Eyes that see in the dark

29 May 2003 ~ 16:29

This is just for his curiosity�s sake, but from what I�ve seen, Mark gets around quite well in the dark. So much so that anyone would be led to believe that his moniker, nightdragon, is quite accurate.

He prefers the dark. On the weekend, he loves to sit in the bedroom with the curtains drawn. And at night, he�ll often be found completely in the dark with only the light of the computer monitor as a beacon. I love the light � I�ll turn all the lights on even on a perfectly sunny day. But if Mark were to walk in, he�d just shout, �For Chrissakes,� and proceed to shut all the lights off. And that, pretty much, is that. And he loves to take his baths in the dark too. Rarely do I see him bathing with the bathroom light on. And he loves to be alone with his thoughts in the dark.

This is not to say that he�s Goth or exceptionally brooding. He just simply likes being in the dark, simple as that. It�s funny that there are two sides to him � the sun-worshipper versus the light phobic. In other words, if he�s not catching rays on a hot day, he�d rather be in a room with the lights off. My hubby is clearly not a man afraid of the dark. At least not in places he knows and is familiar with. The cellar in his parents� home used to spook him a bit but he once told me that he would even sit in the pitch black down there at times.

He moves extremely well in the dark. It used to be that, when coming back from dinner in Norwood, he liked to walk through the park on the way back home. I couldn�t see the stairs, or any rocks or mud in my way; I was nearly blind. Mark would hold my hand and say, �OK, step down here,� and �Watch out for that mud slick.� How on earth he does this is beyond me.

But one night, his strong night eyes really floored me. There was a blackout and not only our flat was affected, but the entire street. Everything was plunged into complete pitch blackness. I just stood where I�d been when the lights went off, in the corner by the bathroom and dared not move for fear of smacking right into a wall or doorway. For a few seconds, Mark was as blind as me. But then, he moved from where he was in the living room, walked all the way through the room, negotiated the L-shaped foyer into the kitchen, found the drawer with a butane lighter in it and lit a candle. All this in a near total absence of any light whatsoever.

All I can tell the hubby is that if it costs any extra to get his vision in the dark checked, don�t bother. I can tell you right now, he may be near-sighted but when it comes to the dark, his eyes are like headlights.


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