Please make sure you have read “Plain Jane No More” Parts 1, 2 and 3 before reading this.
Warning - the following chapter contains adult material.
“Jane Holden please?” “Yes,” Jane answered. “Come through please,” the nurse said, whilst ushering her into the consulting room of the Ophthalmology Department at the City Hospital. Her mother offered to come in with her, but Jane declined. At 18 years old, she now thought she was beyond parental help or interference, but she also didn’t want her mum to hear the truth if she was forced to give it. She walked in to see Dr Elaine Spencer sitting at her desk, a woman in her late forties in a white coat with half-moon glasses perched on the end of her nose. Jane wondered how it had come to this. This wasn’t part of the plan. Mr Forest, the family optician had referred her after an eye test. She sat down, and drifted off as Dr Spencer droned on, automatically nodding to each point she made.
Over the past 3 years, Jane had a very successful period in her academic life. She had just left school and had secured a position as Trainee Events Coordinator with a corporate events company. She excelled in everything. She also excelled in becoming more and more hyperopic without even trying. Within the year from age 15 to 16, she found she could no longer read comfortably, so she had paid a visit to the friendly lady at the local pharmacy who once again suggested that she purchase a stronger pair of glasses off the shelf. She did this, and then reading was fine. Distance was slightly blurry, but she didn’t mind and continued to wear her glasses full-time until her eyes got used to them again. After her 16th birthday, the old problem returned with the close work, and another visit to the pharmacy and another purchase of stronger glasses was required. Every time this happened, she was excited beyond all description. This was her dream come true. At 17, she was wearing noticeably strong plus glasses which got her a mixture of curious, sympathetic, and best of all, admiring looks, not just from the boys, but she also noticed from some girls – even total strangers. This gave her a strange thrill. Then the old reading problem kicked in again. Another visit was required to the pharmacy and the friendly lady who now knew her well. She suggested that Jane should have a full professional eye examination again, and offered to schedule her in. Jane declined, and said she would buy the strongest readers on the stand and see how they did. She tried a pair of very nice +3.50 ones with the test reading card and found them perfect. However, when she looked around her, everything was blurred and whizzing past her when she turned her head, but she did need them for close work so she bought them. She couldn’t wear them out in the mall though – just too blurry. She put her old ones on and everything was back to normal. Then she had an idea. There were several little stalls throughout the mall selling mobile phone cases, sunglasses, and specs cords. She bought a rainbow-coloured cord, fitted it to her new glasses and hung them around her neck. ‘Wow!’ she thought. ‘A 17 year old girl wearing plus glasses and even stronger ones around her neck!’ It gave her a huge buzz.
When she got home, her mother noticed right away that she had 2 pairs of glasses now. “Oh Jane darling, are your eyes really that bad now that you need two pairs? I think we should make an appointment with Mr Forest and get you properly checked out. It’s obvious you need bifocals. The ones I got are great.” Jane’s mother had recently been prescribed bifocals and she never stopped singing their praises to anyone who would listen! Jane said, “No, its OK Mum, I’ll manage fine with the two pairs just now. Let’s give it a year then see how things are.” Secretly she just loved the idea of being dependent on two pairs of glasses and displaying the strongest pair around her neck. At school she was the only pupil with 2 pairs of glasses. She felt special. She loved the act of taking one pair off and donning the other pair for reading, quite often putting her distance pair up on her head which seemed to drive some of the boys mad! She also loved to be in a café and swap glasses over to read the menu, watching the reaction from the other customers. It all gave her tremendous pleasure.
Even her best friend Linda was envious of her. “You know what? You’ve turned me into a glasses freak Janey – I never knew I could get such a buzz from watching someone else with glasses. Well, if the truth be known, not just anyone - just you Janey,” and she pursed her lips and blew a little kiss at her. Jane felt a little tingle go from the tips of her fingers to the ends of her toes. ‘What was that?’ she thought, and then reality hit her hard. ‘No, NO! It can’t be,’ she thought, her mind working overtime. ‘Linda? My best friend Linda? Oh my God!’ She turned red and was shaking. “You all right Janey?” Linda asked, smiling. “I’ve got something in my eye, Linda,” she blurted out, trying to cover her embarrassment. “Here, let me take a look,” Linda immediately answered, and came right up to Jane. She took a clean hankie and started to dab at Jane’s eye which was now watering. Jane felt Linda’s warm breath on her cheek, and Linda whispered huskily, “There now, it’s OK, it was an eyelash and I’ve got it.” Jane’s hormones were racing, and she scolded herself in her head, ‘Stop it, stop it. This is your best friend. Oh God, what’s happening to me?’ Within two minutes, everything was back to normal.
The following weekend, Linda’s parents were going on a weekend break with friends – adults only. Jane was invited to a sleepover at Linda’s house to keep her company. She wanted to go, then she didn’t want to go. She was scared, then elated. Her feelings were all over the place. Then she told herself not to be silly and just go. This was her best friend she’d known since childhood. They had a great day on the Saturday in the city centre, then came home and phoned for a pizza. There was nothing great on the TV that night, so Linda suggested they go up to her room and Jane could try on some of the new clothes that Linda had got for her birthday. Linda also naughtily suggested that they take a bottle of wine up with them which she had purloined from her parents’ wine collection. Linda put some music on from her phone on the docking station, and they started trying on the clothes, drinking the wine, and dancing to the music. Jane had to take the glasses off from around her neck, and Linda immediately grabbed them and put them around her neck, dancing around the room. “Hey, you, give me them back, I daren’t lose them or break them,” Jane shouted, laughing. “Come and get them,” Linda teased. Jane went up to her and made a grab for the glasses. Before she could, Linda made a grab for her, and held her by the shoulders and they both stood still, looking into each others eyes. The electricity was flowing between them like a five thousand volts power plant, and Jane was scared, thrilled, excited, and other things she didn’t even have a word for. Linda had a warm, loving, inquisitive, penetrating look in her eyes. They stood like that for a full minute, and then the moment passed. Both of them were silent, and Jane went back to the clothes. Linda handed her glasses back to her, and when she took them she was aware that Linda held onto her hand a little longer than was necessary. Linda poured each of them another glass of wine. Jane felt she needed it.
They were both sitting there on Linda’s bed in just bras and panties, and then Linda jumped up and said, “I’ve got an idea. Let’s swap glasses and see if we can get about the room. I really want to try out your new strong ones anyway. Jane’s head was swimming with the wine, and she felt slightly euphoric. “Go on then,” she said, and they swapped. Immediately, Jane felt like she was on another planet. The whole room was a fuzz of fluffy shapes and blurry colours, and they hardly moved when she turned her head. Also she was aware that there were two of everything. She remembered that Linda’s glasses made her see double from the last time she had tried them on in school years ago. Linda had needed the prism increased since then, along with the prescription, so the effect was much more pronounced. She loved the feeling it gave her along with the wine. Then Linda let out a yelp. “Yikes! These are totally awesome! The whole world is rushing up to me, and it’s blurry but I can see I’ve got two phones, two teddies, and oh my God – I’ve got two Janeys! Janey, Janey – this must be what drugs are like – and we can do it legally any time we want!” Then she said, “Janey – see if you can catch me if I run round the room,” and she started to feel her way about with her arms outstretched in front of her. Jane could see two blurry Lindas, and they seemed further away than they really were. She reached out to grab Linda and missed. She was aiming for the wrong Linda! Next time round she made a dive for the other Linda, and she got her. Linda stopped. Jane had her arms around Linda’s shoulders. They stood face to face, looking at the blurred images of each other, the glasses outlines doubled up, and their face profiles doubled up, and the wine swirling about in their heads. And then Linda kissed Jane on the lips – just a little baby kiss. Jane stayed put. She felt like she was floating. Was this real? Linda took Jane’s glasses off, and then reached out and took her own glasses off Jane’s face. She put them all down on the dressing table, turned back to Jane and gave her another little gentle kiss, cupping her face in her hands, then withdrew and looked at her. “I love you, Janey,” she said. Jane was smiling. Then she couldn’t stop herself. She put her arms around Linda’s neck, kissed her passionately while pulling her body hard against her. This continued for a full five minutes, then Linda stopped, looked at Jane, put her arms around behind her and unhooked her bra. Linda said, “Now me.” Jane undid Linda’s bra, then slid her panties down, and finally Linda did the same to Jane’s. Then Linda took Jane’s hand, led her to her bed, both of them blindly walking across the room. They slipped into the bed and spent the whole night together.
“And now Jane, is all of that clear to you?” Dr Spencer asked. Jane’s mind had been miles away throughout the whole consultation. “Huh?” she said. “The tests and treatment I’ve outlined to you. Shall we go ahead?” “Can you go over it again please?” “OK, Jane, now please pay attention. We have to establish if you have latent hyperopia or the onset of early presbyopia. You see, your ciliary muscles don’t appear to be working at all and we need to find out why. Also your iris sphincter muscles are not functioning as well as they should. At the very worst, it could be a neurological problem – you know – in your brain.” “What? WHAT? You mean a brain tumour?” “No, no, no, not at all. It probably isn’t, but that could cause the same effect. We need to admit you to the General Hospital for a CT scan just to eliminate that, and I would recommend it as soon as possible. This is so unusual for a healthy girl of your age. In the meantime, go back to your optician and get fitted for bifocals right away because you really need them now.” “I’ll need to think about this,” Jane said. “I’ll call you back once I’ve talked to my mother.”
They went downstairs to the hospital café for a coffee. Jane took her glasses off and started to cry. Her mother hugged her and said, “Don’t worry darling. It’ll be alright. They know what they’re doing in here, and I’ll be with you all the time. Everything will be fine, I promise.” How Jane dearly wished that Linda was here right now with her. “I love you, Linda,” she whispered into herself.
To be continued.
https://vision-and-spex.com/plain-jane-no-more-part-4-hospital-pg-t561.html