Circles by Andrew
“I like your new glasses, Sally,” said Mrs. Chivers as she settled herself at the kitchen table.
“Thanks, Mum,” Sally answered. “I got them yesterday. The optician said my eyes had changed a little and as the old ones had a few small scratches on the lenses, it seemed like a good opportunity to get a new pair.”
“They look very fashionable. How are the children getting on at School?”
Sally brought a couple of mugs of tea over to the table and sat down opposite her mother. Mrs. Chivers helped herself to a couple of spoons of sugar and stirred her drink pensively as her daughter answered: “Michael’s doing really well. He really likes his new teacher, Miss Greenbow, and he seems to be in the same class as many of his friends from last year. Rachael is finding it a bit harder to adjust. Mrs. Rumbelow is a little concerned about her reading. It’s not that she can’t do it, but she often complains about getting a headache when she has been reading for ten minutes or so, and then doesn’t want to do any more.”
“Have you thought about getting her eyes tested?” Mrs. Chivers asked, as she took a tentative sip at her hot cup of tea.
“I don’t think that’s the problem,” Sally responded. “She tried my new glasses on yesterday, but said she could not see anything with them. That wasn’t really a surprise; I can’t see much without them, so I think we’d know if her eyes were anything like mine.”
“What if…,” Mrs. Chivers began, but Sally had not finished.
“I had a hunt around and found my first ever pair of glasses, and gave those to her to try on.”
“What, the old blue NHS ones?
“Yes.”
“I didn’t realise you had kept them all these years.”
“I’ve got all my old pairs of glasses, apart from the pair that dad sat on while we were on holiday in Weymouth that time.”
“I remember that. You spent the next ten days wandering around in a blur until we could get home and get you a new pair.” Mrs. Chivers helped herself to a biscuit. “How did she find them?”
“She really liked the frames; that sort of style has come back into fashion. She wandered round in them for ten minutes or so and had a go at some reading, but stopped when she started to develop a headache. She said she couldn’t really tell much difference when she put them on.”
“I was a little surprised when I was told you first needed glasses, but it seemed like you had inherited you dad’s eyesight, so I guess I shouldn’t have been. You were only supposed to wear them for reading the blackboard and watching television, but you wore them constantly for about six months until you needed a change in your prescription. I’m not sure that isn’t what caused you to need stronger glasses so soon.”
“Anyway,” Sally continued, “it seemed to prove that glasses would not solve Rachael’s headaches. She tried on a few of the other pairs where she liked the frames, but as my eyes got worse over the years, she could see less and less clearly with them.”
“What if she’s not short-sighted like you?” Mrs. Chivers enquired.
“How do you mean?”
“What if she’s longsighted, like me?”
“But that’s impossible. I’m shortsighted; Jim is shortsighted, so it’s almost certain that one day Michael and Rachael will be as well. We keep watching out for any signs of them squinting, but so far, so good.”
“Why don’t we see what she can see with my glasses?” Mrs. Chivers suggested.
“But you’ve worn glasses since before I was born,” Sally objected. “Even if she were a bit longsighted, your glasses would be far too strong for her.”
“Not necessarily. I first got glasses when I was eight, the same age Rachael is now. I didn’t realise there was anything wrong with my eyes as I could see clearly enough, although I got a lot of headaches. When I first put them on, they made everything seem a lot bigger, but I soon got used to that. The optician had told me there was a chance that I would grow out of needing glasses if I was a good girl and wore them all the time.”
“But you didn’t,” Sally countered.
“Yes and no,” said her mother. “My second pair was a little bit stronger, but then my eyes stopped changing for a while, and I had those glasses for 4 years. When I was 13, my eyes started to improve as I did indeed grow out of being longsighted. Unfortunately, they did not stop there, so after a couple of years of not needing glasses at all, I had to get a new pair because I was now a little bit shortsighted. I didn’t need them all of the time, but I chose to wear them as I would have been constantly taking them off and putting them back on again at work, so I got used to having them on at home as well. Then, when I turned 40, I had to get reading glasses too, and after the age of 50, I started to become more longsighted again.”
“I don’t remember you not wearing glasses.”
“You wouldn’t, because I didn’t. I couldn’t walk around wearing my reading glasses only, so I got varifocals. The distance part had next to no prescription in it, but the varifocal part became a little stronger every time I had my eyes tested.”
“So how strong are your glasses now,” Sally enquired.
“The distance part is about +1, I think, although one eye (I think it’s my left one) is slightly worse than the other, and the varifocal part is +4ish, so that I can see to do my sewing.”
“Mum, can you help me with my Maths homework. Oh, hello, Gran, I didn’t realise you were here!” Rachael burst into the kitchen. She was a slim, 8 year-old with long, dark hair and brown eyes.
“Hello, Rachael. How are you today?”
“I’m fine, thanks, Gran. I’ve got a bit of a headache, but once I’ve done this Maths I shall be able to go out and ride my bike, and that should help to clear it.”
“Do you think a pair of glasses would help to get rid of your headaches?”
“No. I tried Mum’s on yesterday and couldn’t see a thing with them, and even when she found me her oldest pair, they didn’t make much difference, except that they made my headache worse, not better.”
Even as her granddaughter was speaking, Mrs. Chivers took her glasses off. “Here, try mine, “ she said.
“They won’t do any good,” Rachael said, as she reluctantly put them on her face. “They’re far too big and… they make everything look much bigger. I can see the clock down the hallway just as clearly with them on, and they make the writing my Maths book look enormous. Oh, wow!”
Rachael carefully lifted the glasses slightly. “I can’t quite read the clock through the bottom half of the glasses, but, about there is where it starts to go fuzzy,” she said as she adjusted the position up and down a bit.
“I thought so,” said Mrs. Chivers.
“Where are you going, Mum?” asked Rachael, as her mother left the kitchen.
“It seems like your Gran was right. Now, where did I put the optician’s phone number?”