Chapter 19

“IT’S NICE to meet you, Dennis. I’m Dr. Milton Sachs. Welcome to the University Hospital and Research Center.”

“Thank you, Dr. Sachs. May I introduce my mother, Dorothy Enders,” Dennis said.

“Mrs. Enders, thank you for bringing Dennis in today.”

“I’m just hoping this is the miracle I’ve been praying for, Doctor.”

“Let us all pray the same. Why don’t we go through what we expect to cover today and answer questions? Mrs. Enders, there are some forms for you to sign giving us permission to treat Dennis, but I want you to wait until you’ve both heard what the plan is and then go over the agreement. This is a teaching hospital and many of my colleagues in the Department of Ophthalmology will also be joining us. Dennis, after our introduction and plan presentation, we’ll want to spend most of the day today doing tests and evaluations. These will be considerably more involved than tests you may have had before. And so you both know, Mr. Drake Vining, your attorney, has delivered the necessary papers clearing you of all financial responsibility for the testing and procedures.”

The three of them entered a meeting room with about two dozen other people, all wearing white jackets, already present. Neither Dennis nor Dot knew precisely who was a doctor and who was a student. For the next hour, they watched slides, video of a procedure, and doctors explaining what the premise was. At the end, both Dot and Dennis were feeling overwhelmed.

“What do you think, Dennis?” she asked as they walked to the office where the papers were to be signed.

“Mom, I’ve studied up on what they were talking about, so it wasn’t quite all gibberish. The key thing is that they have to run all the tests and do a diagnosis to ascertain if the problem with my eyes can be fixed through their new procedure. They have agreed that they won’t advance beyond that point without another meeting to explain what their prognosis is. If we consider the odds of success to be too low, we don’t need to go beyond that point. That’s checkpoint one. Then if we proceed, they’ll do the operation on one eye. I need to heal for six weeks before they can proceed with the other eye. That’s checkpoint two. If the first operation was not completely successful or if I experience any complications, I don’t need to go through the next part of the procedure. If we proceed, I’ll have the second eye done and there will be another six-week healing period. At that point, they will evaluate everything again and if needed, prescribe and provide corrective lenses for after the operation. That’s checkpoint three. I know there is a risk of failure. But, Mom, this is what I really want. Without the donations, I’d put away every penny I could earn until I could afford to pay for it myself and then do it.”

“I guess that is the decision, then,” Dot said. “Let’s go in and sign the papers.”

The rest of the morning was spent in a battery of tests and eye examinations. Some were familiar to Dennis and had been conducted by his eye doctor in Des Moines. Eye pressure, peripheral vision, retinal scan. But others he’d never heard of, like confocal microscopy and corneal topography. He even had an MRI to model the exact shape of his eyes.

They had lunch and then the team of doctors went over the test results in detail with a classroom of students. They had a 3D construction of his eyes and the doctors pointed out exactly where they felt a thickening of the retina had occurred, identified through optical coherence tomography.

“Dennis and Mrs. Enders, we believe our microsurgery can correct ninety percent or more of your eyesight problem. You may still need glasses for driving, for example, but should have normal vision in the range of 20/30 when we are finished. We don’t take this lightly. Frankly, we don’t need eyes to cut open. We can get eyes from organ donors. We would not recommend proceeding with the operation without the full expectation that we can and will improve your eyesight,” Dr. Sachs concluded. He looked at the two of them and Dot nodded to Dennis.

“When can we schedule the procedure?” he asked. Before the doctor could answer, there was a round of applause from the doctors and students in the room.

They took the long drive home in relative silence. It was broken periodically by one or the other giggling. He wore a pair of dark glasses over his normal glasses and kept his eyes closed a good bit of the way back to Bartley because his pupils were still dilated. The doctors had acted as though the procedure had just been successfully completed. They had decided to do the first eye procedure the week following the end of classes. That also happened to be right after the state track and field meet. Dennis was happy that he’d be able to complete the season with the team.

“I suppose you want to go back to the school, even though you’re barely in time for practice,” Dot said.

“I really want to share the news with my team, Mom,” he answered. “And ... um ... my girlfriends.” Dot laughed at him again.

“Of course. Keep those dark glasses on and don’t go trying to do too much when you can’t see clearly.”

“I will, Mom.”

They pulled into the school parking lot and Dennis went through the gym doors to pick up his kit and go out to the field. On his way through the gym, he met the throwers from the boys’ team coming in to go to the weight room. That included Derek Johnson, the shot putter Dennis knocked out Saturday night. They both stopped about twenty feet away from each other. Dennis looked around him for a way out and was ready to run when Derek stepped away from the other team members and held up his hands toward Dennis.

“Truce, Brah,” Derek said. “I owe you an apology.”

“No problem here,” Dennis said, not entirely letting his guard down.

“I woke up, lying on the kitchen floor at Debbie’s house trying to figure out what happened to me. I was drunk and the guys shoveled me out of there and took me home. I didn’t know what had happened until this morning when they trapped me outside school and told me what an ass I’d been Saturday night. I thought I’d just passed out, but I couldn’t figure out why my jaw was so sore. One punch, man. I never even saw it coming. That’s wild. Anyway, I really want to apologize to you and if you can arrange it, I’ll apologize to your girlfriend, too. I think Lana’s a sweet girl, but she’s really way too young for me and I had no business trying to put the make on her.”

“I’ll ... uh ... Yeah. Lana’s really the one you need to apologize to, not me. I’ll ask her to meet in the hall outside the locker rooms after practice. Okay?” Dennis asked.

“Yeah. I’ll hang out and wait for you.” He held out his hand. “You’ve taught me a bunch of lessons this year. Friends?”

Dennis took his hand and the bruiser didn’t try to crush him. Derek continued on to the weight room and Dennis headed out to the track, breathing a sigh of relief.

Practice was nearly over by the time Dennis arrived on the track, but just being out there made him feel good. He walked up to Coach Graves as she was starting the girls on their long run before showers. The girls would all do two miles, except the throwing girls who would run only one mile. Dennis smiled as they took off.

“Eyes okay?” Ardith asked.

“Yeah. My pupils are still dilated some. That’s why the dark glasses.”

“I didn’t think it was a disguise. I recognized you right away,” she laughed as they watched the girls come around for the first lap. The guys were beginning to gather for the start of their long run.

“I’m going to start the procedure the Monday after State Finals,” Dennis said. “It’s going to work!”

“Congratulations!” Ardith said. “Selfishly, I’m glad I’ll have you for State Finals. We’ll do well this year. Oh. Here are the entries for Thursday’s Drake Relays. Not bad.”

“This is all who qualified to compete?” Dennis asked. “What about the guys?”

“None of the guys qualified. You have to remember that Drake doesn’t hold different competitions for the different classes of schools. Athletes from all 300 schools in Iowa can register to participate. Having people in four races is quite an accomplishment for a 2A school.”

“It’s too bad Laura didn’t make it with her 3000 last week.”

“It was close. She’ll do well in the State meets. I’ve left the announcement to the girls to you. They were all concerned about where you were this afternoon, so I told them if you got back in time, I’d let you tell them the Drake entries.”

“Gosh, coach. Thanks.” Dennis looked out at the track as the girls pelted by. As soon as most of them had passed, the boys came off the sideline to chase after them. A couple took off at a pretty good clip so they could run next to girls they were especially fond of. He noticed his special girls held together in a tight pack. It was funny to see Lana, Tori, Debbie, and Laura all running with the Angelines. A baker’s dozen.

“We’ll let you know when you can come into the locker room,” Natalie said. “You can make the announcements there. Everyone wants to know about your eyes, too.”

“Okay. Just make sure everyone is comfortable with me coming in.”

“I’d be comfortable with you coming in me,” she whispered. “Love you!” She ducked into the locker room while Dennis shook his head, thinking about making love to Natalie.

“We’re ready,” Corrine said at the door of the locker room. Dennis followed her in. Several girls were only partially dressed. The Angelines were all in just underwear and some of them were topless.

“I thought you said they were ready!” Dennis said, turning back toward the door. There were a lot of girls there he’d never seen partially dressed. Corrine grabbed his hand and pulled him around.

“They said they were ready for you to come in. Anything you see is willingly on display. I’d have been naked, but I didn’t want you to go completely blind.”

Dennis turned back toward the gathered girls. Standing on one side of Natalie, Tori was topless. Holy shit! That was a sight he hoped to see again. On the other side of Natalie, Lana was in her underwear and ignoring him while she pulled on her jeans.