June 23, 2011
“Now do you believe me?”
Denise lost her vision when she was three. Her last visual memory was of lights on a Christmas tree. No idea why, but her eyes were surgically removed and replaced with glass eyes.
I came to know Denise when I was 23 or so and she was a few years older. She was a very pretty woman, and her glass eyes were top-of-the-line, so people didn’t always notice they were glass right off the bat. And she had a knack for learning what colors went together, plus a good sense of texture, so she always dressed beautifully.
And she had a lovely guide dog named Lila. And Denise and Lila spent a year in Paris, where Denise studied French literature and Lila helped her navigate.
One day Denise and Lila got onto a bus, and the Parisian driver refused to believe that Denise was blind and that Lila was a guide dog permitted by law to board public transportation. It’s hard to imagine someone so dull-witted or, well, blind — but the driver refused to allow Denise and Lila onto the bus . . .
until she popped out one of her glass eyes and asked, “Now do you believe me?”
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Oh, man. Denise is my kind of woman.
The only thing that would make this story better is if she had a boyfriend named Manley.
Wow, I am trying to remember who was Denise’s boyfriend when I knew her. But he was no Manley Pointer, that much I recall. She was way too smart to fall for a Bible-selling nihilist. She is probably now married to a whoop-de-doo IMF dude who is neither blind and deluded.
Last I knew, a looong time ago, she was in D.C., where she had some groovy diplomatic job.
Oh, I didn’t figure anyone this wonderful would hook up with the likes of a real-life Manley Pointer. I just want him to be named Manley. Or for her to call him that. You know. So we could slap our knees at the funny.
He could be Manley [French surname]-[German-surname]. Or she could just call him that.
Yeah. Manley Sartre-Brecht. That’s funny.
A friend of ours from Scotland has a job painting irises and pupils onto glass eyes. It’s apparently an extremely taboo subject there for some reason, far more than in the US.
Holy _____! You mean your friend’s job or disability generally?
Both.
If he’s asked what he does for a living, he says he’s “a painter”.
He should be bold. I would love to talk with him. What a wonderful melding of art and practical craft.
My dad’s name is Manley.
He married a Marjorie.
And they gave their three boys French sounding “M” names (Marc, Michel, Maury) to go with their “La” prefixed surname.
They recently found out our surname is actually Dutch.