The Spectacle

  My Aunt Bessie was always an enigma to me. Born smack dab in the middle of seven children, all born during the depression years in Oklahoma, one would think she would have to work for attention. She did not. The whole family conceded early on that Bessie was blessed with more than her fair share of the family's good looks. Times were hard and not much came easy to Bessie, nothing except her reputation for being easy.
It wasn't her fault though. Bessie was tall and slender, and had a body that would rival any of the females in the various movie star magazines that I poured over in the early 1950's.
  She had the most beautiful azure blue eyes that I've ever seen. They actually twinkled when she smiled really big, and even more so when she really laughed. Men just loved to make Bessie laugh, because they got such a reward from her eyes. Once I told her that they were her greatest assets. Her husband, my Uncle Bill, crudely remarked that he'd always thought her greatest assets were about a foot lower.
  It nearly broke my heart years later when I found out that she was verbally and physically abused by my crude Uncle for about 30 years. Being controlled by an alchoholic man also meant that she was never allowed to work outside of the home, so Aunt Bessie never had much money. Just the little bit she earned from babysitting or taking in ironing, and even that she had to hide from him. The government finally deemed her of an appropriate age to draw a meager sum in the form of a Social Security check, and Aunt Bessie saw her chance at a new life. She left my Uncle Bill as fast as the local busline could get her out of southern Oklahoma, headed north. She stayed with various relatives, but always making sure they knew she could "pay her way".
  Sometimes she would stay with my mom, and they would catch up on the family gossip over family photos, petite cups of strong, black coffee, and Pall-Mall cigarettes, one after another, lit from the butt of the last one smoked. It always bothered me that the old sepia colored photos from her youth never captured her amazing eyes.
  I was always Aunt Bessie's favorite niece, and when she asked for anything it was with eager pleasure that I would grant her request. She had been visiting about three hours when she asked if I would call for an appointment  for her to get an eye exam , and some new glasses at one of the new fangled eyeglass places that offered glasses the same day. Something she had never experienced. I mistook the urgency in her voice for excitement, and made the call that sealed my fate.
  We arrived at the optometrist's office the next morning, but before even exiting the car, she removed her eyeglasses and put them in a case inside her purse. She pulled out her little coin purse, and left her purse, eyeglasses and all in the floor board of my car. One look at the glazed over look on Aunt Bessie's face told me that she couldn't see more than a foot in front of her face, so I took her arm and led her into the building.
  After I gleaned her personal information for the receptionist's offered clipboard, I led her to the examining room.
Doctor Willie stood about five foot three, and I figured his age to be in the late 60's. He was white haired and mustached, and had he been dressed in hiking boots, knee socks, and embroidered bibbed shorts, could be yodeling and dancing in the Alps.  I had been a patient of his a couple of times, and found him to be very quick witted and kind hearted. He directed Aunt Bessie to sit in the examining chair and gave me a rather odd look when I escorted her there, and helped her get seated. He began by asking her to read the first line she could see on the lighted chart on the wall. Try as she might Aunt Bessie couldn't even see the chart! The kindly doctor turned a few knobs and remotely enlarged the chart from about and 8"x 10" chart to about three times that size. When Aunt Bessie's eyes finally recognized the illuminated glow that had grown on the wall she said, " Well, there you go, you forgot to turn it on".
  Doc was a little surprised by her comment and turned and gave me a sympathetic wink. As he worked his magic adjusting the magnifying wheels until Aunt Bessie found the 'just right' combination that restored her sight, the old doc got more and more annimated with his questions about her eyesight. While sitting face to face with only the metal mask keeping them from sharing an intimate moment, he commented on her pretty blue eyes, to which she quickly told him he should "stick to business'. I thought that was a little rude, but she did have a point.
Doc was not intimidated in the least and he then asked her, "Where are your glasses Bessie"? "Oh, I haven't worn glasses for awhile", she replied. A curt little nod was the docs only reaction. "Let me ask you something Bessie", he said as he swung the metal mask away from her face, thus giving Aunt Bessie her freedom from the chair. "Do you take a bath or a shower"? I could see the shock and anger instantly register in my Aunts face, and she replied, "Now you've gone too far Doctor, what difference does it make to you whether I take a bath or a shower"? Chuckling now, the old doc says, "Well, I was just gonna ask you if you liked to read in the bathtub"?  At this point my Aunt came up out of the chair and with an accusitory look and sneered at old doc, "I know what you were doing, you were pictuing me naked"! Well, I was just stunned, but at this Doctor Willie slapped his knee and just bowled over with laughter. I took out after Aunt Bessie and managed to grab her just short of her walking full faced into the door, which she apparantly couldn't tell was closed.
  Later, near the close of the business day, I took Aunt Bessie back to retrieve her new glasses, after assuring her that they would be in a different section of the building. After getting the proper fitting, we were just leaving when, judging by the look on the lab technicians faces, doc Willie made a surprise visit. He walked over to my Aunt Bessie, whose eyes I noticed were twinkling like two bright stars, took her hands in his, and said, "Bessie, it has been a pleasure." Thank goodness, Aunt Bessie behaved like a lady, and we made our exit without any further comments.
  When we got to the car, I surprised Aunt Bessie with a gift I had specially ordered. I took my favorite of the old sepia pictures to a photo shop. It was a picture of her at about 23 years old, it showed her from the chest up in a red polka dot dress, auburn hair, and the prettiest azure blue eyes. She stared at the picture for a long while, and when she looked up at me I got the greatest reward, from Aunt Bessie's twinkling eyes.