“Like I said, it wasn’t so bad then. I could read fine . Needed help seeing far off, but I could shoot if squinted down hard and refocused.”
“I had wondered by your demeanor and weaponry if you might be a sec man. With your reading interests, that confirms my suspicions.”
“I just try to get by, and I need my eyes to do it.”
“Would you read the letters off the chart on the wall behind me, please?” Clarke stood and took a thin wooden pointer. He gestured with it to the top of the chart. “Start with the third line.”
J.B. automatically squinted and said ” Q, G, T, X.”
Clarke rapped the stick on the chart, creating a popping sound on the heavy pape r. “Without squinting, please.
_ J.B had to make himself not follow the reflex. ” Q, G, T, X ,” he said, as much from memory as actually being able to see the printing.
The optician lowered the pointer. “Fourth line.”
“E, D, O no, wait, Q, P.”
“Fifth line.”
” B, U , or is that a V ? Shit, those letters are tiny'”
Clarke didn’t respond. He lowered the pointer to the next level. “Sixth line.”
J.B. didn’t reply. He squinted, waiting for Clarke to tell him to stop. Not that an admonishment from the doctor would have mattered since the squinting didn’t help.
“I can’t see the sixth line,” J.B. admitted.
“Very well.” Clarke stepped to one side and wheeled over a large device that appeared to be a high-tech pair of binoculars mounted on a bracket between two enormous steel drums, one per side. He rolled the unwieldy apparatus up to J.B.’s face and lowered the binocular section until it was even with the Armorer’s eyes.
“Is that bad, not being able to see that line?” J.B. asked.
“No. I wish you still had your other pair of spectacles so I could compare your vision with and without them, but we’ll have to make do.”
“What’s this hunk of metal I’m peeping through?”
“This is a corrector, Mr. Dix. I am going to switch by hand various kinds of lenses inside this device until you are able to see the eye chart more clearly. This is a much quicker way and can be handled without putting on and taking off a thousand pairs of glasses. We’ll start with the right eye. Each time I change the lenses, let me know if you can see better, or if the lens has decreased your vision even further.”
Several minutes passed, with J.B. informing Clarke which lens worked best. The small man made notes on a sheet of paper as he worked. Finally he opened both sides of the binocularlike device and allowed J.B. to peer through at the same time.
“This is great,” the Armorer said enthusiastically.
“I can see even better than I could with my old glasses.”
“I’m not surprised. Vision changes over time, Mr. Dix. Still, twenty-forty vision in one eye and twenty-thirty in the other with corrective lenses isn’t very good eyesight.”
“Good enough for me.”
Clarke wheeled the correction mechanism back to the corner and took up his seated position in front of J.B. once more.
“Now comes the hard part,” he said. “I have to find an existing pair of lenses and frames. I have no way of manufacturing or cutting the glass myself.”
“Actually I need two pairs. How do you get glasses, anyway?”
“I buy them. I have a standing offer of jack for any pair of prescription glasses in decent condition. One fellow brings in pairs by the dozens.” While talking, Clarke picked up an eye patch from the table.
“What’s the patch for? I thought we were finished,” J.B. asked.
“It’s not a patch, it’s an occluder. I’m going to run an accommodative and convergence test. At your age, you need to know what kind of physical shape your eyes are in, and a few more tests will give you a complete exam,” the optician replied. He paused and shrugged. “Well, as complete as I can do anyway. We might as well finish. You are paying for the package.”
“Guess so. Go ahead, then.”