Wispy phantasms of red, that's what he noticed first. When he was talking to someone, he'd notice a little glimmer of red, then it would fade.

At first he thought it was another of those false color experiences he had been having for years, where stars or flashes or funny patterns would appear in his vision. But as the doctors explained, that was all in his own head, his brain playing tricks on him. For while Ken had gone totally blind at age 4, there were still parts of his brain devoted to vision. They didn't get any of the signals they needed from his eyes for real sight, but they still yawned and stretched from time to time to produce visual sensations.

But this was different. He never saw it when he was alone, only when there was another person. It was the right distance away to be coming from the person's body. He noticed it most clearly in class. Mr. North had a tendency to pace as he lectured, and sometimes Ken saw that barely visible red wisp gliding to the left, matching the distance and direction of Mr. North himself. It came from the level of his hips.

As the weeks went by he saw the red glimmer more and more often. It became more than a glimmer, then Ken realized that it had a shape. There were two separate little circles. Ken began to suspect he was seeing an outline of Mr. North's balls! He had considered mentioning these red wispy visions to his doctor, but had hesitated because it seemed so unlikely that they came from outside of his skull. When he suspected he was seeing right through Mr. North's pants and underpants, it shifted from the unlikely to the seemingly impossible. He knew X-ray vision didn't exist. What's more, he would be the butt of endless jokes if he claimed to be seeing the teacher's balls. They'd say his surging hormones were making him see things -- and without doubt they'd all think he was gay!

It wasn't just Mr. North. He saw nothing when looking at women. But the red he saw between every man's legs resolved itself into a pair of red circles. At first he saw nothing when he looked between his own legs. But Jeff was an older boy whose voice had deepened recently. He lived in the double next door, and Ken saw his balls too -- right through the wall, sometimes.

Ken had just turned 13 and noticed some changes in himself. Whenever one of the older girls spoke, he felt a tingle of something different. When she giggled he sometimes felt a surge of tenderness for her. He had a heightened sense of smell like most blind people and often got subtle odors from others. Now he realized that girls smelled exciting sometimes.

When looking at the newly fascinating girls, sometimes he thought he saw wisps of green from hip height, but they were too fleeting for him to be sure.

Then one morning in bed Ken saw that his own balls had a faint red tinge to them. He wished he had paid closer attention in the "Growing and Changing" part of the health course they had all been given back when he was 11. Now he found himself listening with headphones to the Wikipedia entries on "puberty" and "testicles" and "penis". It said nothing about seeing red with your eyes closed. He got erections more often, and now he fingered his balls in wonder, watching the dim redness roll around in his fingers.

Mirrors naturally didn't play a very large role in his life as a blind boy, but the bathrooms were equipped with them. He was shocked one day to see while washing his hands a faint purple glow from the mirror, so deep it almost wasn't a color. He quickly determined that it was coming from his own head. If he moved towards the mirror, the glow zoomed in towards him, and if he shifted left or right it moved with him. No one else's head showed purple, though.

Then in October a new girl moved to the school. When Lisa came into the room, he was pretty sure he saw that same deep purple glowing from her head! He had trouble concentrating as he contemplated this new development. He'd need to talk to her, but he couldn't figure out right away how to do that naturally.

Ken was relaxing in the second floor lounge a couple days later, listening to music on his old iPod with the earbuds. He liked the feel of the lounge. He became instantly alert when he saw the deep purple glow coming into the room. Any doubts as to who it was were removed when she spoke.

"Hi, Ken."

"Ummm, you're the new girl? It's, um ... Lisa, right?" He could never have forgotten the name of the girl whose head also glowed purple. That was on top of the facts that she smelled intriguing, her voice was like honey -- and she was a girl. He pretended to be uncertain of her name so she wouldn't think he was obsessed with her.

"Yeah, Lisa."

"Hi, are you finding your way around OK?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Where were you before?"

"I was at a school kind of like this when we lived in New Jersey, but since coming up to Maine I've been living at home."

"How long have you been here in Maine?"

"About 18 months. I was feeling so lonely at home, all by myself. And I didn't know any other blind kid in the whole state of Maine, either."

"I think being home is a drag too -- at least these past couple years."

"Yeah, it was OK when I was younger -- I got homesick at school at first."

"When I go home, it's nice to see everyone, but of course they don't get what it's like to be blind. My parents baby me. My little sister Kathy is just mean sometimes. She'll move my stuff around and laugh after I'm groping around trying to find something. She even says she wishes I'd go back to school because no one pays any attention to her when I'm home. It's all about 'poor brother Ken'."

"At least she's honest," said Lisa. "I don't have any brothers or sisters. It's worse, believe me. All I have are parents who baby me, and they bug me lately."

"I wouldn't be so sure it's worse; you haven't met Kathy."

"Whatever."

Their conversation continued in this vein for some time. Ken was surprised he was doing as well as he was holding up his end, but Lisa put him at ease somehow.

"Say, how much can you see?" she asked.

"Nothing. Well, I see a glow in direct sunshine, that's all."

"And were you blind from birth?"

"No, accident at age 4."

"Bummer." And that was all she said, Ken noted with relief. No uncomfortable sympathy.

"And you?"

"Tumor, age 5."

"Bummer," echoed Ken. "Did they get it all?"

"Wasn't malignant, just happened to be sitting on my optic nerve."

"And do you see anything?"

"Nada. Nothing. Zilch." Ken could hear Lisa shifting in her chair. "Except sometimes I think I'm seeing something, or imagining I am."

"You mean like your brain making things up?"

"I get that too, but it's something else. Like -- I'd swear you had this weird purple coming out of your head."

Ken swallowed hard. "Oh," he said.

"What? You think I'm crazy?"

"No!"

Did he dare take the next step? Would she think he was trying to manufacture common ground because he liked her? Was she baiting him, and going to say it was a joke and of course she didn't see any such thing. And he did? Hahaha.

"You know, I've thought that too -- when I look in the mirror. It's such a funny shade of purple I can barely see it."

"Really?" she said with excitement.

"Yeah. And your head is purple too -- I think."

"That's it! I see it in the mirror! Oh, my God!"

"Have you seen anyone else with it?"

"No. And you?"

"No."

"I nearly fell over the other day when I came into class and there was this purple glow."

"Me too."

"Have you told anyone?"

"No -- they'd think I'm crazy."

"I know what you mean..." and then she stopped and shifted in her chair once more.

Suddenly the conversation had died. The question burning on Ken's tongue was whether she saw red when she looked between guys' legs, and there was absolutely no way he could ask Lisa that! But she had fallen silent too. He was burning with embarrassment, and he had the sense she was too.

He looked down and his balls showed clearly as little red orbs. Was she sitting there looking at his balls too? But down around her waist were two faint green dots -- he hadn't been imagining seeing green on the women!

"When did you first notice the purple in the mirror?" Lisa asked, somehow getting the conversation going again.

"Just a few months ago. You?"

"A few years back." She took a deep breath. "Do you see any other colors?"

"Oh, um, yeah, sometimes."

"Which ones?"

Ken took a deep breath. "Lots of red, and a little green."

"Me too," she said slowly. "Me too." There was more silence. "Let me guess: if I asked you where you saw these colors, you wouldn't want to, is that right?"

"Yes!" hissed Ken at once.

"That's what I thought," Lisa whispered.

Ken looked down at his balls, and thought about Lisa looking at them. He was wearing briefs and jeans and she was a blind girl. How many more guarantees of modesty did a guy need? Yet she was looking at his balls! He found his cock growing firmer in his pants, and he reached down quietly to adjust it.

He could swear she was smiling -- he just had that sense. Could she see his cock too? He could only see his balls, and he felt even more naked not knowing how much she could see.

"I've got to go," he said at once, suddenly very self-conscious. He rose, knocking his cane over in the process. He groped for it and hurried away.

"Bye!" said Lisa after him. "We ought to talk some more."

Ken retreated to his room and shut the door, though that was discouraged during the middle of the day. Fortunately his roommate Jason was out. He lay on his bed, trying to collect his thoughts. He replayed his conversation with Lisa over and over, thinking of her words from every possible angle, trying to divine hidden meanings that only girls would know. But that last phrase, "We ought to talk some more" -- that was said in a friendly way.

Jason went to bed a little earlier than he did, and as Ken was getting into bed later he could hear the regular breathing that meant he was asleep. Ken's cock got very hard and he began stroking it as he thought of Lisa, how attractive she was to begin with, then what they shared -- and most of all he thought of her seeing his balls and not running away screaming, in fact being pretty friendly. His hips instinctively thrust back and forth, and his pleasure built. Suddenly a really good feeling hit him and he felt his cock contracting. Looking down, he saw streaks of red, and quickly confirmed that the stuff that had shot out -- semen, it was called -- glowed red, a richer shade than his balls. So he was a big boy now! He now made sperm and could masturbate and get that good feeling. He supposed he could even make a girl pregnant. A girl like Lisa, he thought with excitement. Just in theory, of course, but it was an exciting theory.

He cleaned up the reddish goop with tissues and tossed them in the wastebasket, but he could still see the reddish tissues right through the metal walls of the wastebasket. It was much dimmer but still visible in the morning.

The next afternoon Ken went to the same lounge. This time he brought his laptop, and used the usual assistive technology to read his homework aloud via his real headphones. Would Lisa come again? He was just doing his homework, of course ... and it would be fine if she didn't show up ... he had no reason to think she would. But as the minutes went by he found it harder and harder to concentrate.

His heart pounded in his chest when the deep purple announced Lisa's approach. She sat beside him on the sofa.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," he answered. Yesterday he had felt uncomfortable just talking with a girl. Their shared secret had emerged naturally enough that he hadn't had the chance to get completely tongue-tied. But today was totally different. He wanted to shield his crotch with lead so it wasn't exposed to Lisa's view. He had actually found that his balls looked just as clear to him with concrete or wood or steel in the way -- something he had tested by leaning around the corners of various poles and corners. So he doubted lead would help, even if he had some.

"Do you like me OK?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure!" he said -- a little too enthusiastically, maybe.

He was amazed to see the deep purple of Lisa's head zooming in towards his, and her hand gently feeling his face before she kissed him on the cheek. She withdrew her face an inch but no further. Did she really want to kiss him? For real?

He turned his lips towards her and found out that was exactly what she had in mind. Her lips met his and rubbed together gently -- his first real kiss! He had imagined kissing as something far down the road in getting to know girls. He expected it might happen years from now -- if ever. Lisa had just gone ahead and done it, just like that! It felt really good. Lisa's breathing was a little irregular.

"What if someone comes?" he whispered.

"We can see them, right?" Lisa said in a normal tone.

"I can see men, but I'm not so sure about women."

"Really? I can see them both. Even with my eyes closed. Right through the back of your head."

"OK!" he said and eagerly returned to kissing the girl.

He worked his hand up behind her head, and was thrilled to feel her hair, her neck, the lovely shape of her ear, the soft skin of her cheek.

They had been at it for perhaps 20 minutes when Lisa pulled back with a start. Turning his head, Ken saw the faintest traces of green. The teacher's soft footsteps were apparent only a few seconds before she peeked into the lounge.

"Hello Ken, Hello Lisa."

"Hello, Mrs. Westfall," said Ken, of course recognizing her voice.

"It's very nice of you to talk with Lisa, Ken. It's wonderful when boys and girls reach out to make a new student feel welcome."

"Thanks," said Ken without enthusiasm, and Mrs. Westfall disappeared.

Ken turned, eager to resume the kissing, but Lisa had pulled back out of range.

"What do you actually see, Ken?"

"Well, um, hmmm," he stammered.

"What do you see on Mrs. Westfall?"

"I saw two green dots down around waist high."

"Yeah, her ovaries. It's lower than her waist. Anything else on her?"

"No. What do you see?"

"I see that, but I also see faint traces of ... of her other, um, reproductive organs."

"Oh, like her..." What word should he use? Did he dare mention it, or would Lisa leave in a huff?

"Her uterus and Fallopian tubes -- and vagina," she said quietly.

"Oh."

"Do you see my ovaries?" Lisa asked.

"Yes," said Ken, and with a sudden twitch of inspiration, "They're very cute."

Lisa chuckled. "Awww," she said, "but nothing else?"

"I don't think so," Ken said, squinting. "Maybe if I were closer," he said, half teasing.

She paused a moment, then said, "OK," and pulled his head down, holding his nose an inch or two away from her hip as she bent him over her sideways.

Ken stared closely. There it was! In faint green he saw tubes extending from the brighter green ovaries to a fist-sized blob that must be her uterus, and then the tube of her vagina. There were some short lines and a less dim little node right there at the center -- her clitoris? It all matched the mental map he had made after feeling those anatomical models when he was 11.

"Um, yeah, now I see more. Wow."

Lisa pulled his head back up. "It's very naughty of you to look!" she said sternly.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry..."

"I'm kidding, silly!"

"I know. Are you looking at me all the time?" Ken managed. "You see my ... testicles, I assume?"

Lisa's purple zoomed in not towards his crotch but towards his face and she kissed Ken again. She broke the kiss to whisper heavily, "Your balls glow like Christmas tree bulbs. The rest of it is pretty clear too."

"So you can see that I'm ... Gosh, I'm sorry."

"It's exciting, Ken!"

"Really?"

"Yes! I'm not a little girl, you know."

"And you like it?"

"Yes!"

"Yeah, but it's like I'm exposing myself!"

"But you're not, right?"

Ken then felt Lisa's finger touch the cloth of his jeans exactly over the tip of his cock and brush gently towards the base.

"I figured you must like me when I saw it get stiff and long yesterday -- and then I saw the red from your wastebasket this morning."

"You saw that?"

"Yeah, it's cool. I see it in other boys' wastebaskets too. And sometimes I've even seen..."

"What?"

"Never mind. Ken, can I play with it? Do you mind?"

"Um, no!"

"I can't?" she said quietly.

"I meant No, I don't mind."

"How do I get at it?"

Ken unfastened his belt and the button on his jeans, then pulled down the zipper and held his briefs away from his erect cock. "I sure hope nobody comes."

"I'll see them, don't worry," said Lisa.

Then he felt her hand lightly touching his cock, feeling all around under it, caressing his red-glowing balls. It felt fantastic And then she grabbed the shaft and began going up and down.

"Like that?" she asked.

"Um, not so far up and down," he said, and Lisa began smaller strokes. It felt great, and the idea that a girl was doing it to him made it especially exciting.

"Oh, wow, mmmmm," he said. "But be careful or the stuff might come out."

"Oh, goody!" said Lisa with an evil little laugh, stroking more firmly.

"But there's nothing to clean up with!" Ken said.

"Who cares?" said Lisa lightly, stroking harder.

She wanted him to ejaculate! He was still unsure what to do about cleaning up the sticky stuff, but his body would not be denied. Ken gasped as a streak of red flashed through cock, then arced through the air to land on his throat.

"Oh, my God!" squealed Lisa and withdrew her hand. The next shot arced less strongly and landed on his shirt over his bellybutton, then a third welled forth and plopped off his cock onto his pubic hair, and a fourth oozed out.

"What a mess!" gasped Ken as the fantastic sensations faded. He felt Lisa's fingers at his throat and saw her come away with a blob.

"Smells very mysterious!" she said happily. A second later she added, "Doesn't taste like much."

They were alarmed to hear footsteps. Ken didn't see any colors, but Lisa had said she would. How had she missed it?

"Who's there?" asked Alan.

"Yeah, who?" echoed Mike. They were both little boys -- about 7 years old.

"Mind your own business," said Ken, trying to sound menacing, but it just piqued their curiosity and in a flash they had walked over to investigate.

Ken frantically refastened his pants, smearing semen everywhere in the process. He tried to remind himself that while he and Lisa could see it, the boys couldn't.

"My name is Lisa," she said, "I'm pretty new."

"Oh," said Mike. "OK," and the two vanished again, probably figuring that whatever a big boy and girl were doing wasn't going to be much fun for them.

"How do I get cleaned up?"

"I'll take as much as I can," she said, and he felt her fingers where the red was. "Go change your clothes."

"What if one of the teachers sees me?"

"They don't have special vision like us, remember?"

"Yeah, but it's still visible as just ordinary stuff, right?"

"Hmmm, well, hunch over, and if they ask say you had a runny nose?"

As he got up to go, Lisa stopped him with a "Look!" She had rubbed his sperm all over her hands. Now he saw the details of a ghostly red see-through hand in three dimensions, all five fingers, palm, wrist. It was fascinating -- but aware of his messy clothing he headed out.

"Same time tomorrow?" she asked.

"OK," he mumbled.

Ken and Lisa decided they could be seen as friends, but didn't want anyone thinking they had a physical relationship of any kind. No hugging, no holding hands. They tried not to smile too much when they talked to each other. The teachers knew they liked each other more, though. Ken and Lisa had no practical knowledge of how people look when they're in love, so they couldn't hide those little signs they gave off without knowing it. The teachers thought it was sweet. It was more of a challenge to get blind kids interested in each other romantically than to keep them apart. The teachers had no reason to suspect anything went on in private.

They had been meeting in the second floor lounge. Almost no one went up to the third floor once the day's classes were over, so they were even less likely to be discovered in the lounge up there. That's where they met next and they made it their regular meeting spot.

After they had kissed for a few minutes, Ken let his hand slide down Lisa's neck to her back. Her body was wonderful in every way. He hadn't really touched anyone's body since he was a small boy. Just touching was comforting, but touching a girl's body was especially exciting. Sighted boys at least knew a girl's shape from looking at her, but that had been denied him. He slid his hands around to her chest slowly. Breasts were there somewhere, he knew -- and there they were! Graceful mounds inside the fabric of -- that must be a bra?

He moved his head down a little to look. "Your breasts aren't green?"

"Nope. Not breasts. Only the stuff lower down."

"Why not?"

"I dunno. Why should they be? You can touch them a little harder, you know ... Mmmm, that's nice."

After a minute, she said, "But I want to feel your 'thingie' again."

"Thingie?"

"Why not? I think it's kind of an exciting name for it."

"OK," he said, happily unfastening himself to bare his stiff cock. This time Ken had remembered to bring tissues.

"How's that?" asked Lisa as she stroked away.

"Great!" he answered. "Rub against the tip too," he said. "Oh, yeah, that's it! Oh, Lisa, oh, that's great, mmmm." He kept murmuring his pleasure, and after a few minutes his excitement built. "Lisa, Lisa, Lisa!" he moaned urgently as his climax was upon him and he spurted again.

"That feels good?"

"Really good!"

Ken was ready to mop up the mess with the tissues, but Lisa stopped him. "Let me play with it ... It's so red." She brought a fingerful of the stuff to her eye. "Let me spread it on my eyelids ... that is really, really red!"

"Good," said Ken.

"Now you try."

"On my eyelids?"

"Yeah."

He was a little squeamish about it, but it did make a truly intense red. It was the sort of vivid color that neither of them had expected to see again.

Another day she painted her face with sperm, and Ken had to admit that she had a beautiful face -- not that he had much to compare it to except his memories as a 4-year-old. She in turn painted his face with it.

"I could give you a blow job," she said one day.

Ken was embarrassed because he didn't know what she meant.

"Oral sex!" she said. "I like lick and suck your thingie."

"Oh," he said. "If you really want to."

Two seconds after she took him in her mouth the first time, he understood why boys like this. It felt fantastic! He came ten seconds later in her mouth; it never occurred to him to tell her so she could get her mouth away. She stiffened momentarily as the first shot surged into her oral cavity. But she kept her mouth in place. When he had unloaded all he had, he pulled away.

Through his ecstasy, Ken was aware of Lisa tapping his thigh to get his attention. As he looked, she swished his semen all about in her mouth, making it glow pink. He got to see the shape of the inside of her mouth, kind of, though he didn't find it all that sexy. Then she swallowed, and he saw the pink color head down her throat, one little bolus and then another. The color disappeared just as it got to her stomach, though. After a little research later, Ken decided it was the stomach acid that quickly killed the sperm.

Ken's panting had died down after another fantastic climax. He just lay sprawled on the sofa dreamily. Lisa was playing with his semen as she often did; he didn't pay much attention.

"Ken, look!" she said quietly.

He focused his attention. Down between her legs, where the faint green was, were two little surfaces of red, like the outside of a couple of orange section peels. He had a hunch what he was looking at, but as he wasn't sure he kept his comment general. "Cool!" he said.

"My labia," she said. "I've never seen them before. I made sure not to get any on the crack itself because it could make me pregnant if it swam in there."

There was a half-inch-wide vertical gap between the two little curved sections.

"Wow," Ken said almost reverently. "You know, I can see the green better than I could before."

"I think it's because of puberty," Lisa said. "I got my period two and a half years ago, and saw more and more over the first year or so. You've just had puberty, right? Like maybe you're still in the middle of it? So you'll probably see more as time goes on."

"Would you mind if I, like, touched you there?" Ken asked shyly.

Ken could hear Lisa smile. "I was hoping you'd want to pretty soon. But let me clean this up -- I don't want you poking any of the spermies in the wrong place."

Ken put himself back together. They were pretty sure they wouldn't be discovered, but there was no point in having more flesh exposed than necessary. When the red was gone from Lisa's private parts Ken groped forward with his hand, locating Lisa's bare knees and the hem of her dress. "Oh, wow," he said.

"You're easy to please!" Lisa teased.

"I've never felt a girl's legs at all," he said. "It's fantastic."

"I guess it must be!" Lisa said, lightly touching his jeans over his cock that had become rigid once more.

As he explored under the hem of her dress he came to some cloth.

"Your panties?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Pulled partway down."

He fingered the silky cloth with interest, noting how it was different from his own briefs. Then he worked his hand between the hem of her dress and the front part of the panties' elastic band. The inside crotch of her panties was a little damp, making him shiver with excitement. He set out to explore the area above. Her warm, smooth inner thighs lured him higher and higher until his hand touched soft hair, then what he saw as the faint pale green of her labia.

"Wow," he said reverently, and Lisa giggled.

Finding a girl's clitoris is not something boys can do by instinct, and reliable navigation is an iffy proposition well into adulthood. Ken had no problem, however. The green of her pleasure organ was still pale, but it was brighter than anything around it.

"Not quite so hard!" Lisa said.

"Oh, sorry!" said Ken, and shied back.

"If you just rub nearby it feels good," Lisa said.

"Oh, OK." And guided by Lisa's gasps, he found a slow, gentle motion that she liked a lot.

"Oh, that feels so good!" she said.

Ken was drawn to that other pale green part, the tube that ran up into her body, so he took a break from clitoral massage to explore.

"Is it supposed to be all wet like that?" he asked.

"Yeah, at least a little."

"Why?"

"That's what it says online. I don't know if it's supposed to be that much, though."

"Oh -- it feels nice though," he said.

His finger disappeared into the hot, wet space outlined in green. He went in and out, but kept sliding in a little more each time, wanting to see how deep he could go. Could he really get all the way back to where the pale green stopped?

He inserted another finger and Lisa gave a sharp, "Ouch!"

"Oh, sorry, what happened?"

"I think you got my hymen."

"Oh, no!" Ken said, withdrawing his hand completely.

"It's OK," she said. "It's not worth much, you know, it just gets in the way. I didn't think there was any left. You can put your hand back."

Ken needed no more encouragement. He soon had his middle and ring fingers into his girl up to the hilt, hugged by the pale green tunnel. He could press slightly on the sides of her vagina and see the ghostly shape deform a little. His palm bumped against Lisa's clitoris every time his fingers were all the way in.

"Oh, Ken!" moaned Lisa. "It feels great!" After a pause, "You know why it gets wet down there, don't you?"

"No, why?"

"It's so when I'm having sex -- that is when I have sex some day -- it helps the penis go in and out smoothly."

"It sure helps my fingers."

"Let me touch you again!" said Lisa, and Ken withdrew his hand long enough to free his cock once more.

Ken heard Lisa moving around, and then she said, "Lie beside me."

He quickly discovered by feel that Lisa had stretched out full-length on the couch, on her left side, pressed against the back of the sofa, right leg raised in the air.

Ken lay on the sofa facing Lisa, trousers and briefs down to his knees, and she caressed his organ.