Fred never really liked smartphones, he didn't find them enjoyable to use or waste time using. Now you may think his dislike comes from him being blind, but it goes deeper into how he sees how these phones disconnect us from each other. To Fred, his lack of eyesight is like someone with scar on their arm, it's just another interesting thing about that person. But unlike a scar, its given him the ability to see the world differently.

    As every day begins, he gets out of bed, takes three steps forwards and two to the left to get to his wardrobe where he reaches all the way to the left. Thats where he keeps his weekend clothes. Once dressed he follows the wall to the left of the wardrobe until he reaches the kitchen where he cooks himself a beautiful pancake. Although he can’t necessarily see when to flip it, he sure as hell can hear it. Once the dishes are in the sink he grabs his coat and leaves his quiet brownstone. On his way to the park he gets knocked to the ground. He quickly gets up and repeats “are you okay?” in ever direction around him. A few seconds later he hears a sweet voice snapped “I'm alright, but my coffee isn’t.” Fred quickly apologized and offered for him to buy her a new coffee even though he wasn’t at fault, he just finds it easier that way.

    All of a sudden, she stammered “IM SOOOO SORRRYYY, THAT WAS MY FAULT.” Seems like she just noticed she ran into a blind guy and disregarded that she was on her phone instead of paying attention. Since Fred runs into this problem a lot, he sticks to his apology and once again offers to buy her a new drink. He then continued on saying how it would make his day and continued demanding that she must accept. Finally she agrees and they go off to the nearest coffee shop which she guides him down 2 blocks and up an avenue and a half. The walk was pretty silent, there were times where he wasn't sure if she was even next him anymore besides her infrequent “this way” comment.

Once they were finally in the shop and she orders a mocha locho double espresso mochi late and he orders his green tea do they start talking. It started little, how she was a nurse for the local hospital and how she runs the mid day shift and was just walking around playing Pokemon Go. He started chuckling until he joked “so that's how we ran into each other, tell me what pokemon where you after.” This seemed to loosen her up where she admitted she was after the legendary Pokemon Lugia.

Seeing how he knows about Pokemon, she asks him what his favorite pokemon was. It was almost as if this question was always on Fred’s mind for he quickly answered back that it was  Xerneas because it was the most colorful and beautiful pokemon when he used to play. Not paying attention to the situation she asks him why he doesnt play anymore. She quickly saw what she had done and proceeded to stammer one apology after the next of how insensitive it was knowing that he can’t play because he is blind.

Now you see, Fred didn’t have a problem with this question, he likes when he gets treated normal since he is normal, he just has what he likes to call a quirk. He continues to calm her down of how he really doesn't mind and he prefers people not care about or notice his lack of eyesight. After he could hear her voice calm down he asked her if she wanted to hear how it all happened. Not wanting to be so sensitive to the situation as he explained she agreed to listen although she wasn’t really completely comfortable with it.

As Fred recounted, it actually happened when he was walking into a Parlor on his phone where he proceeded to instantly walk into the waitress who just so happened to be carrying a pot of boiling coffee. Shockingly he continues to tell how the coffee pot dropped to the floor along with him and some of the coffee and glass just so happened to land right in his eyes without seeming distressed in the slightest. After his little story, he goes on to talk about how he learned the hard way that these smartphones take us from reality and disconnect us to those around us.

Realizing how she was bloating about Pokemon Go on her phone and how it was why she ran into him accidentally she once again fell into a state of remorse and became quite apologetic once again. Seeing how this a routine, Fred was able to lower the tension of the situation by diverging her attention and quickly asking for her number. This got her flustered and caused a moment of silence where she seemed to be confused of the situation. She questions him why he would want her number after her being so rude to him on so many occasions.

All Fred responded to this was that it was actually quite fun for him and he enjoyed talking to her. Even though Fred couldn’t see it, she grew a little smirk and followed up by a chuckle and telling him to listen closely because she is only going to say it once. Fred not entirely expecting this to have played out the way he wanted, he confirmed that he is ready to hear it. Even though Fred’s heart was pounding because it’s been so long since he’s made a new friend, he was able to hear every number that came from her mouth.

“On that note” she exclaimed, “I must be going for my shift starts in an hour and I best not be late.” Fred nods and now stammers “Of course” still starstruck. He gets up to give her a hug goodbye, and there's nothing there. His heart sinks as he sits back down.