Jess looked across the office at David. How many years had they known each other? Their history went back a good number of years. Back to when they’d been at University together. Now, four years into her career as an architect, fate had placed them once again on the same path.
David had joined the firm four months ago. Jess shuddered at the memory of their initial encounter when Rick, their boss, had shown David around the studio. Jess had instantly recognised David, how could she not, and was about to make an embarrassment of herself by being overly familiar, before she realised that David didn’t seem to recall her at all.
It wasn’t that Jess was forgettable, quite the contrary in fact. She was, by all measures, a very elegant, intelligent and thoughtful woman. David however had never shown any interest in Jess. He certainly wasn’t gay, Jess had seen him enough times at University with girls who were comparatively plain, and whom most men would look straight past when Jess entered a room.
It just seemed to Jess, that for whatever reason, she just wasn’t the right type for David. She’d accepted this as an immovable obstacle, despite the fact that Jess would give anything for the opposite to be true. Ever since first seeing him all those years ago Jess had been enraptured by David. The way he held himself. His composure, talent and intelligence, had all charmed their way into Jess’s heart.
In the last few weeks they had started on a new project and they worked really well together, the perfect balance of skills and ideas. Some evenings their shared passion for the project had kept them working late into the evening. Even to the extent that take out food had been consumed on more than one occasion. But that was where things ended.
Jess should have been elated, she’s just presented alongside David, to a delighted assemblage from the high-paying client, who had agreed to go ahead on the basis of their proposals.
Jess was dressed in her best business attire, blouse, suit, stockings and high heels. Half of the assemblage would have agreed with whatever Jess had suggested purely on the basis that their eyes had fallen under the spell of her compelling looks. David had barely looked at Jess beyond the necessary and had seemed particularly interested in a rather short woman from the client who looked more like a librarian than an accountant for one of the largest consultancies on the globe.
Jess showed the group of clients out of the office whilst David updated Rick on the outcomes and next steps of the project. She’d said her goodbyes and stood by the door of the building taking in the bustling street scene in front of her. She took in a deep breath and was about to return inside when she spotted an old woman trip on the other side of the road. To her astonishment, pedestrians ignored her and walked on by, almost as if they couldn’t see her.
Jess hurried across the road, narrowly missing an oncoming black cab, the inhabitant driver swearing unheard curses and shaking his fist, as Jess hurried across the road to the aid of the poor old woman.
She bent down and helped her back to her feet. The old woman was visibly shaken. Jess asked her if she was alright, and despite her protests that she was fine, Jess insisted that they go into the cafe a few yards away for a seat and a hot drink, just to be sure. She really didn’t like the pale pallor of the old woman and believed in the restorative power of a cup of tea.
She ordered a pot of tea with two cups and joined the old woman at the table which was nearest to the open fireplace, slowly glowing and radiating its warmth across the cafe.
As Jess sat down, the old woman said, “If you really want to be with him, I can make him notice you.”
Jess paused and wondered if she had heard properly. Before she could enquire further, the old woman followed-up, “You heard me right dear. Sit down and I will tell you something. It’s very important that you listen to what I have got to say.”
What followed, as Jess poured two cups of hot tea was a proposal, by way of thanks, from the old woman.
“I can make David see your beauty. If you are prepared to accept some changes.”
How did she know his name? When Jess enquired about the changes, the old woman told her that she would find out soon enough if she agreed to her proposal. She told her that if Jess wanted David to notice her she could make it happen from the very next morning. That the changes that would occur would become permanent, unless Jess decided against it. All Jess had to do to reverse what the old woman proposed was to meet at this table in a fortnight at 3pm and tell her to revert what she’d put in place.
Jess pondered the proposal, her desire to be wanted by David was undeniable. “Okay. I’d love to try. Thank you”.
Minutes later the waitress cleared the table where the beautiful woman had sat, talking to thin air and pouring a cup of tea to an imaginary companion.
The sun was bleeding past the curtains as Jess rolled over and peered at the alarm clock. She could barely make out the numbers on the digital face of the clock as she questioned why the alarm sound was so quiet this morning, it was barely more than a muffled rumble.
She picked up the alarm clock and held it closer, which if anything, made matters worse. In a momentary panic Jess pulled the plug out the back of the clock and hurried into the bathroom.
Fumbling her way into the shower Jess quickly washed, again startled by the serenity of almost-silence, although the absence of the normal noise of the rushing water made her feel anything but serene. She couldn’t read the labels on the bottles to discern which was shampoo and which was conditioner - what on earth was happening?
Having brushed her teeth and dried her hair, Jess did her best to get ready. She couldn’t see well enough to put on her makeup, or set her hair, so she tied her chestnut hair up simply and hoped for the best.
When she looked across the room she could see better in the distance, although things were much easier when she closed her left eye to remove the ghosted image from her view.
She put on a simple outfit and slung on a pair of flat shoes for fear of tripping in her befuddled state. What next? Damn! She had to get to the office, there was a meeting to kick off the project which she presumed she was already late for.
David sat at his desk and checked his watch. Jess was never late, should he be concerned? Afterall, she wasn’t answering the messages he’d sent her on his phone.
He returned his gaze to his inbox momentarily before raising it to the office window. The office was set just below ground level, which gave it a wall-to-wall window onto the lower halves of the pedestrians who walked by. This suited David perfectly who had always had a thing for womens’ legs and feet, alongside his other main fetishes.
He saw a pair of perfect calves and ankles walking from the left, wearing a pair of his favourite shoes, ballet flats. He wasn’t sure why he liked those most, although he suspected it went back to his first crush, a girl in his class who always wore that kind of shoe as well as her wonderful glasses. The memory alone aroused in him an almost obsessive interest in the stranger’s footsteps outside.
His heart began to beat faster as he realised that the steps were heading for the office door. Who was this, he had to see.
He watched as the person slowly revealed themselves as they uncertainly progressed down the steps into the reception. To his shock he saw Jess, as he’d never seen her before, dressed in a ‘girl-next-door’ fashion, no makeup, hair up. She seemed to be squinting uncomfortably as she navigated the furniture in the reception. He had never seen such a beautiful sight.
He got up and walked over to her, as she was clearly struggling. “Jess, are you okay?”
Jess was trying to hook her coat onto the hanger and ignored the question.
He touched her arm, and she jumped, clearly startled. David looked at her, her left eye pointing noticeably towards her nose as she looked at him.
“Morning David. I’m so sorry I’m late”, she almost shouted.
David looked at her and asked again, “Jess are you okay?”
Jess started to form words in her mouth, but nothing meaningful was forthcoming. She could barely hear what he’d said and could feel that her eye was obviously pointing in the wrong direction. What must he think of her?!
David paused and smiled reassuringly, allowing Jess a moment to compose herself.
“David, I don’t know what’s wrong with me!” she blurted.
“I woke this morning and I don’t seem to hear or see properly” she said loudly.
David thought for a moment, and took charge. “Come on Jess, let’s get you sorted”.
He took hold of her arm and led her back up the stairs. “My cousin is an optician and audiologist and his store is only five minutes walk away. Do you think you can manage that?” he said rather loudly, sensitive to the fact that she quite obviously was struggling to hear.
Jess nodded and squeezed his arm as she walked alongside him.
They entered the small opticians and David left Jess on a chair as he went and found his cousin in the back of the store.
After a hurried explanation of the situation, his cousin, intrigued by the outrageous symptoms, walked across the posh flooring of his high-end establishment and loudly introduced himself to David’s colleague. He was struck by her beauty and wondered momentarily why David had not mentioned her before.
“Miss Hornby, I would like to first test your hearing, as I think it is important that you can hear me when we investigate your eye issue”
In a gauzy state of shock, Jess nodded her head and followed the kind optician into his testing room. After a series of tests which Jess knew included a lot of sounds that she understood she should have heard but didn’t, David’s cousin left the room for a moment.
He returned with a small box in his hands. He removed from it a case which had two small shell-like blobs in it. He then took out the first blob, gently moved aside a few stray hairs from Jess’s right ear and pushed the device into her ear canal. He did the same on the other side and then pressed the switch on each.
Suddenly, Jess could hear an assortment of sounds that had been previously missing from the soundscape.
“These are Oticon in-ear hearing aids for moderate to severe hearing loss. I’m hoping that for now, these will work. However, we may need to look at behind the ear options as your hearing loss is almost seventy decibels in both ears, which is really pushing the performance envelope of an in-ear hearing aid.”
“I think you’ll appreciate the aesthetics of these as they are so very discreet.”
Jess, attuning herself to her new superpower, nodded in agreement.
“Let’s go test your eyes” he added.
In the next room the optician placed a trial frame on Jess’s perfect nose and placed an assortment of lenses in front of her eyes. After numerous changes the optician removed the occluder from the left lens so that Jess could see with both her eyes. Almost immediately, the clear eye chart on the opposite wall performed a magic trick and separated into two eye charts.
“Ah, yes” he muttered to himself. He took the frames off Jess and the room recessed back to its previous blurry existence. He pressed a few buttons and pulled around a phoropter beckoning Jess to look through it. The test chart had changed from the previous letters to four lines.
“Alright Jess. You should see a cross on the wall, and if not, we need to try and bring the lines together to make that the case, okay?”
Jess nodded. He pressed a button a few clicks and the lines moved closer together before slowly drifting apart. “Is that forming a cross?” he asked.
“It brought them closer, but not together and now they are drifting apart a little” Jess answered.
A few more clicks and some more and eventually the lines formed an uneasy alliance in the form of a cross opposite.
“Okay, sit back Jess and relax and we can talk about what’s what.”
He placed the test frame back on Jess with the occluded left lens back in place and began to try to explain to Jess what her eye issues entailed.
Jess tried to follow what he said, she heard words like hyperopia, strabismus and numbers like 5 dioptres and 25 prism dioptres and it seemed almost like he was talking in Greek.
“I have a pair of frames that might work in the short term for you, until you find the right pair Jess, they are not far from your own prescription and I can add a fresnel prism lens on them. I think you’ll find they get you through until your actual glasses can be made.”
He left the room and returned with a pair of brown tortoiseshell framed glasses that looked like they had incredibly thick lenses in them.
“These are +5.25 right and +5.75 left, which is within a dioptre of your own prescription. I’ve added a stick-on fresnel lens to the left lens which will move the gaze of your left eye by 25 dioptres.”
He unfolded the arms of the glasses and gently placed them onto Jess.
Jess was amazed at the clarity of the details on his face. Her sight now elevated from its diffused internment.
“The fresnel lens reduces your acuity somewhat, but you should find these really help until I can get your glasses made.”
Jess looked around the room in wonderment at the difference between her vision with glasses and what went before.
“How is your vision in the distance?” He asked.
“It’s great actually.” She slipped the glasses down to compare her vision with and without in the distance. The details were definitely worse without, even before they became doubled.
“Yes. This is what is truly strange about your vision. Normally I would start a patient with your prescription on a lower strength of lens and build up the strength over time to allow for the muscles to relax your eyes.
Your eyes are behaving like you’ve been wearing glasses for years. And yet… and yet, you say this all happened this morning?”
Jess blushed while she thought about what to say. She was beginning to think that she knew exactly what, or rather who had created the issue, and more importantly - why.
“Yes, I woke this morning and couldn’t see or hear properly.”
She continued hesitantly, “I, I met someone yesterday that told me they could help me with something, but that I should expect some changes. It couldn’t be that though, that would be ridiculous!”
“Okay, well of course you can never rule out anything in my experience, but I think Occam’s Razor would suggest we rule out the most plausible first.”
His tone changed to a more sombre note. “Miss Hornby, in my experience, the most-likely cause of a sudden-onset sight or hearing issue would be a brain condition. I don’t want to sound alarmist and of course there could be numerous reasons for what you are experiencing, but I do want to get you seen to by a neurologist as soon as possible. I will make a referral straight away. I may be able to get you a consultation today.”
Jess sat, frozen, processing everything, but she was becoming increasingly convinced that the cause was the woman she met yesterday, rather than a neurological issue. The question was, why on earth would becoming deaf and blind help capture David’s heart?"
As if hearing her thoughts, the optician suggested, “Why don’t you go through to front of the shop and find some frames? I’m sure David will be extremely helpful to you.”
David waited patiently in the store, perusing the frames and imagining what Jess would look like wearing them.
He turned around when he heard the door click open. As Jess emerged, his heart skipped a beat. For before him now stood the girl from his dreams. From top-to-toe, the most-perfect embodiment of his desires walked slowly towards him.
Those lenses has to be at least 5 dioptres, and was that a fresnel lens too?
Wait, were those hearing aids? Wow, it was almost like the girl from his childhood, who he’d always loved, but never had the courage to speak to before she left the country, was back before him.
https://vision-and-spex.com/architecting-the-future-t2178.html