The Ivory and the Ebony: Abrupt Retirement
I had just turned 15, and beginning to learn a movement of a Beethoven concerto, & my mom had turned on the radio in the kitchen, like she usually does when she’s going to read the paper. Being blind has its advantages; you can multi-task listening. But this was the 1 time it betrayed me.
I began playing when the man on the radio announced that our commisioner had “abruptly retired.” My mom’s coffee mug shattered on the floor; my heart sank to the pit of my stomach. Commissioner Lizer had been the best thing that happened for the handicapped ever. He allowed them to work and enforced laws to protect them. He sympethized with them, as he himself was paralyzed from the waist down as a boy. Who would be his successor? If he wasn’t commisioner, what would happen to those like myself? The radio announcer continued by saying Darren Pliker would become commisioner in Lizer’s place. I was petrified; what sorts of things would happen to us?
I got my answer a lot sooner than I thought.