Girl, Stolen

“It was a thousand little things that told Cheyenne something was wrong. Even the way the door closed hadn’t sounded right. Too fast and too hard for Danielle. The breathing was all wrong too, speeded up and harsh. Cheyenne smelled. The smell of cigarettes. But Danielle didn’t smoke and, as a nurse, couldn’t stand anyone that did.”

This is when we begin to think that there is something unusual/special about Cheyenne, before the narrator reveals that the she is blind. The book hints at her blindness by how she perceives the situation through senses other than sight, hearing, and smell. Her ability to notice details that others do not appears throughout the novel. Her circumstances have forced her to develop her sensory skills to compensate for the loss of one. The opening reference to cigarette smoke foreshadows the conclusion of the novel when she recognizes Roy by his particular smell of cigarettes and peppermint.

“Cheyenne knew she had a twenty, two tens, and some ones. The twenty was folded the long way, the ten the short way, and the ones weren’t folded at all. Whenever she got money from someone else, she asked which bill was which and then folded it. Every blind person had their own way of folding money to tell it apart.”

Through the course of the novel, Cheyenne shares her experience of what it means to be blind and the methods she and others use to navigate the world. The way she is able to distinguish currency is one example of the overcoming of disability. It is a reminder of how challenging ordinary tasks can be for the disabled and a reminder of how well Cheyenne has adapted in such a short time. The use of touch connects to an overarching theme of the development of senses other than sight.