the national child hunger crisis for what it is: an intolerable blight on our society.
Even though the bright, vivacious 11-year-old survives a horrific accident, she suffers a major loss. During her recovery from surgery, she develops amazing abilities that defy analysis, but benefit her in various ways. Using a combination of prescience and inner fortitude, she compels classmates and adults to get off the sidelines and join the fight against malnutrition in children. She and her grandad, a well-known local restaurateur, show how food donors, restaurants, churches, and charitable organizations of all stripes can collaborate successfully to achieve objectives. Their well-coordinated efforts are effective in helping to provide nourishment to the 13,000,000 kids in America who too frequently go to bed hungry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Jan 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781456630171

Book preview

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Preface

This is a story of triumph over adversity. Of the impact of youthful vision and leadership. A young girl musters up the courage to launch a movement of real consequence. A movement that wages war on behalf of undernourished poor kids all across America. The success of the movement requires overcoming severe limitations, and recognizing the national child hunger crisis for what it is: an intolerable blight on our society.

Even though the bright, vivacious 11-year-old survives a horrific accident, she suffers a major loss. During her recovery from surgery, she develops amazing abilities that defy analysis, but benefit her in various ways. Using a combination of prescience and inner fortitude, she compels classmates and adults to get off the sidelines and join the fight against malnutrition in children. She and her grandad, a well-known local restaurateur, show how food donors, restaurants, churches, and charitable organizations of all stripes can collaborate successfully to achieve objectives. Their well-coordinated efforts are effective in helping to provide nourishment to the 13,000,000 kids in America who too frequently go to bed hungry.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:

Heads up! Trouble’s coming!

Chapter 2:

Why, oh, why! Time for soul searching!

Chapter 3:

No doubt about it! We have a problem!

Chapter 4:

Stand by! Time to hurry up and wait!

Chapter 5:

Hold on! Answers are coming!

Chapter 6:

Good grief! You can’t be serious!

Chapter 7:

Whoa, a mind meld! That’s shocking!

Chapter 8:

Okay, then! Time for forward planning!

Chapter 9:

Wait a sec! That doesn’t seem possible!

Chapter 10:

C’mon! There’s gotta be a trick!

Chapter 11:

Lighten up! There’s fun and games in the kitchen!

Chapter 12:

Wake up! All kids need proper nutrition!

Chapter 13:

How about that! Containment is possible!

Chapter 14:

Face it! No kid deserves hunger!

Chapter 15:

Success! So tell us how you did it!

About the Author

Chapter 1:

Heads up! Trouble’s coming!

A shot rings out. A .22-caliber lead bullet rips through the crisp autumn air. A bright green glass container shatters in a thousand pieces. Two young girls fall to the ground. School kids look on in shock and disbelief. The young shooter drops the gun and screams. At 8:16 in the morning, on a crowded school playground in the suburbs of Broadscape Heights, hearts, minds, and lives are changed.

7:20 that morning: Tommy, a third-grader at MLK Hilltop Elementary, awaits his mom’s call to breakfast. For no particular reason, he wanders into his dad’s workshop. To his surprise, there on the workbench is a cobalt-blue plastic pistol. Tommy picks it up and examines it. He is wowed by its slick feel and cool looks. He decides to take it to school and show it off. His buddies will marvel at how real a plastic toy can look. Tommy doesn’t want an argument with his parents, so he hides the gun in his backpack without telling them.

8:05: Tommy, wearing blue jeans and a brown jersey, has arrived at the school playground. Classes haven’t started yet, and Tommy is showing his shiny plastic toy to several curious kids. Georgia, a very popular straight-A’s fifth grader with dark hair and a bright smile, has just been dropped off by her grandad Otto.

Chef Otto, as he’s known, is owner and head chef at American Café Inclusion (known by the locals simply as Big ACI). It’s down on Willow Oak Avenue. Though its name says Café, it is actually a full-service restaurant, one of the largest in Broadscape Heights. It features a wide variety of cuisines and special dishes.

Georgia idolizes her grandad for his keen wit and his amazing cooking skills. She loves hanging out at the restaurant after hours and going through his favorite recipes with him. Her love for the kitchen and learning new cooking techniques runs deep.

Chef Otto proudly tells his Big ACI customers Georgia has more cooking knowhow than any other kid in Broadscape Heights. She soaks up information like a sponge, he’s fond of saying, always trying to learn more about nutrition. She finds the relationship between nutrition and physical and mental health very intriguing.

This morning, on the way to school, they’ve stopped off at a local soup kitchen. The much-needed food and supplies they delivered will help feed poor kids in the area.

This evening, they’ll make a stop at the local supermarket to load up on groceries—fresh meats and healthful vegetables. Nutritious food that will be delivered to several needy families—with undernourished kids.

8:12: Georgia, standing just 10 feet from Tommy, is showing something to her classmate Frieda. It’s a large green glass jar she’s brought from home. The yellow-and-white lid is screwed on tightly. Inside it are different-sized plastic baggies she’s filled with uncooked rice, dried beans, Cajun spices, and dried herbs. This afternoon, she’ll cook up a recipe of Southern red beans and rice in Ms. Connie’s weekly Cook-and-Share session in the school kitchen.

8:15: Chef Otto’s car returns to the school. Georgia’s five-year-old sister, Vivian, has remembered she didn’t say goodbye to Georgia. She’s asked her grandad to circle back to the school playground. She spots Georgia on the playground and goes to her.

Meanwhile, Tommy is allowing his friends quick peeks down the barrel of the pistol. They, too, are fascinated with the very real-looking features of this totally plastic piece. Tommy takes the gun from them and begins playfully twirling it on his finger. He’s seen lots of cowboys do this in old TV Westerns.

8:16: Vivian tells Georgia why she’s returned—because she forgot to say goodbye. Georgia bends over and touches her forehead to Vivian’s head, as she always does. She tells her to have a great day. She’s holding the jar between them.

Suddenly—a loud pop! The gun goes off! The glass jar explodes! Both girls drop like rocks to the ground! For a brief moment, everyone on the playground freezes, trying to grasp the horror unfolding in front of them. Only Tommy’s scream is heard.

Chef Otto, waiting patiently in the car, hears the pop and the scream, and looks to his right. He sees his granddaughters on the ground, motionless. In a flash, he leaps from the car, and sprints to where they lie. Neither is moving, and blood is spurting from gashes in both their heads.

Shocked, his mind racing, he kneels by them. He feels his heart pounding, almost out of control. He fights the emotional distress that’s tying knots in his stomach. Determined not to panic, he tears off his shirt and rips it in two.

He wraps one half around Georgia’s head, and the other around Vivian’s. He ties both tightly to try and slow the flow of blood. He whispers to both girls, trying to comfort them, although sensing they’re unconscious.

Chef Otto: I’m right here with you, Gigi (he calls Georgia by her nickname). Vivi (he uses Vivian’s nickname as well), stay still and we’ll take care of you. It’s going to be okay.

He looks up at the startled kids standing in a semicircle around him and recognizes Georgia’s friend Frieda.

Chef Otto: Frieda, need you to help! Go inside and tell any teachers you see to call 911 right away. Then tell them to bring first aid immediately. Hurry, please!

Frieda: Going!

Frieda races into the schoolhouse. Two teachers, affectionately called Ms. Molly and Ms. Connie by their students, emerge in a matter of seconds with first aid kits. Ms. Connie removes the cloth tied around Georgia’s head. She applies disinfectants and compression bandages to the most serious wounds, and re-wraps her head in sterile gauze. She checks Georgia’s breathing and heartrate. Thankfully, no resuscitation efforts are needed.

Ms. Molly does the same for Vivian, sterilizing and re-bandaging her head wounds, and checking vital signs. She dresses smaller cuts on the necks and arms of both girls.

Frieda is fortunate—Georgia’s stance has shielded her from the flying glass. She sits by Georgia’s side, holding her hand, talking to her in a low quivering voice. She tells her to hang in there, help is on the way.

8:37: Two white ambulances with large red crosses on their sides roll away from the school playground, lights flashing, sirens blaring. They speed down the school access road to the Downtown Bypass, heading directly to the Broadscape Heights Municipal Hospital emergency room.

Inside the first vehicle, belted to a locked-down stretcher, lies Georgia. Her head is almost completely wrapped in bandages, and she’s still unconscious. An emergency medical technician is strapped in a seat to Georgia’s left, closely monitoring her vital signs, and preparing to supply blood if needed.

Up front with the driver sits Chef Otto, also strapped in his seat. He’s trying hard not to lapse into dire thoughts. But his eyes betray a sense of deep concern, a quiet dread of what might lie ahead.

In the second ambulance, also belted to her stretcher, lies Vivian. She, like her older sister, has not regained consciousness. Her bandages appear to have stemmed the bleeding. But an EMT is monitoring for signs of trouble, just the same.

Chef Otto frowns. His anxieties grow with each slow crawl through an intersection. Shouldn’t traffic lights turn green for the ambulance? Shouldn’t we be at the hospital by now? Why are drivers so damn slow to pull over?  Time drags…and drags…minutes seem to stretch into hours.

Chapter 2:

Why, oh, why! Time for soul searching!

It’s 8:41, and the school playground has been cleared of students. The plastic gun lies where Tommy dropped it, 25 minutes ago. Principal Will Grammar sticks a little red flag in the ground beside it. He again calls the Broadscape Heights Police Department. Yes, he’s told, officers are on their way.

He sticks two more little red flags in the ground to mark where the two girls’ heads had lain. The grass is bloodstained. Small fragments of green glass are all around. He gives one last long look around, then returns to his office, where Tommy is waiting for him.

Tommy’s mind is completely numb. He can’t process what has just happened. And struggles to understand what went wrong. It’s beyond his imagination that the plastic pistol he’s brought to school fired a real bullet. His face is pale, and his hands shake uncontrollably. He breathes heavily.

Principal Will: Tommy, try to take a deep breath and calm down. I know you’re shaken up, but I want you to know we’re all here to help you get through this. I’ve called your dad and he’s on the way. When he gets here, I want you to take your