I met Laura Anne Parks the first day I was in grade 9. We were both 14 and since my last name – Phillips, also started with a P we were seated together. Laura wasn’t bad looking for a girl, but her glasses – her glasses were so friggin thick I couldn’t imagine how she could possibly see anything wearing them. I have, since I have gotten older, read about jam jar glasses, and bottle bottom glasses, glasses with lenses like ashtrays, and ice cube lensed glasses being used to describe really thick lenses in a person’s glasses, but none of these descriptions really seemed to suit Laura’s lenses. They were simply the thickest lenses that I could ever imagine a person could possibly see through. I figured our teacher would move Laura to the very front row, but she just asked her if she needed to be closer to the front of the room and when Laura told her she could see just fine from where she was our teacher left Laura sitting next to me. Over the next few months I found that Laura, despite her horribly thick glasses, was a very nice person and she did not deserve the bits of nastiness that she received from some of the other kids about her obvious visual impairment. I was probably the closest friend that Laura had, but I was, like Laura, only 14 years old and being a guy I just wasn’t into girls yet. I suppose if I had been into girls Laura would have been the last person I would have picked to be my girlfriend because of the super strong and thick glasses. However as a classmate and a person Laura was really great to have as a friend. The glasses, of course, made her different and made her stand out as different so her circle of friends was very small and I was perhaps her only real friend that year. We were almost at the end of the school year when Laura showed up at school wearing contact lenses. Boy did she look strange to me without her glasses. I suppose I was developing a liking for girls by this time, and when I saw Laura without her glasses I thought she was really pretty. We had both turned 15that spring. My birthday was in April and Laura had hers in June. Her present from her parents had, of course, been the contact lenses. Laura and I lost track of each other over the summer, and when school came back in the fall I was in grade 10B and she was in 10C so our paths diverged. And now that Laura wore contact lenses all of the time she seemed to become more outgoing and not as shy. Her circle of friends widened and at least she was a bit more popular. By grade 11 Laura was going out with a guy from grade 12, and other than saying hi to her in the hall when we passed by we barely had anything to do with one another. The following year we both graduated and because of our last names I was right behind her as we walked up on the stage to get our diplomas. We had been sitting beside each other prior to the ceremony and we talked a lot for the first time in ages. She was as nice and friendly towards me as she had ever been and I sort of regretted never asking her out before she got her contacts. But you can never go back. I dropped out of school, much to my father the doctor’s disgust. I was driving a dump truck for a local cement company hauling rock from the pit to the batch plant. The job was a bit boring, but the paycheck was great and I was socking money away instead of spending all of it on booze, cars and women. My one passion was a now 3 year old fully paid for Mustang 5.0 GT with a 6 speed transmission. I knew my parents were very disappointed in me because it seemed to them I had blown my potential by not going on in school. But I wasn’t interested in sitting in an office every day, and I loved driving my big Kenworth transfer dump setup. I had a toothache one day, so I made a late afternoon emergency appointment at our local dentist’s office. When I walked in the girl at the reception desk was wearing the thickest glasses I had ever seen since before Laura changed to contact lenses. I took a closer look at her, and then it hit me. It was Laura. We made a bit of small talk as I checked in and as I looked at her obviously very powerful double myodisc lenses in the small gold wire frame she was now wearing I thought that I really liked seeing her wearing glasses. I didn’t dare say anything about the fact she was wearing glasses again, because I knew that her glasses were not something she liked talking about so other than telling her she looked really good I didn’t say anything else. After I had my tooth drilled and filled I had to come out and pay them. Laura took my credit card and ran it, and just as I was about to turn away I decided to ask her if she was tied up with somebody. She knew what I meant. “I haven’t been going with anyone since I had to start wearing these darned glasses again Randy.” Laura said. “I have to go into the city on Saturday. My brother Ed and his wife just had a baby a few weeks ago and I have been putting off going to see my new nephew. You know Ed from school so would you like to go for a ride. I will treat for lunch and dinner.” I replied. “I’ll go, but you have to let me drive. I like your Mustang. It’s a 5.0 with a 6 speed isn’t it?” Laura asked. “You got your driver’s license? I thought you told me that your eyes were so bad you likely wouldn’t be able to drive.” I responded. “My vision is pretty good with these new glasses. I got my license in High School back when I was wearing contacts, but I just had to go for another eye test recently with these glasses and my doctor signed for my renewal with no problem.” Laura said. “No one drives my Mustang………….except for pretty girls so it is a date.” I told her. Seeing the smile on Laura’s face was almost worth it. You see, what I had started to say was no one drives my Mustang but me, and I don’t know why I changed my mindset just as I had started to speak. Now I felt a little bit of anxiety over what I had told her but for some reason I found that this young lady with the extremely strong glasses was drawing me in like a magnet. I had always really liked her, and while I had never felt that I was attracted to girls that wore glasses there was just something about Laura’s exceptionally powerful glasses that attracted me. Laura had mentioned that she still lived with her parents and I knew the place well. I had spent a lot of time there when we were in grade 9 together. Saturday morning I pulled up at her door and rang the bell. She looked great when she came to the door. She wore jeans and a white blouse that fit all her curves perfectly. I had hoped she would have forgotten about wanting to drive, but when she headed for the driver’s side of the Stang I knew I was in for a ride. I am very nervous when someone else is driving me around, and for my first time as a passenger a half blind girl was going to be driving my prized possession. She set the seat, and adjusted all the mirrors. Then she took out a glasses case and exchanged her clear glasses for a very similar looking pair of dark sunglasses. Her seat belt clicked, and she started the car. I waited for her to lurch the car as she let the clutch out carefully, and when the car pulled away smoothly I figured she would grind the gears for at least one shift. But she was a really smooth driver as she deftly went through the first 4 gears. She even downshifted as we came to the only red light on our way out of town. Now the only thing that bothered me was the question of how well she actually could see. Laura was surprising me more every minute. She sat nicely upright in the seat with her hands at the 10 and 2 position. She had familiarized herself with all the controls and when the rain started she knew exactly where the wiper switch was. The Stang has a pretty decent blind spot in the rear, but if you know the car you adjust for that with the mirrors and she seemed to have a knack for knowing exactly what was around her. She was almost doing better than a driver with perfect eyesight could and my apprehension was lessening every minute. Originally I had figured I would let her drive for a few miles and then I could take the wheel, but I was enjoying looking at her from the passenger seat and watching her eyes blink frequently behind the lenses of her now clear lensed glasses as she had deftly changed back to them when the rain started. Other than switching her glasses, once they were positioned on her face she never touched them. They must have been adjusted well enough so they didn’t slide down her nose at all. And what was a little strange to me was that she never once seemed to squint to see anything a little bit clearer. I thought back to when we were in school and I remembered that even though her glasses were so strong Laura never seemed to have any trouble seeing things back then either. As we drove along I was almost able to forget how bad her eyes must be. I did wonder as I glanced at her just exactly what she did see. “You are wondering if I can see well enough aren’t you.” Laura asked. “Yes, I am, but it seems pretty obvious you can see pretty much everything you have to see to be able to drive.” I replied. “I will read the license plate number of the car in front of us when I get close enough. You can decide if I could do it as soon as you could.” Laura said. She read the numbers off to me at just about the same time I could see them. Her vision was pretty darned good if that was an example of it. I tried to remember if we had passed that car, or if it had passed us and she had cheated by memorizing the numbers, but I was pretty sure we had just come up on it. I asked her where she learned to drive so well and she just told me that she took a driving course after she got her license. But I could tell that from the smile on her face after I commented that she drove well she was pretty darned pleased with herself that she had impressed me with her driving skills. And to tell you the truth, I was impressed. There was a couple of instances where I would have pulled out into the passing lane to try to get through a line of traffic and she didn’t make a move. But then the line we were in started to move and we caught up with the cars that had been beside us anyway so it turned out she had been correct to be patient. And while we had run into fairly heavy traffic she had maintained a safe, but tight following distance. I didn’t ask, but I was thinking just that when she said, “You know Randy, with my needing such strong glasses if I was ever in an accident they would take one look at my glasses and think that I caused the accident because I must be half blind and couldn’t see well enough. I have to be extra careful that I do not get into an accident, or if it ever does happen then I have to be clearly not at fault.” “Well, I have to tell you that you amaze me Laura. You are the first person I have ever let behind the wheel of my car, and you are a great driver.” I replied. I told Laura to take the next interchange as there was a coffee shop there we could stop at. She wheeled the Stang into a parking spot, unhooked her seat belt and we got out. I held the door open for her to enter first, and then I bought her a simple coffee – black, the same as I drank. No foo fah frilly latte for this girl and I liked that. There was more and more I was liking about Laura as I spent time with her again. As we sat drinking our coffee I looked her over very carefully. She was quite attractive and had a great figure. Her glasses were much smaller in their overall size than the ones most of the girls wore now, but I realized that the size was what made them look very acceptable to people. The circle that held all the power was pretty small, and her eyes were perfectly centered in each lens. When I was sitting close to her I really could not see any cut in on either side of her face, but if she moved her head to one side or another the cut in was quite visible. I asked her how it was possible that she seemed to be able to see so well with having to wear such strong glasses. She shrugged her shoulders and told me that she really didn’t know. Even her eye doctors were surprised that she had better than 20/30 visual acuity and she wore glasses that were a -38.00D for her prescription. I had no idea what the number meant as I had never had any experience with glasses. And then she told me that the -38.00D was for her better eye. Apparently her worst eye had a prescription of -40.00 x -1.50 x 88. I didn’t know what to say. I know I thought something like “wow, those numbers are bat shit crazy high.” But I also knew better than to make any comment at all. After all, they were only numbers and she had proven to me that she actually could see just fine. We finished our coffee and Laura continued on behind the wheel to drive to Ed’s place. We had gotten a little more than half way before we had stopped and I must admit I was a lot more relaxed for the rest of the trip. I spent the rest of my time watching Laura as she drove and I found that she aroused me a lot when she hooked her hand under the seat belt and brought the belt down so that it rode below her right breast. That made her breast look bigger, and it was already a very nice shape and size. Finally we pulled up in front of Ed’s place. Ed was a year and a half older than me and he knew Laura from when Laura and I hung around together in grade 9. His wife Sherry was a cute little blond who was also a glasses wearer, but in the world of glasses wearers Sherry was at the low end of the thickness totem. We had a pleasant visit, and I got to meet my new nephew who was just a bundle of cuteness according to Laura. It was just starting to get dark when Laura and I left Ed and Sherry’s place for the drive home. As we got to the car I handed Laura the keys, but she handed them back to me. “It is going to be dark soon, and I don’t see as well at night as I do during the day. You had better drive home Randy.” Laura said. I did drive Laura back to her parent’s house. But it only took a few more dates before Laura and I moved in together. And as long as we were out driving around in daylight, Laura let me know in no uncertain terms that she was the one that did the driving. Specs4ever July 2018