Ann Martin - Mary Anne's Book

Our school nurse, Mrs. Randolph, was testing us. She told me to sit in the chair in the middle of the room facing the eye chart. She

pointed to the E at the top of the chart and asked, "Which way does the open side of the

E face - toward the door or toward the bookshelves?"

"Toward the door," I answered. "Good. Now read the letters on the next

line."

"K, Q, M, E1 R, T, Y," I said confidently. "Very good, Mary Anne," Mrs. Randolph said. She tapped the chart with a wooden pointer. "Now, the next line."

I quickly looked down the chart and counted that there were four more lines. I decided to

get all the letters on this line right, but that I would take longer to read them.

"R. . . T, M, W. . . no that's a U. . . L, K, X, C," I said.

"Didn't your teacher tell you that you should wear your glasses for the test?" Mrs. Randolph asked.

"But I don't wear glasses, Mrs. Randolph," I told her.

"Oh," she said. She looked puzzled and concerned. "Well, let's do the next line. Take your time."

I took a deep breath. Even though I could read the line clearly, I said the M was N and that the 0 was a Q. I read the next letter correctly, but followed it by two more mistakes.

"All right, Mary Anne," Mrs. Randolph said. "You've finished the test." She was frowning and writing something on my chart.

"Don't you want me to read the next line?" I asked. I already knew that the first letter was E, which meant I would say it was a B.

"No, that's fine, dear." She gave me a sympathetic smile.

I knew I had failed the test beautifully. Soon

I would have my own glasses. I couldn't wait.

I wondered if the school would let me pick

out my own frames. If they did I couldn't

decide if I wanted red frames or horn rimmed

ones like the pair I noticed Claudia's mother

wore. Or maybe I wanted silver ones like Ms. Elison.

At the end of the school day, Ms. Elison called Jeanette Thompson and me to her desk. I wondered if I'd be wearing my new glasses home.

"Girls," said Ms. Elison, "the vision test you took this morning indicates that you have vision problems. Did you notice that you had difficulty reading the eye chart?"

I smiled and nodded.

"Uh-huh," said Jeannette. She didn't look very happy about it.

"Can we pick out the frames for our glasses?" I asked Ms. Elison.,,

"That's really up to your parents," she said. "First you need to see your family eye doctor for further testing. Bring these notes to your parents." She handed each of us a note.

Further testing? Family eye doctor? I thought the school would give me glasses. But instead I had to go to a special eye doctor. What kind of test would the eye doctor give me? Would that doctor figure out that I had failed the school vision test on purpose? Would the eye doctor tell my father? I was confused and worried. It was a lot harder to get a pair of glasses than I thought it would be.

That night I gave my father the note from school. He seemed worried and a little upset by it. He asked me if I had trouble reading the board in school. I couldn't lie to my father. "I can read the board okay," I told him. Then he asked me to read different-sized print in the newspaper. I could read them all.

"It doesn't seem to me as if you have a serious vision problem," he told me. "But we better have it checked out as soon as possible."

The next evening my father told me I had an appointment with a Dr. Crews on Saturday morning. There was one more day of school before Saturday. I'd ask April what it was like to go to an eye doctor.

April explained that I'd have to read an eye chart; She also described a machine that was like glasses and how the doctor would keep changing lenses and asking her to tell him

when rows of letters were clear and when they were fuzzy.

"The test takes a long time," April said. "But it doesn't hurt or anything."

I realized there was no way I could prepare to fail this test. I would have to figure it out as I went along. Maybe I'd say the fuzzy images were clear and the clear ones were fuzzy. But I wasn't sure that would work. Since Dr. Crews was an expert on vision, I figured he'd know if- someone was making a mistake on purpose.

On the way home from school, Claudia and Kristy were all excited that it was the weekend. "My mom said she'd take us to Brenner Field to play tomorrow morning," said Kristy. "Let's invite April."

"I have to go the doctor's tomorrow," I told them.

"How come?" asked Claudia. "Are you sick?"

"I have to go to an eye doctor," I explained. "I might need glasses."

"Oh," said Claudia.

"Too bad," Kristy sympathized.

"But you did look nice in April's glasses," Claudia said. -

"Lots of people have to wear them," added Kristy.

I could tell they were trying to make it seem as if it were okay that I needed glasses, but they really didn't think so. Didn't they think it would be fun to wear glasses?

Saturday morning, on the way to the eye doctor, my father asked me to read him the signs on shops we passed. "Your distance vision seems fine," he said. He patted me on the leg. "Don't worry, honey, whatever the problem is with your vision, glasses will take care of it. I think you'll look very nice in glasses. A real intellectual."

"Thanks, Dad," I said. I wasn't sure what I was - thanking him for-. I was too nervous to carry on an intelligent -conversation. What if I couldn't fail the vision test? Would the doctor know that -I had cheated in order to fail it in school? Would he tell my father and report me to the school authorities? -

There was a man, another child and his mother, and a receptionist in the doctor's waiting room. Near the receptionist's desk I no-

ticed a rack of glasses frames. I went over to look at them.

"The ones on the two bottom rows are your size," the receptionist said. "There aren't any lenses in them. You're welcome to try them on."

I would finally be able to see how I looked in real glasses! I tried on the red frames first.

I looked in the mirror expecting to be pleased by what I saw. But I wasn't. My whole face was covered with two red circles. I didn't look great in glasses after all. In fact, I thought I looked terrible. I tried on the horn-rimmed glasses. I looked like a racoon!

I didn't see any frames that were dull silver like Ms. Elison's. Suddenly, I didn't want glasses. First of all, I didn't think I looked good in them. And secondly, they didn't make me feel less shy after all. I was totally embarrassed standing there trying them on. In fact they made me feel more shy.

"Why don't you try on that pink pair?" suggested the receptionist. "They're second from the right in the first row."

"No, thanks," I mumbled. I made a beeline for the chair next to my dad's

What was I going to do? I didn't want glasses, but I had failed the vision test at school and now I was at the eye doctor's. I decided that I would do the best I could on the test. I would pass it on purpose and I wouldn't need- glasses. My only problem then was that the doctor might tell my father and my school that I must have failed the other test on purpose. Still, I made up my mind to pass the doctor's vision test. I didn't want glasses. Period. The end. I shuddered remembering how awful I looked in them.

"Did you like any of the frames?" my father asked.

"Nope," I answered. I swung my feet back and forth and studied my lap. "They all look awful."

"Cheer up," he said. "Maybe you won't need glasses."

I looked up at him and grinned. My father wouldn't be upset that he took me all the way to the doctor to learn that I didn't need glasses.

"I bet I don't need them, either," I told him. "Mary Anne Spier," the nurse announced. "This way, please."

"I'll wait here," my dad said.