The following story was sent to me from Eye4you (Michael). I am only posting it, Val
Hello everybody, I have written my first ever story. I’m a little worried about my grammar but I hope you will like it. Enjoy your reading, Michael
“Life is full of surprises” - Andrew’s story - written by Eye4you
Part 1 - Introduction
My name is Andrew, I am 28 years old. My girlfriend’s name is Julie, we have been living together now for 5 years. When we first meet she used to wear her contact lenses most of the time and I only had the pleasure of seeing her wearing her glasses at home in the morning before work or some times at home on the weekends, she never went out in public with them on. But about 3 years ago she started getting more headaches at work so we went to get her eyes tested as it had been 3 years since her last test.The eye doctor said she had developed an astigmatism in both eyes. Her new prescription was now -5.25 - 1.75 120 and -5.75 -1.50 90 and would need to wear toric contact lens. The doctor called his assistant in and we were led into his fitting room were Julie was fitted with her new toric lenses. On the way home, Julie started to complain that the lens were moving and everything was going in and out of focus, so we went to a coffee shop and I rang the eye doctors. We were told that it takes a while to get used to toric lens, so for the next month Julie struggled with them. She could only wear her lens for a few hours each day, and, as soon as she got home she had to take them out, but then had problems seeing as she had not got new glasses with the astigmatism correction in. We decided to return to the opticians. The doctor suggested she try RGP toric lens and purchase a new pair of glasses. They had blanks in stock for her prescription and could make them in one hour, so Julie was fitted with her new hard lens and we went out for a meal. By the time we returned to the shop Julie’s eyes were red and watering so badly that she could not wait to get the lens out. The doctor explained to her that her eyes would not tolerate hard lens and so she had no choice to wear the new glasses all the time. A few minutes later, the technician brought a tray in with Julie’s new glasses on it. I thought all my Christmases had come at once. They looked so much thicker than her old glasses and I could see lots of power rings. Julie’s eyes were still watering so much that she just let the assistant put the glasses on for her. I took the technician on one side and asked why the new lens were so thick he explained that he only had some older stock of lens in Julie’s prescription and they were CR39 lens. I said that was OK as she needed them urgent and it was ok with me (haha!). We left the shop. Julie was very happy how well she could now see. When we got home, Julie went into the bathroom to take her makeup off. She came rushing out and shouted: “Why did you not tell me the lens were so thick, I look ugly, my eyes look so small and my face looks shrunken”.
Part 2 - All good things come to an end.
After Julie had got over her shock she had to admit that she could see much better and no headache, so for the next 18 month life had been bliss. 2 months ago Julie started a new job as a hotel receptionist. Thats when things started to change. She kept saying her boss had made lots or comments about her thick glasses and how he thought she looked prettier without them. I got mad and said how did he know she looked prettier without them. She went red and said nothing had happened just he wanted to see her without them. A month later I had to go away on business, on my return Julie was in bedroom and called out that she had something to show me. As she came out I said oh dear how did you break your glasses, then my world came to a end. She said her boss had paid for her to have eye surgery and she did not need glasses now.
Part 3 - Moving on.
As you might have guested I am moving out. I have found a nice apartment with a roof garden on the other side of town.I never knew I had so much to pack and I have run out of boxes, Julie suggested I go to her sister and pick up some old packing cases that she stored in her garage. I was not very excited about this but it was Sunday and I could not find more boxes. I had only met her sister a few times, she was nothing like Julie, she had short black hair and did not wear glasses. Julie tried to ring Mary, but got no reply, so as it was on my way to my apartment I decided to load my car and call on the way. I rang Mary’s door bell a few times. Still no reply, so I went around the side gate and saw her bending over watering the flower bed. I called her name and she turned around, I nearly died when I saw her. She was wearing thick plus lens making her eyes look huge. I apologised for making her jump and introduced myself and explained why I had come, she said she did not hear the doorbell. She invited me in. We sat down and she made a cup of tea I could not take my eyes off her. I did not know what to say. I knew she was uncomfortable me looking at her so I stammered. It’s a long time since we meet, I did not recognise you (that was a silly thing to say). She looked at me and said: “oh you mean these horrible glasses”. I used to wear contact lenses but now my eye sight has got worse and I have to wear these all the time now.. I should go to the mall to collect my new glasses. I have been getting very bad headaches when I’m reading and a lot of double vision. I think they will look even worse than these. They said I need bifocals and something called a prism in the lens I have never had that before. I hate the thought of getting them, so I have been putting it off. They gave me this paper, but none of it makes sense to me. I looked at it my heart jumped as I read: R + 11.25 2.25 160 add 3.75 prism out 4 L11.50 add 3.75 prism out 4. I’m sure they look horrible she said. Her eyes started to fill up with tears, I put my arm around her to console her to my surprise Mary gave me a huge hug. I now see Mary in a different way. We had chatted for nearly 2 hours and the shops would now be closed so I suggested I pick her up tomorrow and take her to get her new glasses.
Part 4 - Life is full of surprises
When I got back to my apartment I thought I better ring Julie to say I was stopping at my new apartment and would not be returning that night. Julie asked if her sister was ok as she had not seen her since she had split with her girlfriend. My heart sank, I did not know Mary had a girlfriend. Next morning I arrived early to pick Mary up. I rang the doorbell a few times before she opened the door, I was shocked to see her wearing eye makeup and nice lipstick I had never seen her like that before. We parked the car and started to walk to the mall, I could see Mary was very nervous and starting to shake a little. I did not know what to do,so I gently held her hand as we crossed the road to my surprise she held it tight until we got into the eye doctors. The assistant recognised Mary and said: “Good morning Ms Greenfield, please take a seat, I will get your new glasses for you”. Mary took her glasses off and asked me to hold them for her while she tried the new ones on, Her eyes looked much smaller and very sunken without her glasses on and also very crossed eyed. The assistant placed the new glasses on Mary’s face, I wanted Her to turn around so I could see her face but the assistant asked her to look at the chart on the wall. Mary said it was so sharp and everything was so bright, then the assistant gave her a card to hold and read and explained that she should not move her head now, to read it only lower her eyes and read through the bottom section of the lens. Mary was amazed how clear the small print was. She then said I can see so much better, but I’m sure I must look so ugly wearing them all the boys at school used to call me the bug eyed girl. Slowly Mary turned around. My mouth nearly dropped open, the new glasses were a around metal NHS frame with cable temples in a pink colour. I had thought Julie’s lens were thick, but Marie’s lens were not flat at the front they bulged out and were so thick in the middle, her eyes looked so huge and beautiful with the pink eye shadow she had put on. Then I noticed what looked like a crack all the way across the lens, the assistant must have noticed me looking at the lens and explained that the eye doctor had recommended executive bifocals.and they were only available in 1.50 lens. I suddenly felt very hot and excited. I told Mary they looked wonderful on her.
Part 5 - Life just gets better
Mary paid for her new glasses and I suggested we should order her a pair of reading glasses as she had said she said she did a lot of reading in the evenings. She thought was a good idea, so the assistant went to see the doctor to check if it was ok. She return a few minutes later with a second prescription which now read R +15 2.25 160 prism out 8 L 15.25 prism out 8. He had decide to increase the prisms, as Maria would be holding things closer, so her eyes would cross much more, also they could make them for us to collect later. Mary was now classified as partially sighted, she would get help with the cost of the lens and they would fit them in the free NHS frames. We were just about to leave and a voice from up stair called out: “Is that Ms Greenfield voice I can hear, can you tell her to come up her hearing aids have arrived?”. Mary had heard her name called and asked me what the lady had said I told her she had said your hearing aids have arrived. Her face went bright red and I could see tears in her eyes. She started stammering,I did not want you to know that, I will look even uglier, I thought I had told them I not want them. The lady then explained that when Mary had her eyes tested, the assistant thought Mary had a hearing problem, so the doctor and had suggested she go upstairs and have a free hearing test. Thats when she was told than she had a 75% hearing loss in her right ear and a 25% loss in her left ear. They said that this month they were offering a 3 months no obligation trial. Mary said she had just wanted to get out of the shop as she was so upset that she must have said ok. The lady asked if we would like to sit down and have a coffee and talk about it as she could see Mary was stressed. I explained to her that I had rang her door bell many times yesterday and today so I thought it worth her trying the hearing aids. Mary asked me if I really thought her glasses looked nice or was I just being kind. I explained that I had been so used to seeing her sister with such small eyes that I found her large eyes very attractive and sexy. Then Mary had to admit that she did have problems at work hearing sometimes, but one of the girls at school had been teased for wearing bananas behind her ear. That’s what they called her hearing aids. Mary asked me if I would still like her if she wore bananas behind her ears, I told her that I was happy for her to try them, so she agreed as long as I came upstairs with her. The lady brought 2 very large hearing aids out and attached them to the moulds that had been made and fitted them into both of Mary’s ears. The hearing aids were a lot larger than I had expected. The lady explained that Mary needs a powerful aid in her right ear, because of the amount of decibels hearing loss she had. That it meant the hearing aid had to be so large as they were the budget model and the audiologist thought it would look odd if he fitted her with a smaller aid in her left ear so had ordered the larger model to match and had it adjusted. The lady said that when we wil return later for Mary’s reading glasses to come up and see her if there was any problem if not she would see her in 3 months. As we started to go down stairs, Mary said it was strange walking down the stairs with her new bifocals and everything sounded so loud and she was not used to hearing things. On the bright side, she held my had tightly till we got to the car.
Part 6 - Our new life
When we got back to the car Mary said she was very tired could we go back another day and get her reading glasses. So I suggested we get a take away and go back to my apartment as it was closer than her house. She thought this was a good idea. When we got to my apartment, Mary held my hand and said could I help her up the stairs as she did not want to fall as the steps looked a complete blur. I explained to her that she was not used to walking in bifocals and seeing things through the reading part of the lens. Mary sat down at the table. I did not know which I liked looking at most, her lovely big eyes behind the pink glasses with the big bulging lens of her bifocals or the large pink hearing aids she was now wearing. I could see her experimenting with her bifocal first looking over to the window then lowering her eye to look at the food on her plate. She said: “It’s so easy to see everything now. I used to have to blink my eyes if I looked up after reading. I hope you would’t mind me having to wear such thick lens”. After we had eaten, Mary looked very sleepy so I suggested she go into the spare bedroom to have a sleep. A little later I looked in to see if she was ok, but she was fast asleep and on the table beside the bed were her new glasses and hearing aids I felt all warm and happy. I cleared the food plates and went to my bedroom. When I woke I could hear Mary singing in the kitchen to my surprise she was wearing her hearing aids. Without turning she said good morning, I heard you coming haha. She came over to me and gave me a big hug and kiss. Her hearing aids started to whistle, we both laughed and it made her hearing aids whistle again. We had breakfast and decided to go to town to get the reading glasses that we had ordered. We held hands all the way. Mary did not make any excuse that she needed help. I left her at the eye doctor door and said I would collect her in about one hour, as I needed some shopping. When I got back, Mary said she had got her reading glasses and had been upstairs and signed the form to pay for the hearing aids monthly, as she could hear so much better and she thought I would not mind if she wore them all the time. I smiled and nodded. Mary said she had some work to do at home but if I wanted to pick her up later she would come and help me sort my new apartment. So I dropped her off and returned to my old place and packed the rest of my things. Julie was at work so I just left her a message and locked the door for the last time. When I picked Mary up she had a large bag with her as I looked at it she said I thought u needed some cleaning things and I brought some old cloths with me so I can help clean. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the apartment and unpacking my things. Mary said she would cook the meal. While I set up the TV and Internet, I noticed she was looking though the bottom of her glasses while she was preparing the vegetables, so I suggested she try her new reading glasses. She thought that was a good idea, but her hands were wet so would I went and get them for her. I was very happy to do that haha. When I opened the case my hands started to shake with excitement. I called Mary and asked her if she had seen her new reading glasses, she said that the assistant had just given her the case with them in, as the shop was very busy. Was there anything wrong with them she said. No they are fine. I had never seen glasses like these before. They had used 1.50 blanks, the lens were over an inch thick in the middle and you could see all the prism rings they look like 2 paper weight fitted into the blue NHS frames. Maria asked me to take her bifocals off and put her reading glasses on my hands were shaking with excitement. Mary’s eyes were so large they filled the whole of the lens. I don’t know why but Marie kept her reading glasses on while we ate our meal. Her hearing aids kept whistling as she ate, but I don’t think she could hear them whistling. After we had eaten, we sat down and chatted for a while. Marie said she had never been with a boy as they had always made fun of her at school, and June had only been her flat mate. It had been Julie that had been saying nasty things about her. I gave Mary a kiss and said I was tired and going to bed. Mary said she would clear the dishes, so I said good night to her and would see her in the morning.
Part 7
… ?!
I was just dozing off when I heard a whistling sound next to me and a cool feeling of Mary’s glasses against my face…
https://vision-and-spex.com/life-is-full-of-surprises-andrew-s-story-t984.html