After the breakfast rush was finished Lana and the 2 girls stayed to look after the restaurant while David and Pete carried the bed up the stairs and set it up in the smaller bedroom. Then Pete took David to a used furniture store and they bought a couch and a matching chair as well as a couple of end tables, a coffee table and a dresser for the bedroom. Pete insisted that David did not have to pay him back because the furniture would stay if David left, so David agreed to that.
Things were almost perfect for David for the next 6 months. Soon after he got his first paycheck David had purchased a television and now he could spend some time watching it when he was off in the afternoon and then in the evening just before going to bed. The first invasion of his privacy that occurred was when Pete and 4 of his friends from the Lions Club would come over every Thursday night and go through the week’s collection of donated glasses. David didn’t really mind that and he joined the guys sorting and cataloguing the glasses. Then the next thing was when Trina asked if David minded if her 7 year old daughter Karin came in after school and did her schoolwork and watched television up in the apartment. Karin was really no bother and she pretty much kept to herself, but David had noticed that Karin seemed to sit very close to the television, and whenever she was reading she brought her face pretty close to the reading material. David had his suspicions that maybe Karin was actually quite nearsighted, because this is what David had done before he got his first pair of glasses to correct his myopia when he was 10.
Within the first month Libby had her baby and she stayed home with it for the next 3 months. Then she came back to work. Pete had asked David if Libby could use the master bedroom for the baby, and David had agreed so Pete bought a queen sized bed for the master bedroom as well as a crib for the baby. Now Libby would come into work with the baby in the morning and the baby would sleep in the crib with a monitor that Libby could watch that was hooked up in the restaurant. Then when the baby woke up and was hungry Libby would come up to the apartment and would lie on the new bed while she fed the baby. Sometimes she would also have a nap there if they were not busy downstairs. This did cut into David’s privacy a little as he could no longer escape to the privacy of his apartment when he was not working but he still went upstairs even when Karin was there. Trina had either changed her attitude towards David or something had happened in her life because David now saw a smile on Trina’s face occasionally when he was around her.
David had been a little surprised when Libby came back to work the first day. Libby had on a pair of glasses that appeared to be as thick as, or maybe even thicker than the one pair of stronger glasses that David had gotten from the cast off donated ones. David had not started to wear those glasses around in public yet, but he had been wearing them in the evenings after everyone had gone home and before he went to bed. David made a comment to Pete that Libby’s glasses looked to be pretty strong, and that is when Pete dropped the bombshell. His wife Lana was very nearsighted and had worn contact lenses ever since she was 27. Now she was 21 years older and the reading glasses she wore when she was at the till, or writing up the orders were worn because she could no longer read when wearing her strong contacts. And, both Katrina and Olivia had inherited their high myopia from their mom.
David thought about this a lot for the next few days. Pete had hired him after he had found out how nearsighted he was. Pete had helped him get a pair of glasses that he could wear. Pete had married a very nearsighted lady. Pete was also involved in the collection of old glasses for the Lion’s Club, but instead of throwing out the old high minus lensed glasses that were of no use to the club Pete was keeping them. Was it possible that Pete had a bit of a glasses fetish? Finally David asked Pete about this and after a little bit of humming and hawing Pete admitted that David was correct in his observations. Pete didn’t like it that Lana wore her contact lenses most of the time, but at least she still wore her glasses when they were at home, so he couldn’t say too much to her without revealing that he liked ladies who wore strong glasses. And both his daughters had gotten glasses when they were around 8 or 9 years old. Pete even told David that Trina’s eyesight had always been worse than Libby’s so her glasses were even stronger than Libby’s were, but neither of them had worn glasses out in public since they were around 14 years old until Libby had the baby.
There was one of the lower steps going up to the apartment that creaked pretty badly when a person put their weight on it. David had gone upstairs more than once to find Karin sitting back on the couch with the television on, but apparently reading a book. David had gathered from his observations of Karin over the past few months that there was no way that she could see the television from the couch because she always laid on the floor quite close to the screen to watch anything. He had his suspicions that Karin had been sorting through the glasses in Pete’s discard box and had likely found a pair that she could wear to watch the television when no one was around, but with the stair step creaking to give advance warning Karin had always been able to hide the glasses before anyone appeared. David opened the door from the restaurant quietly and then he came up the stairs, missing the step that creaked. As he got to the top of the stairs where he could see the couch he could tell that he was correct. Karin was sitting there with a pair of glasses on her face.
“Hi Karin. I see you finally got your mom to get you a pair of glasses. It was about time, because I have noticed that you weren’t seeing very well.” David said.
“These…these aren’t my glasses. Mom doesn’t want to believe me when I tell her I need glasses. And my dad hates glasses so she won’t take me to have my eyes examined.” Karin told me.
“That’s not very fair making you go around in a blur all day. And what do you mean your dad hates glasses?” I asked.
“He always yells at my mom to take those ugly things off every time she has her glasses on. She tries to tell him that she can’t see without them, but he tells her to put her effin contacts in when she is around him. But she has hurt her eyes wearing her contacts too much and her eyes are red and sore all the time by the end of the day.” Karin told me.
“Why did they get married if he hates seeing her wearing glasses?” I questioned.
“They were dating and he never saw her in glasses. Then she got pregnant with me and they had to get married. But now she hates him and wants to kick him out, but she is afraid to because he threatened to beat her up and keep me from her.” Karin said.
“Do you think if you were to get glasses and they separated he would let your mom have custody of you?” I asked.
“Probably, because he always says he hates women who wear glasses.” Karin replied.
“Then the first thing we have to do is to get a proper pair of glasses for you.” I told her.
“Why can’t I just wear this pair? They work pretty good.” Karin told me.
“They look awfully strong for your first pair.” I answered.
“But they are the ones that work the best. I really like them.” Karin argued.
“That will have to be up to your mom to decide. I better have a talk to her.” I said.
I did talk to Trina about Karin not being able to see very well, and I told her that Karin had been wearing an old pair from her dad’s collection for the Lions Club. I did not mention that part of the collection consisted of glasses that would never go to people who needed them, but instead were destined to be melted down for recycling. Trina already knew that Karin’s eyesight was not very good, but as Karin had told me, Trina confirmed that Harry, her husband, hated people who wore glasses. Trina was worried about Harry rejecting Karin. I told Trina that it was better to have Harry reject her now and that would be the end of it. It was doing more harm to Karin by forcing her to go around without being corrected properly. I also told her that Karin had told me that Harry had threatened to beat her up and take Karin away from her if she wore her glasses around him. I also said that I felt that we should discuss that threat with Pete. With that Trina’s face when pure white.
“You can’t do that. You can’t tell dad.” Trina begged.
“Why not?” I asked.
“If you tell dad then Harry is a dead man. You don’t know how dangerous some of my parent’s friends are. Mom is originally from Russia, and her brother and some of their friends are members of the Russian Mafia. Mom’s real name is Svetlana, but everyone just calls her Lana.” Trina said.
“I can’t just keep quiet about this Trina. Why don’t I come home with you and Karin this evening and if Harry flips over Karin wearing glasses at least I will be there to protect you.” I replied.
I didn’t tell Trina how I was going to protect her. I didn’t have a gun, nor was I much of a fighter. I was helpless without my own glasses so I had always stayed away from any situation that involved a confrontation. But I did have a small spray can of wasp and hornet killer that was almost as good as pepper spray and was legal everywhere. I put the can in my pocket and that evening after Trina and I locked up the restaurant I rode with her to her house.
As predicted Harry went ballistic when he saw Karin wearing glasses. Trina told him that Karin had needed them for a long time, but she had been afraid of his reaction. She also told him that he better accept her when she was wearing her glasses as well, because her eye doctor had told her she needed to stop wearing her contacts. He backhanded Trina across the face before I had a chance to jump in and give him a shot of the wasp spray in his face. That immobilized him long enough for Trina and I to truss him up using those plastic zip ties like the police do. I didn’t know if the wasp spray would do any damage to his eyes, but since he was immobile I splashed some water into his eyes and wiped the wasp spray off his face while we waited for the police to come.
The two officers that showed up took pictures of the bruising that was starting to appear on Trina’s face. Then they took our statements and decided that there was reason enough to book Harry for domestic violence. They loaded him into the patrol car and that left Trina and Karin alone at the house. Trina went to the bathroom, removed her contacts and then came back out. Her glasses really appeared to be a bit stronger than Libby’s were.
“What are you going to do now Trina?’ I asked.
“If you will help me I am going to pack up all our clothing and anything personal that I want and Karin and I are going to move out.” Trina said.
“Where are you going to go”” I questioned.
“I will empty the joint bank account and we will get a motel room until I find a place to rent. This house is only a rental anyway, and there is nothing here but cheap thrift store furniture that I can easily replace.” Trina said.
“I use the spare bedroom in the apartment so if it was all right with your sister you and Karin could share the master bedroom.” I told her.
“You already have Libby using your place for the baby during the day. Then Karin comes over after school and watches your television. Dad and his friends are there one night a week doing their Lions Club stuff. And you are offering to share your apartment with Karin and me? That is going a little above the call of duty David. And I have had the impression that you don’t even like me all that much.” Trina said.
“That’s not true Trina. You have always seemed aloof and a bit unfriendly towards me so I haven’t made any effort to become friends with you. I am quite fond of your daughter, and your family has been wonderful to me, so I am willing to do anything I can to help any one of you out. And this seems to be as good time as any for me to help you.” I replied.
Actually, once Trina had removed her contacts and put her glasses on the rather stark expression she usually had on her face had gone. Now I recognized her expression for what it was. She had been in a bit of pain from her contacts. Sure, her face was a bit thinner and more drawn out than her sister Libby, but her glasses had changed her appearance and she looked a lot more attractive. I told her that and she looked at me with a strange expression on her face.
“Nobody has ever told me that I looked better wearing my glasses. I have always hated the fact that I needed them and I have made a point to wear my contacts whenever I am out in public.” Trina said.
“I think that your face looks more relaxed and not as pinched when you are not wearing your contacts. They must have been hurting you a lot.” I replied.
“Actually, they have been bothering me a lot for a few months now. I should have been wearing my glasses long before you first showed up.” Trina told me.
Trina and Karin loaded up anything they wanted to keep into bags and boxes and we loaded all the stuff in Trina’s car. Then she stopped at an ATM and withdrew the maximum for the day. She told me that she had a private account that Harry didn’t know about, but this money was from their joint account and she wanted to get to as much of it as she could before Harry did.
Trina and Karin changed the sheets on the queen bed, and they went to sleep in the same bedroom that Libby used for the baby. The next morning I went down and opened up the restaurant as usual, but I didn’t tell Pete what had transpired the night before. The first indication that Pete had that something was wrong was when Trina and Karin came down from the apartment for breakfast. I looked after the customers myself for a few minutes while Trina and Pete talked, and then Trina drove Karin to school with Pete’s car. Trina had let Karin wear the glasses that she had been wearing to school and Karin was quite pleased that finally she would be able to see fairly well at school for the first time in ages.
Pete and Lana wanted Trina and Karin to move in to their house with them and I know that Trina was seriously considering that. Harry had been released from jail on his own recognizance after spending the night and he came around to the restaurant to try to convince Trina to drop the charges, but she refused. I could tell that her refusal made him really angry, but he was smart enough not to display his temper in front of Pete. I didn’t trust Harry, and I told Trina that. That day, after a lot of thinking, she decided that as long as it was all right with me she would stay in the apartment until she could find a place of her own. I didn’t have a problem with that.
Two nights later Pete and Lana’s house was firebombed. They both managed to get out safely, but the house was destroyed. Fortunately the place was well insured and the insurance company was not concerned about trying to weasel out of paying for the loss. The best part of the whole thing for me was when Lana showed up at the restaurant the next morning wearing her glasses. She had not even thought about looking for her contacts, but had just grabbed her glasses and had run outside to escape the fire. Now I figured I was going to have a problem. There just wasn’t enough room in the apartment for Pete and Lana to stay there as well for any length of time. Pete had already been looking into buying a new, slightly smaller house, and this was enough to put those plans into high gear. It only took him 2 days before he had closed a deal on one of the new houses they had been looking at and he and Lana bought all new furnishings for the house. I had slept on the couch for those few nights while they used my double bed but I was happy I was going to get my bed back.
Pete was convinced that it had been Harry who had thrown the Molotov cocktail through the front window of his house. He was sure that Harry had figured that Trina and Karin had been staying there with Pete and Lana. I asked him if he was going to tell the police who he suspected, but all Pete said was that Harry would soon regret what he had done. A couple of weeks later Harry was found beaten to death in a very unsavory part of town. Trina was quite upset, not because that she was now a widow, but more because Harry had been a complete idiot and had brought his death on himself by his actions. Lana’s brother Ivan likely had a lot to do with the severe beating that had killed Harry, but no one was saying a word and the police had no clues to go on to find the killer.
Things had been pretty crazy at the diner. With Pete and Lana buying furniture for the new house as well as them trying to recover all of their personal and the diner’s records from the burned old desktop computer that had been at the house they had needed to be away from the diner a lot. And then, when Harry was killed Trina had to look after the funeral arrangements, so she was away for quite a bit of the time that week. Libby and I managed to handle everything but we were putting in long days. I opened up in the morning around 6:45 am, and we locked the doors at 9:00 pm. It took us another hour to clean up and fortunately Libby’s husband Daniel would come by to help us. He was a great guy and I really liked him. Their little boy, Peter Daniel, was now about 7 months old, and was just starting to crawl so I was fairly sure that there would be a few more changes coming in my life shortly. However I just didn’t know how dramatic these changes would be.
I wasn’t sure if the reason I had been having a little bit of trouble seeing well at a distance through the original 3 pairs of glasses Pete had let me take from his discards was because of the tension that was going on around me or not. I had been wearing the one stronger pair of glasses fairly frequently, but now I began to wear them around a lot more. I even started wearing them when I was down in the restaurant. Possibly my subconscious had been pressuring me to wear them, because Lana had not yet gone back to contact lenses, nor had Libby. And Trina could no longer wear her contacts, so with the three ladies all wearing their strong minus lensed glasses I did not feel as if I was being stared at for my needing such thick and strong looking glasses. Of the three, Lana wore the most unusual appearing glasses as both her lenses had a definite circle in the middle of the lens that was centered right in front of her eyes. I asked her one day when we were not too busy what type of lenses they were, and she told me that they were called myodiscs, and that if her lenses were done like mine were they would be even thicker than mine. I had not wanted to ask her what her prescription was and I missed the opportunity that day.
Because Trina and I were living at the restaurant we were thrown together by having to open up in the morning, and we also closed down at night. Since we were working together now I found that Trina and I were rapidly becoming very close friends. I was also finding that since she started wearing glasses all the time I actually felt that she was quite attractive. She was a little taller than Libby, and definitely thinner, but she had a very nice figure. She wasn’t as well-endowed in the upper chest as Libby was, but she certainly couldn’t be called flat chested. After Harry died I think she had put on a little bit of weight, but she was a long way from needing to lose any and she looked great. Her face had filled out a little, and she no longer seemed to be scowling a lot of the time. I also felt that her glasses suited her perfectly, but whenever I tried to tell her that she would turn all red in the face from embarrassment.
Poor Karin had gotten lost in the chaos. Yes, she was wearing the glasses she had taken from Pete’s discard box all the time now, but I thought Trina would have taken her to an eye doctor to have her eyesight checked and to get her new, proper glasses. Whenever I looked at Karin wearing those glasses I would think that they were awfully strong for a girl who was not quite 9 and had never worn glasses before. But Karin never once complained so if Trina didn’t think it necessary to rush her off to have her eyes tested I wasn’t going to say anything. Actually, I was the one who really should be having my eyes examined. I had been 21 when I last visited an optometrist and I was now 28.
Lana was the first one to visit her eye doctor. She got new contact lenses to wear, and now she was back to wearing her contacts to work every day. Libby also started to wear contacts again, although she seemed to choose which days she wanted to wear them so I could never be sure when I would see her wearing glasses, or what day she would be in contacts. Trina had not worn her contacts since the night I had taken her home to support her when she told Harry that Karin needed to wear glasses. I could tell that sometimes she envied Libby and her mom being able to wear their contacts whenever they felt like it and I wondered if she would choose to try to wear her contacts again, but she just kept wearing her glasses.
Libby and Trina had managed to work out the sharing of the master bedroom so that it wasn’t too big an inconvenience for either of them. One part of me wanted Trina to find another place for her and Karin to live so I could have my own freedom back, but another part of me rather enjoyed having Trina around. Because we were working together all of the time as well as living in the same apartment we were in a position where we were either going to hate each other, or else get to like the other person a lot. Trina was now 30, two years older than I was, and I really didn’t think she would be interested in going out with me so it rather surprised me when she asked me if I wanted to go to a movie that she wanted to see with her.
Pete, Lana and Libby all agreed to stay that evening and clean up for us, so Trina and I headed off to catch the early show. If we worked it right we could easily be back at the apartment before they were ready to go home, although we knew that Pete and Lana would not leave their granddaughter unattended. It had only been about 6 weeks since Harry had been killed and I wondered if Trina would be a little sad about the fact that she was going out with another man so soon after his death. But I needn’t have worried and Trina and I had a very good time away from her family and the restaurant. When we were seated in the movie theatre Trina had asked me if she could try on my glasses, so we took a moment and switched glasses. I could tell that hers were quite a bit stronger than the ones I was wearing, and she immediately noticed that she could not see very well through mine.
“You must have enough money saved by now David that you could get yourself a much nicer looking pair of glasses with thinner lenses.” Trina said.
“I have managed to put some money aside over the past 6 months Trina, but since these glasses seem to work quite well for my vision I have been a little hesitant to spend the money to buy new glasses. Why, do you not like these glasses?” I asked.
“They don’t do a thing for your appearance. You are a fairly good looking man and you would be even more handsome with a proper pair of glasses.” Trina responded.
“I will make a deal with you. If you make an appointment to have Karin’s eyes tested I will let you make one for me as well.” I said.
To Be Concluded
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