Heart of Dorkness

Monster Twelve - Glasses

I hummed happily as I read.

I was supposed to be reading a textbook on anatomy, but there were pictures in it that made me squeamish. My little friends were cute, not all gory and yucky. Still, the books had given me some ideas.

I definitely had to experiment with claws and tentacles more—to make my little friends that much better at grabbing and cuddling.

None of that mattered at the moment. I was taking a small break from all the reading to read something else, a story about a strange bunny-girl and her friends going on merry adventures across a strange land. It was distracting, but lots of fun.

“Valeria,” I heard Mom call.

I brought a hand up in a “one moment” gesture. I couldn’t just leave off in the middle of the page, that would be terrible. Then, when I reached the end I fumbled a bookmark into the crevice between the pages. “Yes, Mom?” I asked.

Mom was standing nearby, hands tucked together over her tummy, back straight and nose turned up. “Child, I’ve noticed that you squint as you read.”

Looking back to my book, I stared at the letters. They were a little blurry unless I squeezed my cheeks up and pinch my brows. “I guess so,” I say. “Most things are fuzzy when they’re not close.”

“Yes. That might explain your posture.”

“My posture?” I asked.

“Hunched over and bent nearly double. It’s terrible for your back and unbecoming. You will grow stooped and crooked at this rate.”

I scratched at my chin, then shrugged. “That’s what I need to do to read,” I said.

Being a little bent wasn’t a big price to pay to read as much as I wanted. “There is a solution to that. Follow me.”

I closed my book and set it to the side as I got off my seat then arranged my skirts. Mom didn’t wait for me. She was already halfway across the library, so I had to jog to catch up to her. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“Downstairs,” Mom said. “I have something for you.”

“A present?” I asked. I skipped ahead of her and started to walk backwards. “What is it?”

“It’s hardly a present. Just a tool you need. And that I expect you to take care of,” she said.

“That sounds a lot like a gift to me,” I said.

She hummed. “It isn’t.”

“If it wasn’t a gift, then you’d just tell me what it is,” I surmised. “But because it’s a gift, you want to give it to me yourself, because the only thing better than getting a gift is giving a gift and seeing the person you’re giving it to be all happy.” I nodded.

“I’m not sure if your logic is entirely correct,” Mom said.

I grinned. “Then what’s the present?”

She made that little noise, the one she made sometimes instead of laughing. “You will see in due time.”

Giggling, I ran ahead of her and out of the library. Mom told me not to run a moment later, so I calmed down and set my pace by walking next to her. Of course, my mom had super long legs, so it was hard to keep pace without either jogging every time I fell back, or by walking as quickly as I could.

Down we went, all the way to one of the floors below the library where we had a large living room like area. There was a large harp on a stand, sofas, and, of course, a few bookshelves.

The place was lit by some lamp-monsters hidden in cages hung from the ceiling, though there was plenty of sunlight coming in from the glass doors at the back of the room. They led onto a large balcony with a gargoyle-monster railing from which someone could overlook the northern end of the castle and the waters beyond that.

Today was different. There was a large box in the centre of the room, an old wooden crate with the top missing and straw shoved into it.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Sit,” Luciana instructed with a gesture to a footrest next to one of the poofier seats.

I sat.

Mom reached into the box and removed... a pair of glasses. “These are for you.”

“You got me glasses?” I asked, then I grinned hard as I could. “So I can read better?”

“So that your unsightly squinting won’t mar your features prematurely,” she said.

I took the glasses and put them on. They were big, and very round. “Oh, this... well, this makes everything a little... uh, different?” I said.

I didn’t want to make Mom sad, but her gift wasn’t working very well. The glasses made everything super blurry, more so than usual, even.

“I see, then how about these?” she asked as she pulled another pair out of the crate.

“Wait, how many glasses did you buy me?” I asked.

She stared at me, one eyebrow slowly rising. “Did you expect me to bring a lens crafter all this way? Tools and all? It is far easier to merely obtain an entire stock of glasses.”

“You didn’t steal them, right?” I asked.

“I’m certain the original makers were all very well remunerated,” she replied as she handed me another pair. “Now, let’s find a set that both fits and functions.”

“Hmm, alright,” I said as I grabbed the glasses.

It took a dozen more tries before I found a pair that helped. They were thick, like the bottom of an old glass bottle, and round, with metal stalks that reached back and grabbed at my ears. Heavy too, and it felt like they were pinching my nose.

But they worked.

“Whoa,” I said as I looked around. Things were so much clearer!

“Wonderful,” Luciana said. “Do you want to test them outside? I’m aware you’re liable to use them only to read, but you should see if they function beyond that as well.”

“Yeah, sure!” I said as I jumped to my feet. I had to adjust the glasses since the bounce made them loosen on my head. Maybe I could make a little friend that would hold them in place? That seemed easy enough to do.

Mom and I stepped out onto the balcony, and when a chilly wind came in from the north, Mom glared it away.

I don’t think Mom actually needed me to test my new glasses on the coast. Even with clearer vision, there wasn’t all that much to see. Waves lapping at the knife-edged rocks poking out of the shallower waters on the edge, the cliffs of black stone atop which big old grumpy dragons and wyverns were napping, maybe the occasional tentacle from one of Mom’s krakens. Normal stuff.

I think she just wanted time alone with me. “Thanks, Mom,” I said. I shuffled to the side and tucked my head in under her arm.

Mom always went very stiff when I did that kind of thing. She wasn’t used to hugs and cuddles, but...

Her hand carefully, gently, came down on my head. A pat, which was like a hug, if you squinted, then she lowered her hand and pulled me into her side a little.

I grinned, cheeks warming even as I hugged her tighter. “You’re the best, you know,” I declared.

“I merely gave you a tool you needed. Nothing more,” she replied.

“I love you too,” I said. I looked up to her, and saw her glance down before looking away.

“Yes, well... you have been a good... diversion. And... I think... I suspect you would make a, ah, a good daughter... perhaps.”

I laughed and turned so I could squeeze her all the harder. There was no way something like that could be said without at least a hug in return!

***