The Blind Fortune Teller
I’ve seen a specific individual performed a number of activities that still have me mesmerized. These things that a blind man did I found to be remarkable. I lived in a place where disability is seen as inability. In Grenada, an individual with a disability is seen as dependent and reliant on others, and unable to do anything for oneself. Nonetheless, Dion proved us wrong by doing stunts even a normal person would have difficulty executing.
Dion is from my hometown Sauteurs, St. Patrick’s. He is blind, tall, good-looking, with a toned, brown-skinned body. He is approximately five years older than me. I can remember Dion as a boy sitting on my alma mater steps beating an aluminum tin to make music as he chorused calypsos with his cousin, Elimus. It was during that time I got to know him, and from then on, I was fascinated by many of the things he did.
One day, as I was walking home from school, there were many boys skateboarding down Belfon Hill. Each boy was moving down the hill with their different acrobatic style of riding the board. Some had their hands extended upwards with both feet on the board, others had their hands by their sides, and there were some with only one foot on the board and with the other flexed backwards. They did balance checks once in a while by opening out their hands to their sides with both feet on the boards. All this movement was being done on a skateboard moving with a speed of approximately thirty to forty miles per hour. They all put one foot on the ground and pressed the other to the back of the board causing the front to lift up, and then they came to a stop. It was a beautiful sight. When I reached the boys who just rode past me at the bottom of the hill and started greeting and complimenting them on their skills, I was shocked to see who was skating among them. It was Dion. He rode that skateboard just as any of the other boys. I wondered, how did he know where he was going and how to guide the board accurately down the hill?
“How did he do that?” I asked one of the boys.
“He just can,” he answered.
As a teenager, one Saturday in August during my high school summer vacation, my friends and I went on the beach. Dion was among us on the beach. We proceeded to pick coconuts on a tree nearby. Yes, the boys had to climb the tree to pick the coconuts. The coconut tree was approximately fifteen to twenty feet tall. As Bryan started to climb the tree he slipped and fell off, followed by two other boys.
“Let me show you guys how to climb this tree,” Dion said.
We started laughing because we believed that he wouldn’t even be able to get up on the tree at all. Dion ignored our laughter and went to the tree and held onto it. He then extended his arms and pulled himself up with his legs wrapped around the trunk. He continued this upward hugging motion pulling himself upwards on the tree, until he got to the top where the coconuts were. We started shouting and cheering with claps. I was all flushed with goose bumps all over.
“How much to pick?” He shouted.
“As much as you can get!” Bryan exclaimed.
Dion climbed that tree and was picking coconuts on the beach. He picked and threw down the coconuts. When he finished, he gently slide down the tree in a hopping motion with his hands around the trunk and his feet pressing against it. My heart started to race. He was so athletic and skillful. He came down very quickly. I sat on the sand with my mouth barred, my legs shaking, and with eyes wide open in disbelief; we were proud of him. After that time, I tried not to question his abilities or doubt him on his capabilities.
As time went by, Dion continued to do many unexpected things for someone who is blind. He did his usual walking through Sauteurs without a cane, running, and even riding bicycles. After composing numerous songs together with Elimus, who became one of the top calypsonians on the island, he ventured out on his own to become one of the most loved calypsoian in Grenada as well, known as “The Blind Fortune Teller.”
Just before I came to Texas, I saw Dion doing the most unbelievable thing. I was passing near to the police station (he lived just behind the building), when I saw someone reversing a car to turn it, so I stopped. After reversing, I realized the car was coming my way. As the car came closer I saw the driver, and it was Dion. I thought I was in a trance. I said to myself, “Oh my God, I am not seeing this. Dion can drive. The police letting Dion drive. How he seeing to drive? But he blind. What …?”
“Dion!” I yelled.
“Aye!” he answered.
“What you doing driving?” I shouted.
He laughed and said, “Stacey, you didn’t know I could drive?”
I said, “No!”
“I going down the road to come back,” he said. “You want a ride?”
As much as I loved Dion and knew he had many abilities, I was scared. Dion was driving a car. So I said, “I have to go by the supermarket and then to the bank. I’ll walk; I need the exercise.”
“Later,” he replied, and drove off.
About twenty minutes later when I was going toward the bank, I saw Dion driving back. My bottom jaw fell open, and I started laughing nervously. I was astonished. This sight would have been unbelievable to me if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. This was the greatest thing to have ever observed; Dion drove this car through Sauteurs without hitting anyone or anything! Bizarre, isn’t it?
As a boy, Dion was not totally blind. He was able to see slightly, however, it was a very blurred vision. The only thing that can explain these phenomenal abilities of his is that he had learned Sauteurs very well as a child, and his other senses had evolved more than normal. That is why he is able to know where he is going and know who he is talking to by the sound of their voices in his hometown. The driving aspect is still incomprehensible to me. These were some of the most remarkable things I have ever experienced as a person: witnessing someone without vision living and doing exceptional things as a normal person without ever posing problems to anyone else. This is truly extraordinary.
Copyright 2003
Property of Stacey Paryag