The idea, and much of this story was written by my friend Andy. Since Andy is not a native English speaker he often asks me to re write his stories , and while I do attempt to get it - shall I say more English, I sometimes leave the odd phrase that isn’t just perfect. For the most part I do make the story very readable in English, but I always like to give Andy the credit where it is due. So, enjoy Andy’s latest tale.
The other day I was at the supermarket picking up a few items that we needed. I was walking along on the parking deck near the front entry of the supermarket where I usually do my shopping when I heard a rather loud argument going on between a supermarket employee and a young, quite attractive, female shopper. This young lady, apparently not handicapped, had parked her car in an area marked for handicapped people. This resulted in the loud argument I was hearing between herself and the supermarket employee.
A younger guy who was passing by came to the young lady’s help saying: “Well it’s her right to park in this space assigned to the handicapped. It is quite obvious that she is blind and therefore just can’t see the sign.”
This comment made the young lady swear at both the supermarket employee and the guy in a very un-ladylike manner. She hopped in her car to find another place to put her car. She was obviously very angry and as she abruptly reversed her car she hit another car. She was really mad and in maneuvering around she again hit another car.
The other guy just said:” I just knew she had to be blind”.
I stood there and watched. I thought that things like that only happened on TV or in the movies. Someone must have called the cops. When they arrived they managed to get the whole situation calmed down. A tow truck arrived to take her car away. The young lady had a nervous breakdown and they had to call an ambulance to take her away. The officers asked all bystanders to testify as to what they had seen. I told them what I had seen, and overheard.
The officer I talked to said that it would be fantastic to have a way to punish those people who abused the handicapped parking spaces by making them live for a week or two as a handicapped person. I could only agree that this would be a good lesson for them. As an elected city councilor, although I had the wherewithal to possibly do something about the problem, I needed the support of more of the council members, and that would not be easy to get.
In most cases it would have been just another meeting of the council of my small mid-western town. Today we had some decisions to make about the new parking area for the revamped downtown central area. It had been through the planning department already but we still had to talk about the number and the locations of the reserved places for handicapped people. It was clear to all of us that they had to place these reserved spots in the spaces closest to the town center as it made no sense to put them too far away. They decided that out of the planned regular 450 parking spaces 25 would be reserved for handicapped people. I brought up my thoughts about punishing people who abused these reserved parking spaces, but as I had figured none of the other council members seemed to be worried about the potential abuse of the handicapped spots. But 6 months later the subject came up again in a rather unusual way
“Recently we have been getting more complaints about handicapped parking spots around the city being abused by perfectly healthy people” the mayor said to his secretary Priscilla.
Priscilla had been working in the mayor’s office for over 15 years now and she knew that the mayor was on the side of the handicapped because his mother in law was a paraplegic after a horse riding accident. His mother in law was able to lead an independent life and was getting along quite well using her newest power wheelchair. The only thing she complained about was that the reserved parking places were quite often occupied by cars that didn’t have the special sticker showing that the driver was handicapped.
The mayor had asked the police chief to ticket any of the cars that were abusing the handicapped parking, but the chief told him that he didn’t have the manpower, and that he felt that this was a job for the Bylaw Enforcement Officers. The mayor spoke to the lady in charge of Bylaw enforcement and she told him that she needed at least 2 more officers if she had to patrol all the parking lots in the city. At the next council meeting the mayor brought this up and asked for a vote to provide the Bylaw department with 2 more officers whose primary job would be enforcing the handicapped parking regulations. I was surprised that some of the other council members were not 100% in support of the mayor, but with my vote in favor the motion carried. After a few more months of increased enforcement of the abusers it was discovered that the increased cost of the fine for the tickets had showed little effect.
There had to be something done that had never been thought of before. The mayor had talked with his mother in law to see if she had any new ideas, but she hadn’t been able to come up with anything yet. Just as he was thinking about her the phone rang and Priscilla told him that his mother in law was on the line. The mayor had a big grin on his face as he finished his conversation with his mother in law.
“Priscilla get me the legal advisor on the phone. My mother in law has just come out with a great idea to solve the problem with the reserved parking lots.” Paul, the mayor said.
“What is it?” asked Priscilla.
The mayor told his secretary that his mother in law had suggested that they could temporarily handicap abusers who had been ticketed for the third time in a row. Priscilla found the idea just great and she also thought of a number of ideas as to how this could be done.
The mayor would soon find out the best way. His mother in law usually had brilliant ideas and over the years she had often been able to give him some good advice to simplify administration.
As Paul arrived home he saw his mother in law’s special van parked outside. It was equipped with an automatic ramp. His mother in law could get around with ease on her own using this vehicle, because the ramp unfolded automatically and she could use her electric wheelchair to roll up and down the ramp. In the van her wheelchair was clamped to the floor behind the steering wheel by a special device that worked at the push of a button.
“Hi Helen” said Paul upon entering his house. Helen was happy to see Paul and couldn’t wait to hear her idea. It was a very simple solution.
“We are going to blindfold any of the third time offenders who are ticketed for using handicapped parking spots.” Helen told Paul.
“How would you achieve this?” Paul asked her.
“Oh it’s quite simple.” Helen replied. “Do you remember when your daughter Camila left her contacts in for far too long? She was unable to get them out of her eyes herself and had to be rushed to see her ophthalmologist to remove them.”
Paul remembered this horrible incident only too well. They were afraid that Camila might be left blinded, but fortunately the doctor had been able to remove the lenses with no resulting damage to Camila’s very nearsighted eyesight. Camila had learned her lesson and since then had been very careful with her contacts, and was frequently seen wearing her extremely strong glasses around the house
“I already asked Camila’s ophthalmologist about it. He said that there are contacts for extended wear available” Helen said. “Oh I see where you are coming from” Paul said. “But what if they just remove the contacts?” Paul asked.
“Oh this is no problem, the Doctor said that we can use a special glue to fix them to the corneas. And when the punishment is over there is a solvent for the glue which allows the doctor to remove the contacts” Helen said.
“OK. You plan to alter someone’s vision to a point where they are almost blind. Would glasses be allowed to allow the blinded person to function in some way?” Paul said.
“Glasses would be allowed, but glasses won’t fully correct the person’s vision.” Helen explained.
“The idea sounds quite interesting to me. Of course we will have to check with the legal department to see about the legal aspects of your plan. If all goes well we could put this plan into action at the beginning of next month” Paul said.
After checking with the lawyers it was determined that as long as no permanent damage would be done to the person’s eyes it was decided that the plan could be put into action and the plan was approved and implemented.
Carmen was a very attractive young woman who lived in one of those luxury residential areas just on the outer edges of town. You know those condominiums that are built next to a golf course where you had to pass a guarded gate to access the area. Carmen never cared about other people. Her family had always had plenty of money and this meant that Carmen had all the money she could ever dream of. Money quite often ruins someone’s character, which proved to be 100% true in Carmen’s case. She looked down on other people and she had a particular disdain for disabled people. If the only parking spot that was open close to a shop she wanted to go into was a handicapped spot it was guaranteed that her car would be found parked there. She was often ticketed but any of the tickets she received for those violations were promptly paid and that was it, as she simply didn’t care. But this would change very shortly.
Bylaw Officer Jackson was doing his job patrolling the town center to see if he could issue a few more tickets when he saw a nice yellow BMW convertible parked in a handicapped spot. He recognized the car and knew that he had written at least 20 or so tickets for the same violation. But today it would be different. They had just put this new repeat offender punishment into practice. This offender would be the ideal first candidate. Officer Jackson radioed the mayor’s office to inform him that he had found a candidate for their new form of punishment. The mayor then informed the press and a reporter was dispatched to the town center.
Meanwhile, the bylaw officer was waiting for Carmen to return to her car. A tow truck had been dispatched and was on its way. This time Carmen wouldn’t be able to drive her car home herself.
Carmen had found a new dress and some nice things for her garden party. She paid for her merchandise and headed for her car. She opened the trunk of her fancy yellow convertible to put her shopping inside when she heard a voice addressing her: “Didn’t you see that you have parked your car in a restricted area? This is not the first time you have parked in a handicapped spot.”
“OK. Officer how much is the ticket this time?” Carmen asked.
“Oh this time it’s not going to cost you any money for a ticket.” Officer Jackson said with a broad grin on his face. “This time you can’t solve the problem by throwing money at it Mrs.”
Carmen saw the tow truck arrive and she was very upset when the driver backed up to her beautiful BMW. She threatened the driver that she would sue if there was any damage to her car, but he didn’t listen to her and continued doing his job. Soon he was on his way to the impound lot with Carmen’s BMW.
Carmen was escorted to the waiting police car. A newspaper reporter and a photographer had shown up and had taken pictures of Carmen’s car being towed, and of her being placed in the back of a police car.
The police car drove Carmen to the local ophthalmology clinic. All her questions about what was going to happen remained unanswered. “You’ll see very soon” was the only answer she received from Officer Jackson. At the entrance of the clinic Carmen was surprised to see the mayor and a few guys from the local TV station.
Soon Carmen knew what was coming. “This is the first repeat offender we are going to punish under the new law that was passed recently for repeatedly parking their vehicle in spots reserved for handicapped citizens. The punishment however is new and I think it’s quite unique in the world.” Carmen heard the mayor say. So far she had believed that all was a joke. But now she wasn’t so sure about it. The next words from the mayor confirmed her fears.
“We have put this new punishment into action to show those violators how life as a handicapped person is. This young lady that we have here is going to be almost blind for the next few weeks. We will punish her by making her severely nearsighted. Dr. Thomas will do that for us by inserting specially made contact lenses into the repeat offender’s eyes. These contacts are held in place by a special glue that prevents the removal of the contacts for a minimum of 30 or a maximum of 365 days. The wearing of glasses is allowed to allow the offender to function. But Dr. Thomas has assured me their vision, with the glasses he will supply will still qualify them as being legally blind.” Paul, the mayor said.
The mayor then answered all sorts of questions from the TV people, who were quite enthusiastic about this form of punishment. Carmen didn’t like the idea of being blinded for an indeterminate period of time. They had explained to her that there was no chance for her to avoid this punishment. No amount of money would help her escape this time.
Carmen was escorted into Dr. Thomas’ examination room. Her eyes were examined thoroughly and she was found to be an ideal candidate. At first she refused the insertion of the contacts by simply keeping her eyes shut. But this didn’t help her much. She felt some disinfectant being sprayed on her left forearm. Soon afterwards she felt a needle in her vein and everything went dark. When she awoke she could see practically nothing. All she could see was vague shapes and colorful smears, but that was it. “Oh shit” Carmen thought. They were not kidding. The term severely nearsighted came into her mind. She figured out that this meant that she would be only able to see things that were very close up. She brought her left arm nearer to her face. When her wrist almost touched her nose she could make out the golden reflection of her beautiful Rolex watch. “Glasses” she thought. “Where do I get glasses from?”
“Your emergency glasses will be ready in a minute” said a female voice coming out of a moving white blur right in front of her. “You won’t see much of anything. You’ll be able to see clearly up to a distance of 6 to 8 feet during the day. At night it will be less” the voice out of the blur explained. Carmen could feel something in her eyes. There was no pain. She just felt that there was something in her eyes. But this feeling was becoming less intense from minute to minute.
Carmen sat there and was anxiously waiting what was going to happen. She thought that her garden party was now just a minor problem for her. The anesthetic they had given her still showed some effect and Carmen dozed away.
She woke up as somebody placed something on her nose. She slowly opened her eyes and remembered what had happened this morning. Her vision through those emergency glasses was kind of strange. It was somewhat like in her childhood days when she and her sister Mandy had looked through their father’s binoculars from the wrong side. Things looked quite small and seemed to be very far away. The glasses felt heavy on her nose and were sliding down her nose. She felt the glasses being removed. “I’ll adjust them for you” the nurse said. Carmen could hear a humming sound that reminded her of the sound of her hairdryer. The world surrounding her was again a big blur.
The glasses were placed on her face again. “How do they feel now?” the nurse asked.
“It’s better now” Carmen said, “but does my vision improve?”
“Maybe a little bit as your eyes adjust a little more to your new condition.” The nurse explained. “I suggest that you pay attention to stairs for the first few days, until you are accustomed to the use of your new glasses.”
Carmen opened her purse and got out a small mirror. She almost fainted as she saw her reflection in the mirror. It was horrible. The glasses were a very ugly, outdated, dark plastic frame that might have been in style 20 years ago. The lenses looked strange and thick. It looked very much like a lens in a lens and her eyes seemed so minuscule that she hardly could make them out. Carmen wasn’t stupid. She carefully walked out of the clinic. She took out her cell phone and called a taxi. With this lousy vision she knew that it was too dangerous to drive her car. She asked the driver to bring her to the optician where her father bought his readers. She had been there to buy her expensive sunglasses as well. Maybe they could help her in one way or another. Carmen went into the shop. She found out that the shop’s personal already knew about her “luck”, because her story had been aired the whole morning.
“I need contacts” she said to Tom, the optician.
“OK” said Tom “I’ll check to see if the doctor has time for you”
Carmen was lucky as there was an appointment available right away. Tom made her sit down in the examination room and soon she heard the doctor arrive. She had adjusted a little better to the glasses by now. But everything was still very small and she felt a little bit like she was ten feet tall.
“Let me have your glasses Carmen” Dr. Sarah Winter said. Carmen handed her the glasses. “Oh I see they did a perfect job on these at the clinic.”
Dr. Winter called Tom in and said: “Tom please check those glasses in the lensometer. I want to know how strong they are.” Carmen could make out only colorful smears without the awful glasses on her face. Now Carmen was sitting in front of the ophthalmoscope. Dr. Winter examined Carmen’s eyes. Dr. Winter was surprised that the glued in contacts were practically invisible. She switched over to polarized light. Now she could see the lenses. They were perfectly centered and didn’t move on her patient’s corneas. She tried to move them with a manipulator, but the lenses seemed to be welded into place.
“Well Carmen I can tell you that there seems to be no danger that the contacts will damage your eyes. But I also see that there is probably no chance to remove those contacts without us having the necessary solvent.” Dr. Winter said.
By now Tom came back with Carmen’s glasses and handed Dr. Winter a printout from the lensometer. It read -75D for both lenses with no astigmatism.
“Oh Carmen I think the municipal administration must have hired a good expert. They made you so nearsighted that contacts wouldn’t be an option for you anyway. The glasses they gave you correct a myopia of -75D. They just don’t make contacts this powerful.” Dr. Winter told her.
Carmen understood only that she was stuck with those horrible glasses. “Can you make me thinner lenses in a nicer frame?” Carmen asked.
“That might be an option” Dr. Winter said. “But doing this will be very expensive. Honestly, if I were you I would save the money and wait until they have the specialist remove the contacts for you.”
Carmen, who always had to have everything go the way she wanted insisted that she wanted to have nicer looking glasses and a rush order was placed for high index double myodiscs. Along with the lenses Carmen had chosen an expensive D&G frame with wide temples and a nice small eye size that cost her almost $1600.00. Tom told her that her new glasses would be ready in 4 or 5 days but could be couriered sooner for a little bit extra and of course Carmen chose to have them couriered. Carmen then called for another taxi to take her home.
Carmen couldn’t see very well. Her close up vision was quite good, but the farther away things were they gradually got out of focus. It was nearly impossible for Carmen to even make out individual trees in a forest. She was happy when the driver dropped her off at her parent’s home. After a lecture from her father she ran up the stairs to her old room in such a rush that she completely forgot what the nurse at the hospital had told her about being careful with stairs. When she reached the last stair, she stumbled and fell on the carpet and she lost the glasses. She was blind. She stabbed at the floor, feeling around for her glasses. She felt too proud and humiliated to call for help and was down on all fours searching for her glasses.
Patrick, Carmen’s boyfriend had seen the morning news at work and it was full of the story of Carmen’s punishment. He knew Carmen’s character only too well and thought that they had got the best possible candidate for this new system of punishment. Patrick could hardly wait to see Carmen in glasses. He still remembered that Jenny, a former girlfriend of his had to wear glasses occasionally when she waited for new contacts to arrive and Patrick still remembered those rare times when he had been able to make love to her when she had her glasses on. But they had split up and now Patrick was left with only his memories of when he made love with his nearsighted Jenny.
Carmen had called Patrick to tell him that she was going to stay at her parent’s house for a few days. When he arrived he had talked to Carmen’s parents and had tried to show her some pity. He must have done fairly well with his acting as Carmen’s father told him that he shouldn’t feel sorry for Carmen. Her father told Patrick that he felt that Carmen deserved her punishment as he had paid over $3,000.00 in parking tickets for Carmen during the past year.
Patrick and her parents heard Carmen arrive. Her father told Patrick to stay seated while he went to talk to Carmen and after a few minutes of him lecturing her she ran up the stairs leading to her room on the upper floor. Just when she was almost at the top of the stairs he saw her falling forward into the dimly lit hall corridor. He saw that her glasses had come off and had fallen onto the carpet a couple of feet away from her. She obviously hadn’t hurt herself and was down on her hands and knees searching for her glasses. Patrick could hardly believe what he saw. She couldn’t even see a couple of feet in front of her to where the glasses had landed. His first thought was that he wanted to help her find them. But then he decided he would wait as he found that her apparent helplessness groping for her glasses aroused him a lot sexually.
He watched as she patted the floor all around her, coming in the right direction. Just when she was almost to her glasses, he gently pushed them further away. He saw how thick and strong they were and finally he had enough of that game so he decided to end it.
“Oh Carmen, what are you looking for on the floor?” he asked her.
Carmen froze as she hadn’t realized anyone else had come up the stairs. She hadn’t been able to see him in the dim light.
“I’m looking for those fucking glasses” she exclaimed with anger.
“Oh here they are, right where you have your right hand darling. Can’t you see them?” Patrick said.
Carmen was about to give an arrogant answer, but decided that would be an unwise move. After all she would be smarter to treat Patrick nicely as she had to live, at least for the next 4 weeks, wearing those horrible glasses and she wanted Patrick to accept her despite those ugly glasses.
“Oh how nice of you Patrick to help your little Carmen find her glasses” she tried to say in a cheerful manner.
Patrick picked up the glasses and he gently placed them on her face. Carmen was happy to be able to see something again. Patrick helped her get up and gently kissed her lips.
“Oh what have they done to my little sweetheart?” Patrick asked.
Carmen was happy when Patrick didn’t try to lecture her like her father did when she had come home. He just treated her as if nothing had happened. He hold her tight and kissed her again, causing those powerful lenses she now had to wear to fog up a little. She felt his love for her and responded to his passionate kisses. They finished kissing and she led him to her bedroom. She had a strong desire to be alone with Patrick now. He seemed to be the only person who could understand what was really going on with her at the moment. As soon as the door closed behind them she burst into tears, causing her glasses to fog up again. Patrick was in heaven. He consoled her and finally Carmen calmed down. Patrick gently removed her glasses from her nose, dried her tears and gave her glasses a good cleaning. He had never seen glasses this strong before. He put them back on Carmen’s face and she was very thankful that Patrick was being so supportive of her.
“Patrick, I just want to have a shower now and relax. I can’t take a shower without being able to see so would you help me please?” Carmen asked.
They went both to the big bathroom of Carmen’s room so they could shower together. Carmen undressed and Patrick saw her naked in glasses which was a huge turn on for him. They went into the walk in shower and Carmen removed the strong glasses. They finished the shower and after they had toweled each other off and were dry again Carmen asked Patrick if he would mind if she kept the glasses on while they spent some time in her bedroom.
Carmen was a bit surprised that Patrick seemed to make love in a much more passionate manner while she was wearing such awful looking glasses. She had anticipated that they would turn him off, but instead he seemed to be aroused even more than he normally was. He was also very tender with her when he held her and kissed her and he also seemed to be taking a lot of care not to touch or smear her glasses. She had been worried that he would drop her like a hot potato when he saw her wearing those terrible glasses.
After they finished making love and were about to shower again Carmen asked Patrick if he would like to stay for dinner. When he told her he would love to she called down to the kitchen and spoke to the cook, who agreed to seat another person for dinner. Carmen was happy that Patrick was staying because her father and mother would not lecture her nearly as much with Patrick there.
Patrick had been dying to ask Carmen a little more about her vision with her glasses on, but he was afraid to show too much interest for fear that Carmen might put two and two together and figure out that Patrick had a thing for girls who wore glasses. Fortunately Carmen’s parents asked the same questions that he had been wanting to ask, so his little secret was not revealed. After dinner Carmen’s father asked Patrick if he would be willing to go to the impound yard and retrieve Carmen’s car, because it was obvious that Carmen could not see well enough to drive again until her term of punishment was over. Patrick agreed, so it was suggested that he should come back for breakfast and then Carmen’s dad could drive them both to the impound yard and then Patrick could bring Carmen and her car back home. Patrick was going to go home, but then Carmen surprised everyone by telling her parents that since Patrick and she were sleeping together when she was at her own condominium there was no reason why he couldn’t sleep with her in her old bedroom. Her parents were about to object, but finally they agreed that there really was no reason why Patrick should have to drive to his own home and back the next morning.
Patrick had a fairly good job as a sales person at a car lot. It wasn’t critical if he was at work first thing in the morning because he was very good at his job. The following morning he and Carmen rode to the impound yard with her dad, and they picked up Carmen’s car. They were quite surprised when the compound owner told them that there was no fee for the towing, nor was there any storage charges as the city had decided that Carmen’s punishment and the resulting publicity would be payment enough. Carmen was stuck in her old bedroom for the rest of the day. She could read reasonably well, although the print in her books seemed to be very tiny and she had to bring her face quite close to the pages. When she tried to watch television she could see the screen clearly, but the details escaped her, and when she looked outside her bedroom windows she was unable to see the trees across the street as anything more than green blobs. But as the day went by she realized that the more she looked at things in the distance the better she could see them.
By day 3 Carmen was starting to gradually accept her punishment. Her distance vision seemed to be getting a bit clearer all the time, and even though it wasn’t nearly as good as it had been before she had these glasses she was starting to believe that this punishment, especially since sex with Patrick was so much better than it had been before, wasn’t going to be as bad as she thought it was going to be. She received a couple of phone calls that day. One was from Tom at the optical shop, telling her that her new glasses had been released to the courier and would be delivered and available for pick up the following morning. The other phone call was from the mayor, asking her if she would be willing to come in to see him to discuss the length of time that her punishment was going to last.
Tom had told Carmen that the courier always showed up by 10 am so Carmen had the taxi drop her off just before 10. The courier had already been there, and Tom met Carmen with a big smile on his face. He sat Carmen down in a chair at the fitting table and pulled her new glasses from their case. Carmen could see immediately that her new glasses looked much nicer than her existing glasses looked and even though the new glasses had cost a lot of money she was now happy that she had ordered the new ones. Tom put her new glasses on and he checked the fit. They fit perfectly behind her ears, and although they felt a little tight Tom suggested that she should leave them that way. He explained that such a strong prescription was what was called a millimeter job, and if the glasses were not in the exact place on her nose that was required she would not see nearly as well. And Carmen had to admit that her eyesight with the new glasses was far better than it had been with the glasses that had been provided for her to wear as punishment. She even felt that she could see well enough to drive and when she told Tom that he pursed his brow and suggested that maybe Carmen should see Dr. Winter before she attempted to do any driving.
Dr. Winter was just finishing up with a patient and there was no one waiting so she told Tom that she would check Carmen’s vision with her new glasses on. She carefully examined Carmen’s eyesight, and she was amazed when she discovered that with her new glasses on Carmen was no longer legally blind and could see well enough to meet the minimum vision requirements. She did however caution Carmen that she should probably restrict her driving to familiar roads and daylight hours only. Carmen was thrilled that she was going to be able to drive herself around, and she called a cab to take her to her parent’s house to pick up her car.
The following morning Carmen had an 11 am appointment with the mayor. Carmen had purchased a new dress at the mall the day her punishment had started, but when she had tried the dress on at home it had not suited her at all. She decided that she would just drop by the mall to return the dress before she went to her appointment with the mayor. She pulled her car into the mall and looked around. The only parking spots were quite a walk from the store and Carmen figured that she would just pull into one of the handicapped spots. She looked around for the bylaw enforcement officer and didn’t see him, so she pulled in, locked her car and ran into the store. It only took a minute to return the dress and get her credit card charges returned, but when Carmen came back out to get into her car her heart sank. Bylaw Officer Jackson was leaning against her sporty little yellow convertible and he didn’t look very happy.
“You don’t learn your lesson easily do you Miss Carmen.” Officer Jackson stated. “And how is it that you are able to drive wearing such a strong prescription? Those are not the same glasses they gave you at the hospital, but I am sure the prescription is the same strength.”
“I just picked up these glasses at my optician’s. And Dr. Winter examined my vision and said I could drive with them on.” Carmen said.
“I called the mayor as soon as I spotted your car pulling into the same handicapped spot you were in the other day. He told me not to ticket you as he was seeing you at 11 this morning. You had better go now or you will be late.” Officer Jackson told Carmen.
“Carmen, Carmen, Carmen. What are we going to do with you?” Paul the mayor asked her.
Carmen knew her goose was cooked. She realized that any excuse was going to be immediately dismissed and that she had better attempt to be very contrite.
“I was in a hurry to return something and I knew better than to take a handicapped spot once again, but I didn’t want to be late for our meeting Sir.” Carmen said.
“You have placed me in a very difficult position Carmen. I was going to tell you that I would release you from your punishment after 30 days, but now I am going to have to make you wear your glasses for at least 6 months. I was told that you would not be able to drive wearing such a powerful prescription, but Officer Jackson tells me that you have had Dr. Winter order you a new pair of glasses and that when wearing them you meet the minimum vision requirements for driving.” Paul said.
“Yes sir, that is true. I can see quite well wearing these new glasses. But I have to promise you sir that I will not ever take another handicapped spot again.” Carmen said.
“Your promise doesn’t mean much to me Carmen. I will make you my own promise. If you are ever caught parking in another handicapped spot in this city I will make sure that you will have to wear those strong glasses for a full three more years. Do you hear and understand me?” Paul asked.
“Yes sir, I do.” Carmen replied.
After Carmen left Paul called Dr. Thomas, who had originally given the mayor his opinion that anyone receiving the strong glasses punishment would be considered legally blind even with glasses. Dr. Thomas was incredulous that Carmen was able to obtain a pair of glasses that gave her good enough vision to still be able to drive and he told the mayor that Carmen was one out of a million people. The mayor asked Dr. Thomas if the prescription in the punishment glasses could be made even stronger, and Dr. Thomas told the mayor that glasses could be made that would correct over 100D of myopia, but he felt that it would likely not be necessary as most people would be too scared to park in handicapped spots out of the fear of being punished. The revenue from handicapped parking tickets had dropped off considerably and the mayor agreed that the problem had pretty much been solved.
Carmen was too embarrassed to tell her parents that her punishment had been extended for another 6 months because she used a handicapped parking spot again. She did tell Patrick though and she was surprised that Patrick told her that he loved her appearance wearing her new glasses and that he wouldn’t care how long she had to wear them.
Patrick and Carmen were spending a lot of time in bed together. Carmen had moved back to her condominium as soon as she had gotten permission to drive from Dr. Winters and Patrick had been spending every night there with her. As much as Patrick had tried to hide his love for Carmen when she was wearing her glasses she had finally realized that she really turned Patrick on when she was wearing them. Carmen talked to Patrick about this and he finally admitted that her glasses were a huge turn on for him. She didn’t like this at first, but Patrick was so gentle and caring with her that she came to realize that it was just the thought that she was totally vulnerable if she ever took her glasses off and while he never ever attempted to remove them, he did realize her vulnerability and this turned him on.
Carmen’s 6 months of punishment was coming to an end, but Carmen did nothing to contact the mayor or Dr. Thomas. She was still enjoying making love to Patrick too much and she didn’t want it to end. Carmen didn’t realize it, but she had changed. She no longer put Carmen at the head of the line and it was no longer Carmen this or Carmen that. Patrick really liked the changes in Carmen and he was afraid of what would happen when Carmen had the special contact lenses removed. He was happy that she seemed in no rush to have them removed from her cornea’s, but he was not prepared to ask Carmen to marry him without knowing what sort of person she would be after she no longer had to wear her strong glasses.
More than a year had passed since Carmen first had the contact lenses glued to her eyes. The Mayor had told her that she needed to have the lenses removed within a year, but Carmen was still afraid to have it done. She had adapted extremely well to her very minified view of the world and she didn’t want to change a thing as she now loved being so severely nearsighted. Carmen was a bit worried about damaging her eyes by leaving the contact lenses in place for too long and finally she made an appointment with Dr. Thomas. Dr. Thomas used the special solvent to remove the contact lenses and then he examined her eyes. He advised Carmen that her corneas were in perfect condition and that there had been no ill effects from her punishment. However, when he tried to get Carmen to read the eye chart she could not focus clearly on any of the letters on the chart. He tried placing different powers of lenses in front of her eyes, but it made no difference. She could not bring anything into focus. And Carmen found that she was developing a very intense headache. She begged Dr. Thomas to glue the lenses back onto her cornea’s so she could put her glasses back on and see clearly again. Dr. Thomas didn’t want to do that, but Carmen begged and begged him. She even offered to pay him as much money as he wanted, but he refused to take her money. Finally Dr. Thomas realized that Carmen was in serious trouble with her vision as well as in a lot of agony from the intense headache and the only way to fix it for the time being would be to return her vision to where it was when she had the contact lenses glued to her corneas. He still had some new lenses as the city had ordered and paid for a dozen pairs but had only used that one pair for Carmen. He finally glued one of the new pairs to Carmen’s corneas. Once Carmen put her glasses back on her headache immediately lessened and within a few minutes it went away. She asked Dr. Thomas how long it would be before she needed to have the new contact lenses replaced. He told her that, while he had told the city that the longest someone could wear them for punishment would be no longer than a year, in actual fact the lenses were a special type that had been designed for permanent corneal repair and could be worn for years if necessary. Carmen asked if that meant she could wear them forever and Dr. Thomas told her that while he would like to check her yearly, he felt that she would never have to have them replaced again.
Dr. Thomas had phoned the mayor, and had explained that he had to put the special lenses back into Carmen’s eyes, because she had been unable to focus with her natural eyes. The closest he had been able to get her to focusing had been when he used very strong base out prism’s to eliminate the double vision she had without her strong contacts and glasses, but no matter what lenses he had used in his equipment he had not been able to get her vision to clear up. This worried the mayor, as he felt that Carmen would likely sue the city. He asked to speak to Carmen, who assured the mayor that as long as she was able to have the extra lenses that the city had purchased she had no plans to sue the city. But she did want one thing from the mayor.
“These glasses were supposed to make me handicapped, isn’t that correct Mayor Paul.” Carmen stated.
“Why, yes Carmen, that was the intention.” Paul replied.
“So theoretically I could be considered handicapped.” Carmen said.
“Yes, but what are you getting at?” Paul asked.
“Since I am handicapped I think I deserve a handicapped license plate so I can park in the handicapped marked parking spots.” Carmen told him.
“I suppose we could do that for you, as long as you will sign a waiver saying you will not sue the city.” Paul sputtered.
“I will do that.” Carmen said with a big grin.
Dr. Thomas explained to Carmen that he could probably bring her vision back to normal by using a series of progressively weaker glasses and contacts combinations. He felt that the very strong powers of the lenses she had been accustomed to seeing through for the past year had trained Carmen’s brain to the point that, while Carmen’s eyes could still see normally, the signal that was transmitted to her brain by her eyes was unable to be deciphered clearly by the brain. He felt her brain had become accustomed to the images that Carmen had seen when focusing through her very strong contacts and glasses combination. He explained to Carmen that the eyes are like a camera, and that they merely transmit the image to the brain where the brain deciphers it and her brain would need some time to get used to the much larger images that her normal eyes were sending to the brain. He suggested that over a year’s time he could likely have her seeing without glasses, and she would no longer have a splitting headache.
“I’ve kind of gotten used to wearing these glasses Dr. Thomas. I think I will just keep on wearing them.” Carmen told him.
Carmen had been at Dr. Thomas’s office for the better part of the day. When she left it was starting to get dark and she was a little worried about driving home at dusk. But she made it safely, and when she put her car in her garage she noticed that Patrick’s car was already in his parking spot. He thought she would no longer be wearing her glasses and Carmen wished she could take them off and walk into the condominium to fool him, but she knew that she was so blind without her glasses that she didn’t have a chance of pulling that off. She went in and saw Patrick at the stove starting their dinner. When he turned to her and saw that she was still wearing her -75.00D high index double myodiscs she could see the amazement and joy in his eyes and on his facial expression.
As Patrick and Carmen sat eating their dinner Carmen told Patrick all about her day.
“Forever?” Patrick expressed his amazement.
“I can wear these glasses for the rest of my life!” Carmen replied.
“Will you marry me Carmen?” Patrick asked.
Andy and Specs4ever Jan 2017.
https://vision-and-spex.com/handicapped-means-handicapped-t873.html