The Eye Exam

Flash Fiction by Melissa R. Mendelson

I hate the blue light.

“Will you please sit still?”  The doctor asked.

She tried not to smile at the anger in his voice. 

“Just relax.”  The doctor leaned forward, moving the blue light up to her eye, brushing against her eyelash.

She jerked her head back.

“Echo!”  She flinched at his tone.  “We need to do this.  It’s been not even six months since your iris prosthesis.  Do you need a moment?”  He sighed through gritted teeth.  “I’m not touching your eye.”

“I need a moment,” Echo said.  “Please.”

“Fine.  I have to check on another patient, and then I’m coming back.  And we are doing the blue light.  Okay?”

“Okay.”  She watched the doctor storm out of the room.  “I hate the blue light,” she muttered.  “I’m being a baby.  I know I am, but I still hate it.  Can’t they just go back to that puff of air?”

She heard voices coming from the next room.  She wondered if it was the young girl from the waiting room, whose fingernails shimmered and morphed into various colors.  Maybe, it was the older man with gray skin.  Why he made that alteration she would never know or ask, but it gave a whole new meaning to thick skin.

She rubbed the scars by her nape, the base of her neck.  She was going for one alteration, so why not make it two?  It was a cheap option anyway, and the world was a dangerous place.  Instead of goosebumps on her arms or a knot in her stomach, she would now sense danger like a deer or dog before the danger found her.  Besides, it wasn’t going to change her relationship with her parents.

Voices rose loudly from the next room.  She blinked and stared through the wall.  The people were skeletal, but she could tell that one of them was a girl.  The girl was angry, yelling about something regarding insurance.

I just got insurance from my new job especially after my parents cut me off, she thought.  They didn’t get it.  They wouldn’t get it.  A forty-five-year-old woman that was losing her eyesight, and they would rather me blind than altered. 

The doctor stormed in, looking exasperated.  He is not having a good day.

“Ready?”  He slammed the door shut and checked his watch.  “One more to go.”  He looked at her, not caring if she heard that.  “Blue light, and we’re done.”

“Do we really need to do the blue light?  Everything else checked out.  Can’t we just skip it?”

“Echo, I need to check the surface of your eyes especially after the surgery.”  He sat in his chair and wheeled himself over to her.  “Ready?”

“Ready.”  She bit her lip. 

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I know,” she said.

The tip of the blue light brushed against her eyelash.

She jerked her head back.

He grabbed the back of her head, trying to keep her still as he tried again, but again, she jerked her head back.

He slid back in his chair, cursing under his breath.

To her surprise, she started to cry.

“It’s okay, Echo.  It’s fine.  I’ll give you another minute.”

“Thank you.”  Her eyes stung.  Maybe, it was from the droplets earlier.  Maybe, it was something else, but no, she did the right thing.  She wasn’t going to spend the rest of her life being blind, and it was probably because of all those devices with their blue light that destroyed her eyesight.  Society was fine with technology creating blue shields to protect people today, but if you altered yourself like she did, then you were an outcast. And her parents agreed.

“Can I ask you something, and please take no offense to it.”

She nodded.

“Why did you change your name from Vanessa Roberts to Echo Charlie?”

She smiled.

“Something I said?”

“No.”  She smiled again.  “It was a fuck you to my parents.”

He glanced at his watch and looked at the door.  “Guess you’re not talking to them still.”

“We’re past talking.  They did not approve of the surgery, and they certainly did not approve of me emptying my savings to cover it.  But they don’t have a say over my life anymore, and why did I change my name?  Because I almost joined the Marines once, and my parents talked me out of it.”  She shook her head and thought, my scars maybe internal, but I still remember the battles my parents waged against me.

“It’s your life,” he said.  “You’re the one in charge of it.”  He sighed.  “How about one last try?”

“Okay.”  She watched him wheel himself back over to her, but then he stopped.  He moved over to the wall, turned off the light and resumed his position with the blue light near her eye.  “Let’s try something, shall we?”

“What’s that?”

“Your alterations.  You can see through walls?”  She nodded.  “You can see things from miles away?”  She nodded again.  “Can you see me?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Don’t focus on the blue light.  Focus on me.  Can you do that?”

“I can do that.”  She blinked and focused on his head.

“Got it.  Next eye.”

She forced a smile.

“Great!”  His anger was gone.  “Why do you look so sad?”  He wheeled away from her and turned on the lights.

She blinked and wiped her eyes.

“Echo, you okay?”

“Fine.  I’m fine.”

“Okay.  Take this paper.”  He saw her hand shake as she took the paper from him.  “Go out to the receptionist, and make your next six-month appointment with me.  Okay?”  He walked over to the door but stopped to look at her.  “My last patient has wings.”

She looked surprised.

“Not large wings.  They’re about the size of my hands.”  He glanced down at his hands.  “One on each shoulder blade.”

“Can she fly?”  She laughed as she asked this.

“No, Echo.  She can’t.”  He laughed too.  “See you in six months.”

Her smile faded as the door closed behind him.  No, I won’t see you in six months, she thought.  I’m sorry, but that tumor will kill you.

---

Bio: Melissa R. Mendelson is a horror, science-fiction and dystopian author and poet. She has two publications with Wild Ink Publishing. One is a prose poetry collection, This Will Remain With Us, and the other is a short story collection, Stories Written On Covid Walls. She also has self-published works including a sci-fi novella, Waken and a small short story collection, Name’s Keeper. Her website is melissamendelson.com.

Cover photo by pexels/cottonbro studio Edited by The Yard

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