Page 94 of Brain Damage

I bite my lip. “So that’s good… right?”

Natalie nods. “Really good.”

I touch the ugly glasses on my nose. “Do you think it’s the prism lenses?”

“Maybe…” Natalie frowns. “I mean, the prisms definitely help some patients a lot. But I can’t say that I’ve ever seen anything quite this marked.”

“I didn’t think they were making a difference at all,” I admit.

Natalie nods again, looking thoughtful. “Let’s keep trying.”

We go down the hallway several more times, and I don’t bump into the wall once. And each time I use my left hand to push the wheel. Natalie is over the moon happy for me, and I’m pretty pleased myself. I’m baffled that these glasses could be making such a big difference, but I can’t argue with the results.

66

Clark is expected to come after lunch today, so I eat my lunch in the hallway alone. I see Jamie walking by, and I try not to stare. He’s alone too, gripping his cane in his right hand as he walks confidently down the hallway.

“Hey, Charly,” he says when he sees me. He manages a crooked smile. “New glasses?”

My hand flies to the lenses on my face. I know these glasses are incredibly ugly, and I hadn’t really cared before. But suddenly, I feel self-conscious. “Yeah,” is all I say.

“They’re cute,” he said, even though they absolutely are not cute in any way, shape or form.

“Thanks,” I say anyway.

He hesitates, lingering in front of me. “Can I… would it be all right if I sat with you?”

I look down at the watch on my left hand. It’s a quarter to one, and Clark will probably be here soon. God knows how he would react if he saw Jamie out here sitting with me. “You better not,” I say.

Jamie nods. But he looks sort of sad.

“I’ll see you tomorrow in Walking Group,” I tell him. Although I’m not actually sure that I’ll see him. I think Clark has spoken to Dr. Williams about my schedule and how he didn’t think it was a good use of my time to be in Walking Group. He makes a good point, but more than that, I think he’s trying to get me away from Jamie.

It’s hard to blame him for that one.

“Hey,” Jamie says suddenly. “Who turned your tray around?”

“Huh?” I say.

Jamie gestures down at my tray of food. “You usually only eat half. I always turn it around for you.”

I stare down at the empty plate of food in front of me. I hadn’t realized it, but my tray did seem especially easy to navigate today. My drink was there, my side dish was there, my utensils were easy to find, and my dessert was there too. Usually locating all the parts of my lunch is something of a scavenger hunt

“I think it’s the glasses,” I tell him.

Jamie raises his eyebrows. “The glasses? Really?”

I shrug. It’s the best explanation I can come up with.

Jamie looks a little bit skeptical though, and I can’t blame him. No matter how much of a miracle these glasses are, it doesn’t really explain why I suddenly started using my left hand. And it suddenly occurs to me that when I checked the time, I looked at the red watch Amy had put on my left hand to get me to pay more attention to it. I hadn’t even had to think about it.

67

These glasses are literally the ugliest glasses I have ever seen.

They are not stylish and cute glasses. They’re the kind of glasses that you see on a spinster librarian. And then one day, she takes off her glasses and you realize that she was beautiful all along, but you never knew it because she’s had these horrible, ugly glasses covering half her face. That’s what I’ve got on my face right now.

But they’re helping me so much, I can’t hate them as much as they deserve to be hated based on appearance alone.