The Rumour around the office had always been that Ray Charles ate at the Mason Dixon. Bernice claimed to have spotted him having a clam chowder in one of the booths. Stan from the copy room had sworn that he had seen Ray drinking a hot chocolate one afternoon. But I had never believed any of it. Until I heard Ray Charles tell the real story of how he went blind, that is.
At first, I had been bothered by the couple in the booth behind me. They wouldn't shut up. How can I enjoy my fried ham steak with these people jabering in my ear, I thought. After fifteen minutes of listening to horrible stories of beastiality and heroin usage, I peered out from around my booth to yell at the two to quit ruining my lunch and to pipe down. It was then that I saw that the obnoxious person sitting behind me was Ray Charles.
"And then I went upside her head," I heard him say. I put down my fork. Intrigued, I listened more carefully. "Course, that was after I lost my sight for good," he said.
"When you were three?" the other voice asked.
"Naw," Ray said. "That's just what we feed the media. It all happened when I was twenty eight. I had just divorced my third wife. 'Baby It's Cold Outside' was a big hit. Everybody was already thinking back then that I was blind. But I could see. Sure as your sweet face, I could see."
A scoop, I thought. My editor will be proud. I took out my yellow pad and started taking notes.
"It was like this," Ray said. It sounded like once upon a time to me. "I was playing the Whiskey A Go Go in L.A. when I met this girl who went by the name of Wanda Lee. Wanda Lee was a big girl. Like a football player. And what shoulders. But I fell in love all the same. Me and Wanda started making the scene, right. We hit all the clubs. For weeks. Every cat knew we was together. Buddy Guy used to call her the lineback queen. B.B. King wanted to double date. She sure was something. Then I met Lizzy. Course I didn't tell Wanda Lee. Everything was fine as sugar in your coffee. Two women. What could be better? Yea, it was cool until I forgot my purple suit."
"Your what," Ray's companion chirped.
"My purple suit," Ray said. "I used to wear this classy purple suit. But I had left it back at my place. So I said to Lizzy, be a doll and go fetch me that suit. Well, she did. Only, Wanda Lee fetched her walking through the front door like a natural born woman."
"What happened," Ray's friend asked.
"Lizzy never came back," Ray said. "Like, I needed that suit, see? It was a big gig. I couldn't wait no more. So I went up there to see what had happened, and sure enough, Wanda Lee was waiting. I never knew what hit me. Later, they told me it was a pot of heated oil. Burned my eyes out. True story if there ever was one."
"And Lizzy?"
"Don't know. Never saw her ass again. But anyway, Wanda Lee left me after that. I paid the hospital bills. Didn't press charges though. I couldn't let word get round that all along I could see, could I? So that's how it is and how it was."
When the two paid their bill and left, I quickly threw some money on the counter and rushed upstairs to the office. My heart was ten minutes ahead of me. I burst into the editor's office and screamed, "Hold the presses." It seemed like a logical thing to do. My editor put down his copy of Penthouse and looked up at me with two angry eyes that could melt butter in an air conditioned room.
"What the hell is it now, Jimenez?" he said.
"I've got the biggest story of the eighties," I sputtered. Sweat was dripping down my face. "I just overheard Ray Charles downstairs explaining how he went blind. You'll never believe it! You'll never believe it!"
He didn't. He put my on the weekly calender. But I knew my story would get published one day. I knew that it wouldn't be long until one day a deadline would come, most of the writers would be drunk or asleep, and my story would be pulled from the slush pile and presented to the world. And yet, still no one believes me.