One cold snowy day in January was the day that Dr. and Mrs. Rabinowitz's lives were changed forever.
Following the urgent call from his wife, he sped home through the icy streets to take her to the hospital. Speeding through red light after red light, they finally reached Coloday Hospital.
Dr. Rabinowitz paced nervously down the white hospital hallways, anxiously awaiting the upcoming news. His pacing came to a halt when a grim nurse came out and told him something that made his nervous yet happy expression turn into one of shock.
"Dr. Rabinowitz, your wife has just given birth to a beautiful baby boy," the nurse said. "But, he was born blind."
Dr. Rabinowitz stood there shocked. His entire world had turned over in a mere second. He and his wife had been waiting so long to finally have a child. How carefully they arranged the room for the new baby, making sure that it would have every single luxury. They couldn't wait to finally have a child of their own to tend to and care for. Now they would have a poor child who could not see. How helpless the poor tiny creature was.
As soon as Dr. Rabinowitz came to from hearing the shocking news, he rushed into his wife's room to see how she was doing.
Seeing that his wife was fine, he looked over at his new son and a rush of love went through him, for the tiny scrap of a human in his wife's arms. He made a quiet resolution to himself, that this child would lack no love from him and his wife. As if reading his thoughts, a small smile crept up from his son's face.
As Danny grew older, he became very sheltered under his parents' care. He was never allowed to venture out alone, for fear that he might feel overwhelmed at the thought of being out all alone in a giant world.
Danny was very smart and intelligent, and he had a very keen sense of touch, smell, and hearing. One thing Danny despised above all was pity. He did not like the fact that people belittled him for being blind and helpless. In fact quite the opposite was true of him. He taught himself how to play the piano at the tender age of six. He used his keen sense of touch to help him glide his fingers over the keys. Since he was blind and could not read notes, he had a very sharp ear for music, and by the age of ten was already able to play any tune he heard.
So Danny wanted to prove to himself more than anything that he can overcome the limitations of being blind and be just like everyone else.
One day, when Danny was twelve years old, his parents finally allowed him to stay home on his own. At first they were very nervous about leaving a blind child alone in a large house; but, with Danny's determination to finally prove himself to be a normal boy, his parents were convinced, with much precaution, to leave him home alone.
Now Danny was a very curious boy who always wanted to find out new things. He had not yet explored some areas in his house, and was very anxious to do so.
He cautiously made his way down the stairs, holding tightly to the rail, and counting each step, so that he should not misstep and fall.
Since he was already quite familiar with the layout of the main floor, he decided to do his exploring down in the basement. So he gingerly made his way down the steps, nervous because he did not know how many steps there were, and one wrong move would mean toppling down the stairs head first.
As he reached the last step he carefully felt around with his foot for another step, still holding on the rail for protection. When he didn't feel any, he cautiously placed his foot on the floor and congratulated himself on making it down the steps safely.
As he neared the wall he placed his hands along it and slid against it so as not to bang into anything.
With his highly sensitive ears, he caught the sound of someone breathing. He became really nervous as he realized that it could only mean an intruder of some sort.
He decided to follow the sound of the breathing and to keep a safe distance from it, so he should not be seen. As he neared, he caught a disgusting whiff from a person, who his instincts told him to be, a man. His clothed smelled as if they'd been worn for weeks on end without washing. He smelled as if he hadn't showered in days, and he must have just smoked a recent cigarette.
Danny felt as if he had been seen, as the man suddenly jumped up on his feet and ran, brushing by Danny and nearly knocking him over.
With Danny's extra sensitive ears, he could hear him running in the direction of the front door. Luckily, the alarm system turned on also from the inside, if you did not punch in the correct numbers.
And of course, Danny's assumption was correct, for the alarm system did not go on. The man must have been scared off by it, and went to hide somewhere within the house.
Danny began to wonder to himself. How in the world did this man get into the house? Wouldn't the alarm go off if he entered through the back door which leads to the basement? No, he couldn't have entered through a door. The only other option could be that there was some sort of secret door in the basement that no one knew about. This thought cast shivers down his spine. A secret door in his very own house!
Danny decided to go around the basement and thump on the walls to see if any were hollow. As he neared the south wall, the wall pushed in as he thumped on it. So he was right! There was a secret passageway, and he had just discovered it!
As fast as he could run blindly, he went up the stairs and decided to find out where this guy was. He was determined to find him all on his own, to prove that he was not just any helpless boy; he had to prove that he was somebody, and like any other boy his age, if not better. After all, he single handedly found a secret passageway that had been hidden until now even to his parents.
He walked through the house feeling his way around, listening for any sound which might lead him to the intruder. When he came to the top floor, he heard the sound of very soft footsteps, that only someone with ears like Danny could hear. He figured that they were coming from somewhere in the attic. He rushed into his parents' room, and called the police.
Danny felt very good about what he had just done. If he hadn't chosen just that moment to do his exploring, he might never have found the man. He couldn't wait for his parents to come home and drop their mouths open in surprise at what he had just done.
Within minutes the police arrived, followed by his parents who were completely surprised at seeing the police go up to their front doorstep.
Danny quickly related to his parents and the police all that had occurred with the man and the secret passageway.
His parents were dumbfounded. Was this the boy who had been so sheltered by them, always thought of as the poor blind boy? Tears filled their eyes, and their hearts swelled with pride for their son.
Meanwhile, after finding the man in the attic, the police brought him down in handcuffs and begun questioning him. It turned out that he was from a small group of terrorists, and the secret passageway was their hideout for the past decade. They never had to walk into the house before because it opened up into a clearing in the forest. The guy that entered the house happened to be alone in the tunnel and he absentmindedly went out the wrong way. Upon seeing the boy, and not realizing he was blind, he decided to risk going upstairs and out the door, rather than let the boy know about the secret tunnel.
But Danny pointed out to him that since he was blind, it had given him an extra boost in finding him, because of his keen sense of hearing.
The police congratulated Danny on finding a group that had been causing the FBI a lot of trouble. "I still can't believe that you are a blind boy,'' the police commented. The police told him that there would be a great award coming to him the next day.
When Danny got his $10,000 reward the next day, it wasn't the money that made him happy, it was the feat that he had just accomplished only the day before that gave him reason to rejoice. He had finally fulfilled his goal, by proving that he wasn't just some helpless boy.
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