Chapter 5

After our bath together and a nice dry off, we settled in the Atrium. I told Tracy I wanted to look at her eyes and see if they were making any progress at starting to open. The swelling had started to go down slightly and the purple tinge had lost a couple of shades.

Her eye lids were caked shut and I thought a warm damp cloth might help soften them. At least it might soothe them a little so I might be able to coax them open. I wasn't expecting miracles, just hoping for a little progress.

I told Tracy my plan and she thought it might work. I drew a small bowl of warm water and brought in a new towel and washcloth.

Getting the cloth damp in the water, I folded it into a strip about two inches wide. After placing the towel around her front and over her shoulders, I started moistening her eyes.

Quickly she put her hands up and held the cloth in place.

"This feels nice, Tracy admitted. "My eyes really don't hurt too much but this is real soothing anyway."

"Well, the plan is to get your eyes to open," I told her. "Hopefully you'll be able to see enough to get around the house. Also if you want to take a walk on the beach, you should be able to find your way home."

"I hope so," she replied. "That would be nice. Not the finding my way home part but the walking on the beach myself part."

After about fifteen minutes of soaking and rinsing the cloth to warm it up several times, I moved in close for a look at her eyes.

"Well," I told her, "This does look promising. "Which eye is your best eye?"

"My left one," she said.

"OK. Then I'm going to try the right first. That way, I can't do much damage."

"Sounds like a plan," she echoed back to me and I placed an index finger below her right eye, next her nose, just below the corner of her eye and my other thumb above it gently pressing into the eye socket right by the bridge.

I didn't press hard. I just kept enough pressure to tense the skin above and below her eyelids. I could see the eye-glue releasing a little.

Keeping just slight pressure in the eye socket above her eyelid and moving my index finger along below it, I worked the opening across her eye until the eye-glue was released.

Then I told her don't try to open that eye as I wanted to soak it some more. There was a lot of crust there and I didn't want to leave it as it might irritate her eye if it wasn't removed.

After another 15 minute soak, I took a corner of the cloth and wiped it along her closed eye, making sure all of the crust was gone. Then I told her to relax that eye and see if it would open.

The eyelid was still very swollen but she was able to open it just a bit. At first all I could see was how red the white of her eye was from broken blood vessels. Her eye wasn't open enough to see the iris.

Then I saw Tracy strain a little to open her eyelid further and as the black center of her eye slid from behind the lid, she gasped. Tears welled up in her eye and then rivulets flowed down her face.

That scared me. When she moaned and choked, "Oh, my God! "Oh my God!" I expected the worst. I hugged her tightly, figuring she couldn't see anything at all now.

She started to gasp and sob even louder. "Oh, no. Oh, NO!"

Her sobs and tears just kept increasing.

I lifted her head to my shoulder and hugged her to me.

"Oh, Guy," she said through her sobs, "I can't believe it. I just can't believe it.

"I can see!

"I can see!!!

"I can see better now out of that eye than I could ever see before. Things aren't in focus, but I can see more than just light and shadows.

"I saw your face! I saw your FACE!!!" she repeated.

"Oh, Guy. I know that my vision isn't perfect, but I can deal with fuzzy. I can really deal with fuzzy!"

Her tears had acted as a solvent to the crust on her other eye and that popped open a little. At least it was enough for her to see something.

Tilting her head back a little to gain sight under her partially opened lids, she continued to cry.

"Oh Guy. My vision is so much better. I can see much better close up than before. This is so great.

"I know that I still have bad eyesight but being able to see just a little better is so nice. I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to see at all after the beating I got from those guys."

I continued hugging her to me and felt her tears falling on my chest. It was nice to have her happy and I was so relieved that she had some of her lost eyesight had returned.

Just about then, Maggie strode in to the Atrium along with Tenor. He yipped at Tracy and she got down off my lap to play with him. Face licks were again the order of the day. Specially with her new salty tear striped face to clean.

It was then I noticed something missing.

"Tracy," I said. "I think I need to talk to you for a second."

Maggie looked at me with a quizzical look and I pointed to Tracy's crotch.

I took her hand and led her to the bathroom and handed her a tampon.

"Ooops," she said as she unwrapped it and tested her slit for anything leaking out. Tracy inserted the tampon and made her way over to the waste basket to throw out the wrapping and the insertion tube.