Chapter 1: Setting The Stage For Action
It was nearly 11:00 PM. Corky had just turned in for the night when Harry, his college roommate, returned to their room and prepared to do the same. This was their usual time to share news, rumors, and other trivial concerns of the day.
"You already asleep over there?" Harry asked from his end of the room.
"No, not yet. Just turned in a couple minutes ago" Corky replied.
"You have a good day today??"
"Hell no. Did you?"
"Oh, not bad, not bad at all. What's up with you?"
"Oh, I guess it's no big deal, but it bothers me just the same. I called Joyce again tonight and she said no again, that's the third time, and the last time, as far as I'm concerned."
"Good. Forget her. Lots of other fish and all that good stuff. Hell, you only saw her once, right? At that stupid freshman mixer thing with the nurses a month or so ago?"
"Yeah, it was a blind date. How ironic. I guess she didn't bargain for ending up with a blind guy for a blind date. I guess you could say she got 'blindsided'."
Harry groaned. "Well, tough titty, I say to her. You can date my sister any time you want. Just tell her I said it's okay."
"Oh, go date your own sister. I don't want to date your sister. Hell I don't even think you actually have a sister, do you?"
"Shit yes, I got four of them. They come in all sizes and shapes, some fat, some skinny, some old, some young, you could have your pick."
"I'll pick the one that won't be blown out of the water by going out with a blind person. I don't care if she's big as a house and over thirty, or even if she puts out or not. I'm just tired of all this polite bullshit, 'Oh, Corky, I would love to, but you see, my grandmother just died again, and this time the funeral just happens to be on the same night as the home coming game. I am so sorry, honest I am.'"
"You're shitting me. Is that what she said?"
"Well no, not exactly, but she might as well have. Not only that, but she says she's got this classmate named Billie who would love to meet me, and even said I could come to their Christmas party at the nursing school and this Billie character would be there and would love to meet me ."
"Well then, that sounds cool. You going to do it?"
"I don't know. Billie. What kind of name is that for a girl? Maybe this Billie character is a male student nurse or something. Hell, you're trying to fix me up with an ugly sister of yours, maybe this Billie is Joyce's kid brother and she thinks I won't know the difference, for all I know."
"You are pretty pissed off. You better decide tomorrow. You didn't tell Joyce no already, did you?"
"No, I told her I'd see if I was free and let her know. That's a laugh. When am I not free? I just don't know if it's worth another put down. Or worse than that, what if this Billie is a wacko who would like to help me get my sight back by finding Jesus, or doing Yoga, or waving magnets around, or taking a ton of fucking vitamins or something weird like that?"
"Okay, Okay. Shut up now, will you? I got to get some sleep."
"Okay. Good night, Harry. Thanks for listening to my griping."
"No problem. But next time I get to do the bitching and you get to do the listening, and we'll be 'Even Steven'."
When Corky was feeling sorry for himself, he realized that he had two serious handicaps. One was his blindness, that was obvious, and the other was that he was cursed with three last names, and no recognizable first name. What had his parents been thinking of when they named him? Ferguson Campbell Cochran, whom everyone called Corky, lost his eyesight in a freak accident between an automobile and his bicycle when he was twelve. He had no other lasting injuries, but the event was an ordeal for Corky as well as for his family. Before his injury, he was an active, curious, and outgoing young boy just on the verge of adolescence, just beginning to notice that girls were interesting, and not just silly and stupid. In fact, the summer between seventh and eighth grades was the summer he would later recall as the summer of his "crotch watch."
The "crotch watch" took place at a local playground where Corky became best friends with two sisters, Cheechee and Sylvia, Cheechee slightly younger and Sylvia slightly older than he. The girls didn't look much like sisters. Cheechee was a skinny blonde with pigtails, and Sylvia was had nearly black hair that was curly, and a little on the wild side. But they both always wore the shortest of shorts, and loosely fitting ones too. They loved to take turns playing checkers with Corky, and when doing so they would each sit straddling the bench of a picnic table with the checkerboard between them. Corky loved looking at their panties beneath their shorts, and seeing how much skin he could make out down there. Cheechee was exciting enough to look at, but Sylvia was something else. Corky could make out mysterious wisps of curly black hair peeking out from Sylvia's panties, not evident with Cheechee.
Their second favorite thing to do was to spend time on the seesaw, another opportunity for the girls to take turns straddling the opposite end of the plank, and generously bestowing on Corky all the pink a twelve year old could handle, plus the hint of a more adult mystery with the older girl. Sylvia's budding breasts were more obvious too, but both girls had thousand watt smiles for Corky, and competed for his willing attention. What Corky did not realize at the time was that the erections that often created an obvious tent in his own baggy shorts would result in Cheechee and Sylvia recalling that same summer as the summer of their own "crotch watch."
As Corky lay in the now quiet room waiting for sleep to claim his all too active mind, his troubled ruminations about the elusive Joyce and her mystery friend Billie gave way to more familiar images from years before. In his drowsy mind's eye there was Cheechee with her sharp nose, her brilliant blonde hair in pigtails, and the invitation of her innocent crotch. There was also the darker image of her sister Sylvia, whose jet black curls framed her pixie face, and whose practically steaming crotch promised fulfillments Corky could only imagine. Corky dimly recognized the onset of that familiar recurrent dream. In his mind's eye, now becoming his dream's eye, their thousand watt smiles beamed again, and their now naked forms spread wide for him invitingly. His dream images were no longer sharp and clear and their young forms blurred, but Corky's last impression before his sleep became deep was that at the center of each girl's spread thighs, at her most private place, each girl displayed for him alone yet another of those treasured thousand watt smiles.
After Corky's accident at age twelve his life was very different. He missed an entire year of school, rejoining the public school a year behind his former classmates. During that year he had a lot to learn about being blind, and many skills to master. He learned to use a long white cane with which to travel, to use a typewriter, and to read and write braille. He obtained a "Talking Book machine" and borrowed recorded books from the Library for the Blind. He had to relearn such mundane tasks as how to comb his own hair "without looking, how to use a knife and fork," and how to get a dab of toothpaste on his stupid toothbrush without getting it all over everything. He got a braille wristwatch, a braille ruler, and even a braille checkerboard, or at least one he could use. The red squares were elevated slightly and the black ones a little lower. The red pieces were round and the black ones square. Instead of making a King by stacking one piece on top of another, each piece had a circular depression on one surface, and when the piece was made a King, it was turned with that side up. All these things were the accumulated "techniques of blindness," that helped to lessen the burden during that year of his rehabilitation.
But the heaviest burden of all was one which Corky could not share with anyone. It was the conviction deep in his heart that his life as a sexual person, which had never really begun, was over, finished, doomed, and closed. There would never again be a girl or woman with one of those thousand watt smiles for him, and what kind of woman could ever be interested in a blind man? He himself had never even seen a blind person, and it was hard to believe all those autobiographies of successful blind people he read on Talking Books. He had just better forget about girls now that he would have to be blind for the rest of his life.
When Corky began high school, contact with the opposite sex was rare for him. His unhealthy self image and lack of confidence led him to be unusually shy, especially with girls. When others were going to the movies on dates, or going to dances and proms, making out, petting, maybe even more, Corky was always left behind, and spent all his time getting top grades in all his subjects. He soon developed a reputation as a brain, which didn't help his social life any. He would rather have gotten laid like some of his buddies claimed they were, but it seemed that girls only liked guys with cars.. If they could be believed, his buddies were unfastening a lot of brassieres, getting into a lot of panties, doing a lot of finger fucking, getting a lot of blowjobs, etc., all with the help of their cars. He suddenly found himself a freshman in college, with virtually no experience with girls, and no clue what to do about it.
"Well I have to think about it," Billie said.
" Please, please, please!" coaxed Joyce. "It's just for the Christmas party, and besides, I already told him you just couldn't' wait to meet him."
"Thanks a lot, Joyce. So now all of a sudden that makes it my problem? " Billie was pissed. She did not like being manipulated, but she could not think of any other good reason not to help Joyce out of her predicament. Evidently this guy was pestering Joyce for a date, and Joyce just wanted to pass him around until he got the message and disappeared. So why not be a Joyce stand-in with this guy at their Christmas party? It would not be the first time. Joyce could be a bitch after all, and there probably wasn't that much wrong with the guy, even if he was blind. That wasn't the worst thing in the world, and it might just turn out to be interesting.
"I know, I know, i should never have encouraged him in the first place, but please, just this once, and I'll never ask you to do anything like this ever again, honest!" Joyce now pleaded.
"Yeah, I bet you won't. Okay, but just this once," Billie relented, a little reluctantly.
Joyce was ecstatic, and gave Billie a warm hug. "You are an absolute angel, and besides, it will only be for a couple of hours and it will be over before you know it."
And so it was arranged. Billie was constantly amazed at how young her student nurse classmates seemed, although the girls were all the same age. They seemed to be there, most of them, to set a trap for a good husband. An ambitious young medical student would be best, or better yet, an intern or resident, but until one came along, one had to keep oneself highly visible and ever available.
