Pictures of Lilly ~ Lilly Good End

[Andonymos]

Okay. Another write that I did, though I remember this one not being terribly well received. I like it, though.



Original idea was from an Anon, posted a couple months ago.
If you read this, thanks.

Title is from "Pictures of Lily," by The Who.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Not sure if I should mention this, but prepare for sad.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Conciseness slowly comes to Mrs. Lilly Satou Nakai. She's unaware of her surroundings at first, as anyone who had just awoken from anesthetics would be. A calming, male voice is the first real thing to contact her.

"Mrs. Nakai? Are we awake?"
"Mostly. I'm still fairly woozy, however."
"That's to be expected, Miss Nakai. You were, after all, the first patient to receive any surgery of this kind, so we had to keep you under for quite a while."
"Ah, yes. Surgery... my eyes... did it all go as planned?"
"Yes, Mrs. Nakai, your surgery went by very smoothly. It only took seventeen hours to perform, as opposed to the twenty-six hours originally predicted. Our robotic surgeons work much more quickly and accurately than what was originally predicted when this research went in for initial testing three years ago."

Three years ago... that timeframe irked Lilly greatly, but she decided not to show it. This is a good time, she decided, and instead of feeling down about the past, she should be excited to realize a world which had been completely cut off to her since her birth almost thirty years before.

"Well then," continues the doctor, "it'll be safe for us to take off those bandages around your new eyes. Are you ready for this moment?"
"Yes, I am."

She wasn't.

The doctor peels away the strands of cloth from around Lilly's head, and the world which she has lived in all her life is suddenly, entirely, new. The intensity of the white walls in the hospital assault Lilly's eyes before she can react. She reflexively shuts her eyes and arches downwards.

"Heh, a bit staggering, is it?"

Lilly says nothing. She's in absolute awe. That one moment of pain was unbelievable to her. She struggles to open her eyes again, and eventually manages to adjust to the white light of the hospital. She finds herself facing the second-in-charge of the project which has led her to sight.

"So, was it successful?"
Lilly is captivated by every movement he makes. Every time his lips move, his eyes blink, or he shuffles the papers on his clipboards, Lilly notices. Tears begin working down her face.

"Yes. I-I can see now. You, this bed, this room, everything. It's... it's unbelievable."
Words can't describe the overwhelming flood of emotions flowing over Lilly at the moment. She can barely push out words as she cries.

The doctor gives Lilly a moment to take it all in. This is, after all, the first time anything like this has ever happened. Cochlear implants have been successful since the mid-nineteen-seventies, but there is an immense gap between the acquirement of sound versus that of sight. After a couple minutes of sobbing, he chimes in.

"So, Mrs. Nakai, this is all new to you, so we'll begin teaching you very soon about basic things in the visual world which you have never experienced. Color, for example. The color you're seeing the most right now is probably white. Like this piece of paper. This is white. But those "get well soon" balloons behind me are red."

Lilly is glued to his every word. Colors were something she never truly understood, and something which had caused many people to trip upon their words when they were around her. She knew all the names to the seven basic colors, but she had nothing to attach them to besides several objects. And these objects were still things which she would have difficulty recognizing without holding them. So much to learn...

"I'd like to start now. Learning about sight, that is. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself."
The doctor smiles enthusiastically.
"Alright. I'll go grab our teacher for you. I'll check up on you later, Lilly."
He leaves Lilly alone in her room to look around at everything around her.

~~

"Hey! Lilly! Over here!" Akira's booming voice draws the eyes of Lilly from across the waiting room. It takes her a moment to connect the voice to the face, and then Lilly rushes through the crowds and into her sister's arms.
"Akira! This is so wonderful! I can see! It worked! When I woke up, they pulled the bandages away, and it hurt for a second, but now I can see! Then- then they took me aside and taught me about all kinds of things, like colors and some basic objects like cars and boats, and... It's all so wonderful, Aki-"

She looks over Akira's shoulders towards another woman. She's about as tall as Akira, but her hair is much darker and longer. Lilly also notices something different about the right side of the woman's body... they must be burn scars, so this woman must be...
"Hanako! It's so nice to finally see you."
"L-Lilly..." Hanako retracts somewhat. She seems afraid of what Lilly with think of her now that she has sight.
"You're beautiful, Hanako. I'm glad that you're one of the first people I have the pleasure of seeing." Hanako blushes and buries her face in Lilly's shoulder as they hug, feeling relieved.

Since leaving high school, Hanako has been working diligently as a news reporter for one of the larger companies in Japan. She doesn't write for any "paper," for print has been long-since abandoned in the presence of larger information mediums such as the internet. Her stories often did make the front page of the company's website, albeit under a pseudonym.


"Ah, shit."

Both heads turn to Akira as she reaches melancholic-ly into her back pocket. Out comes her wallet, and from her wallet comes a picture. She stares the picture down hard before handing it over to Lilly without saying a word.

"I'd almost forgot."

It's a picture of a man. He's tall and thin. His eyes and hair are... brown. That's the color, she remembers, brown. His eyes and hair are brown, and his suit jacket is white and goes down to his calves. His hair looks unkempt, and there are dark circles under his eyes from a lack of sleep.

Lilly is unsure of what to make of this picture. She's only been a part of the world of the seeing for a few hours now, and is still having troubles connecting it to the world of the blind. She attempts bridging the two by holding out her hands and "feeling" what she sees. As she sees his cheeks, she runs her hands across the imaginary cheeks in front of her. Realization begins slowly washing over her as she continues around his chin, then his ears, to his eyes and to his forehead. Tears spill over as she runs her hand through his hair one last time.

"It... This is Hisao, isn't it?"

Akira and Hanako solemnly nod.

"He gave it to me when he was almost done with his research. Said that he had felt like he was reaching the end of his life. Wanted you to have something in case he... well..."



This is a picture of the late Dr. Hisao Nakai.



Project Manager and Head Researcher of the "Sight to the Blind" project.
Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Husband to Lilly Satou Nakai.

Deceased, due to a sudden heart attack three years ago.


Pictures were all she had left of him.









~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't think it's perfect, so please feel free to scrutinize.

[Elcor]

Seriously Great, still very gut wrenching (I forgot I had read this on your pastebin and thought it was a repost)

[Mirage_GSM]

Beautiful story.
No idea what else to say...

[griffon8]

Very nice. I knew how it was going to end, but it was still effective.

Just one minor thing: Nobel Prizes are not given posthumously.

Actually, the timeline you present says that Hisao became a doctor by the age of 27. That would be… exceptional.

[Andonymos]

Seriously Great, still very gut wrenching (I forgot I had read this on your pastebin and thought it was a repost)

Gah, I forgot the original paste, didn't I? It's in there now.

Beautiful story.No idea what else to say...

Glad you liked it.

Very nice. I knew how it was going to end, but it was still effective.

Just one minor thing: Nobel Prizes are not given posthumously.

Actually, the timeline you present says that Hisao became a doctor by the age of 27. That would be… exceptional.

My thought was that he completed the research, but the federal processes took too long. He got the Prize while still alive, but it was only applied to humans after he died.

And the doctor thing... He gets out of High School at age 18, that leaves 9 years to school? That's close...
I didn't put much thought into that part, though Hisao was a natural science buff...

[The O.H.L.]

Well, that killed my Saturday night mood.

[TheSongofRaven]

Ok, so Hisao is passed away and....his eyes was given to Lilly ? Man, this was so sad

*Theme song : OASIS - Stop Crying Your Heat Out

[Andonymos]

Ok, so Hisao is passed away and....his eyes was given to Lilly ? Man, this was so sad

No, his research lead to Lilly gaining her eyesight back. But all that's left of him are pictures.

That's a great idea, though. I wish I could have tied that in...

[TheSongofRaven]

Ok, so Hisao is passed away and....his eyes was given to Lilly ? Man, this was so sad

No, his research lead to Lilly gaining her eyesight back. But all that's left of him are pictures.

That's a great idea, though. I wish I could have tied that in...

Yeah, i wish that too. But, eye giving and research could lead about that interested add more story ?

[Yellow 13]

So sad

[griffon8]

My thought was that he completed the research, but the federal processes took too long. He got the Prize while still alive, but it was only applied to humans after he died.

And the doctor thing... He gets out of High School at age 18, that leaves 9 years to school? That's close...
I didn't put much thought into that part, though Hisao was a natural science buff...

That would make him the second youngest winner of a Nobel Prize. The youngest was 25. The next four were all 31. All of those were in physics. The youngest winner in medicine was 32.

And he did it in 1923.

Whatever. It's your story. Don't let me stop you. Like I said, I enjoyed it.

[Andonymos]

That would make him the second youngest winner of a Nobel Prize. The youngest was 25. The next four were all 31. All of those were in physics. The youngest winner in medicine was 32.

And he did it in 1923.

Whatever. It's your story. Don't let me stop you. Like I said, I enjoyed it.

No problems. The first time I posted this, people questioned the science more than critiqued the work.

Glad you liked it~

[griffon8]

Forgot to mention that the youngest winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine was for co-discovering insulin. You know, nothing much.

[Band of Bones]

Minor nitpicks:

The very first word should be "Consciousness" - you wrote "Conciseness", which means "clear and crisp" as opposed to "awake".
A couple of lines later, the surgeon says "Miss" Nakai once.

Nice idea, has all kinds of potential for more in depth treatment too (What if Lily does not really want to see and only does this because it is the legacy of her beloved Hisao? What if she slowly discovers how seeing is not all it is cracked up to be and in the end does not cope? Learning to see (depth perception especially) also is a mighty involved process which takes toddlers years (and lots of bruises) to perfect).

Short and sweet and inspiring. Well done, thank you for sharing.

[hdkv]

And the doctor thing... He gets out of High School at age 18, that leaves 9 years to school? That's close...
I didn't put much thought into that part, though Hisao was a natural science buff...
That would make him the second youngest winner of a Nobel Prize. The youngest was 25. The next four were all 31. All of those were in physics. The youngest winner in medicine was 32.

Right now artificial eyes are still considered almost impossible, so one, who actually create one of those will get all the Nobel Prizes they deserve at any age

I really enjoyed this short story. It always sad when story contains deceased Hisao, but this time he left the world with one of the most groundbreaking innovation humanity ever experienced.

And it's very heartwarming that first to receive the fruits of such an invention is his wife. Well, he did all of this for her in the first place. And now she can experience the world fully.