TRAVELER
by
Robert Leslie Newman
Copyright 10-27-97
"SQUEAL!"
"Humidity this time of year can make these doors just about sing." Said Samuel Patrick, my travel instructor. We were heading out to the parking lot. It would be my first experience using a long white cane in this type of setting. I'd ben working in the building learning the Two Point Touch Technique and had worked in the neighborhood. Today would be a new set of challenges and lessons learned.
"Ah." I said, already beginning to slide my feet no longer tapping my cane but dragging its tip from side to side in anticipation. "What's it look like out here?"
"What direction are you facing?" Was Samuel's prompt.
"South." Cardinal directions had been hard for me at first. "Where's your sun cue."
"Left cheek." His asking made me notice; I need'd to do that for myself.
"Hear that car?"
"Yeah, ahead and off a ways." It was moving at a pretty good clip from right to left. "Must be the street."
"Correct. Valley Road, the southern boarder of this parking lot. About a third of a block away. What way is that car going?"
"East." Knowing how far moving vehicles were away was definitely something I had to get on to. Going back to something I'd asked earlier, "What does it look like between here and there? I know there's parking around the edges and somewhere in the middle."
"I suppose the other students told you about it. So picture this: The lot is rectangular, running long ways east to west. A horse-shoe shaped drive-way comes in and out from the south. Parking is around the inside and outside of the shoe, but not up here at the north end against the building."
"Okay." I didn't really feel I had it mapped out in my minds-eye, but other students said you eventually get use to doing it this way.
"Straight out across the drive is the top of the middle section of the horse-shoe. Let's go over to it."
Not hearing anything coming, I stepped down off the curb. Remembering Samuel said when crossing a street walk fast, I got going as speedily as I could. My ark and tap didn't quite match my stride, but I at least felt good I noticed. Even then, getting to the other curb seemed to take for ever.
"Pretty good. Gets better with each crossing," Samuel said. "What I want you to do is take a minute or two and check out the top section of this, well let's call it an island."
Dragging my tip around to the left until it fell off the curb, I headed that way. I concentrated on following the edge, still arcking to my right, cautious not to get too close to that drop-off.
"Where is the sun?" Samuel asked before I had gotten too far.
"Ah." I had to nearly stop before I could answer. "Right cheek."
"What direction are you moving in?"
"East."
"Correct." Samuel's usual affirmative answer. He said "right" could give the wrong message.
I followed the curb for what seemed to be about a mile, to where it shot off at a right angle to the left. "What is it doing here?"
"What do you think?" I should have guessed Samuel would respond with a question. It was this staff's way of getting you to think it out for yourself.
"Ah." Feeling it over again with my cane, resisting reaching out with a toe. "I don't think I got all the way down to the street and that sidewalk."
"Where is the sun?" Samuel prompted.
"left ear. Is this center island cut in on this side for parking?"
"Keep checking." Was his encouragement.
Keeping the warmth of the sun on my left ear, in about two strides further I found another drop off with a curb going off at another right angle to the left and a corner where a curb from straight ahead merged. "Cut in on this side too..... Hey, bet this island looks like a big sucker!"
"Pretty good. But more like a mushroom. So now that you've gotten that figured out, let's continue south to the east-west sidewalk."
Working back to the central trunk of the island, I felt good to have put a picture on this piece of the puzzle. Heading down the central walk, I even remembered to take note of my sun cue. "BONG!" The cane vibrated in my hand, my heart thumped in my throat.
"What is it?" Samuel asked, not at all nerved up.
Forgetting I could find what ever it was again with my cane, I reached out with my hand and with a little bit of waving around found a smooth metal surface. "Light pole. Ah, what can I say."
"How about, glad I was staying behind this protective ark and didn't find it with my body." Was Samuel's come back and I agreed.
"Guess I'd better pay more attention to that part of the technique. There are more than drop-offs in this world."
"Chink!" My very next ark to the left. "Car! Must be the license plate. Bet I find a bunch of cars with their noses up over the edge of the walk." I kept going, half bracing myself to find another lamp pole or some other unexpected obstacle. I was beginning to feel okay about this route, even encouraged about traveling blind.
"SWISH." My right ark brought my cane in contact with what I took to be a branch of a bush.
"VROOM!" Ahead a truck moved from left to right. I had been so involved in concentrating on dodging a second pole, zig zagging between car bumpers, I hadn't heard it coming. Its appearance into my immediate world made the hair rise on the back of my neck. A reminder I wasn't yet getting the larger auditory view of my surroundings.
"What did that tell you?" Samuel asked.
"Close to the east-west walk. He was going west." Hitting the bushes again. "These bushes are a good land-mark for the island."
"Information like that is good in known territory." His cane found mine as he came around to face me; didn't remember him making any noise with his cane until now. "Travel east to the drive way and turn into the lot. We'll walk around the outer perimeter from this south east corner, to where the south-west driveway empties out on to the street. From there," tapping his cane on the walk, "to right back here. Okay?"
Shore-lining the grass on the south edge of the walk I headed east. At this stage of my skill level, following that guide line seemed to help me to walk straighter.
"Here is the drive,"
"How can you tell?"
"No grass line on my right and it slants down toward the street. I had gotten on right away to detecting the slant of the surface under foot, like drives usually have and sidewalks at the end of a block. Samuel called it having educated ankles.
"Anything else?" This further questioning told me I was missing something.
I listened around. A few cars had come and gone since we had started, but now nothing. I took stock of the sun, right cheek. I scuff my shoe on the drive-way, "CRUNCH!"
"What's your shoes scraping on?"
"Gravel or something like that....." I said, still puzzled.
"Yes, gravel or some other debree brought in from the street. You'll find that sort of thing over a drive-way that gets a lot of in and out traffic. Just another small piece of the puzzle which can help." Moving to my street side, he went on. "Go ahead and turn up into the lot and let's find the cars parked along the east boundary."
The next section of the lesson went from side to side and all around the lot. Sometimes I had us pictured correctly where things were and other times I had to be helped by questions to figure it out. There was even a time when I didn't hear a car coming around the drive and Samuel let me go nearly out to meet it before he said something.
By the time Samuel felt I had enough for the day, I was feeling I had gone around in circles and wasn't quite sure just where I was. Maybe we were back to that spot where Samuel had tapped the walk and said that we would return to. Nevertheless, when he said, "Find your way back into the building," I was nearly ready to throw in the towel and ask him for directions. But I didn't. Instead I took a deep breath to calm my senses, so I could try to make use of them.
First, the sun. I turned until I had the warmth of it coming from the rear and on my right ear and shoulder. I remembered when I had come out it was on my left and it hadn't gotten too late for it to be much different.
Second, I listened. Soon a car came from the east and passed behind me. There was Valley Road. Almost immediately, a second one came from the west and turned into the drive at my left. It drove around the curve of the drive and stopped straight out in front of me.
"SLAM!" Went a car door. "SQUEALl!" Went the front door of the building. "SNAP!" Went the big picture into my minds-eye. I was oriented, I had the whole scene.
Reaching out to the right and left with my cane, there were the bushes on either side of the central walk. I knew I'd remember this moment, the first time I could really think like a blind traveler.