Eyes Read Online Free Page A

his sight. Something had to happen soon, and Jill felt like a ghoul every time she called the doctor to see where Neil’s name was on the list. It was too much like hoping that someone would die so Neil could have his eyes.
    She sat down at the kitchen table and did what she’d gotten in the habit of doing for the past six months; she thought about how she’d feel if their positions were reversed and she was the one losing her sight. She was sure she’d spend her time storing up beautiful memories: the colors of a splendid sunset, the graceful pattern of a single snowflake, the deep black velvet of the winter sky at night, the face of the person she loved. Perhaps Neil was doing all that, but Jill felt fairly certain that her face wasn’t the one he was memorizing.
    It was almost midnight, time to check on Neil. Jill sighed as she climbed the stairs. The doctor had prescribed a mild sedative, and Neil was sleeping. Jill tucked the blankets around him and sighed again. She’d just been promoted, and the rise in status entitled her to a year’s leave. She’d planned to apply for it, but the counselors at the Institute had advised against it. They’d insisted that Neil had to learn to cope on his own, that she would be doing him a terrible disservice if she allowed him to become dependent on her.
    Jill reached out to touch her husband’s face. Neil was a handsome man with dark hair and finely chiseled features. He was tall, over six feet—that was what had first attracted her to him. They’d met at a college reunion, her fourth, his fifth. At the time he’d been a teaching assistant, and she’d been the youngest lawyer on the district attorney’s staff.
    * * *
    The dance was dull. There was no other word for it. Jill was sorry she’d come. Responding to a call from the alumni association, she’d purchased a ticket even though she’d never intended to use it. She’d marked the date on her calendar at the office, and tonight a minor miracle had happened. Her boss had come into the law library and told her that she could leave early. Jill had rushed home, put on the red cocktail dress she hadn’t worn since the office Christmas party, and gone to the dance.
    The next hour had been depressing as she’d been reunited with the gang from the dorm. Jennifer was married, expecting her first child. All she could talk about was natural childbirth and the pros and cons of breast-feeding. Lauren was engaged, looking radiant and flashing a diamond that must have weighed in at three karats. She talked about going abroad for her month-long honeymoon and about the huge house her fiancé, the doctor, was buying. Marcia was Marcia, nosey as ever, asking why Jill didn’t have a boyfriend and offering to set her up with a divorced cousin.
    â€œJill? Jill Larkin? Is that you?”
    Jill swiveled around to see a chubby redhead in a black cocktail dress, holding the arm of a very handsome, very tall man. At first Jill didn’t recognize her, but then the redhead smiled and Jill knew it was Adele. Though Adele was forty pounds heavier than she’d been in college, she still had the gap between her teeth she’d sworn she’d have fixed after graduation.
    â€œIt’s good to see you,” Jill said, and she smiled with genuine warmth. Adele had been one of her favorites in the dorm, always cheerful and always urging them all to do what she called “the good, fun things,” like going down to the public library on Wednesdays to read to the kids, finding homes for the stray cats who hung around the campus, and delivering home-baked cookies to the local senior citizen homes.
    â€œI know what you’re thinking.” Adele laughed. “You’re wondering why I didn’t get my teeth fixed.”
    Jill nodded. “You’re right. Tell the truth, Adele . . . did you spend the money on a home for stray dogs and