Little Sisters

Little sisters have a way of getting on your nerves sometimes. I don't know if they do it on purpose or if it just comes naturally to them. I'm guessing the latter.

I sat near the back of the room in seventh grade homeroom. The room normally served as the science classroom, so it was equipped with two-person tables instead of the standard desks. The class wasn't overly large, but I was pretty far away from the chalkboard. My table-mate wore glasses. We were goofing off one day, as seventh grade boys were wont to do, when he gave me his glasses to "throw Mrs. Buck off a bit." Much to my surprise, I  could see the chalkboard clearly while wearing his glasses.

I reported the vision issue to Mom when I got home and she immediately scheduled an appointment for me to see the eye doctor. She scheduled Beth for the appointment slot after mine; and thus created the situation for Beth to get on my nerves.

The nurse called my name and Mom, Beth and I made our way to the examination room where the nurse went through all of the initial screening before the doctor would come in. I went first.

Mom and Beth sat in chairs beside me.

I don't recall ever having been to an eye doctor before that fateful day, so I'd never been subjected to the torture of the dot test. The nurse handed me a small book as I sat in the examination chair; opened it and asked me what number I saw on the first page.

What was wrong with this woman?

Was she nuts?

What number do I see...

Really?????

There was no number on the page; there was just a jumbled mess of dots that made up a larger dot!

That's when it started.

I heard Beth start to quietly giggle.

The nurse turned the page and asked me what I saw on the next page.

More dots.

Beth's giggles became more pronounced. Apparently she and the nurse were in cahoots and "saw" things in the dots. (They have special doctors for people who "see" things; and both Beth and the nurse apparently needed to pay the doctor a visit.)

The nurse pointed to the jumbled dots on the next page and asked me again what I saw.

Dots! Just dots!

At this point Beth's giggles turned to laughs and she asked Mom, "What's wrong with him? Doesn't he know his numbers?"

The nurse had pity on me and ended the torture session early by putting the book away while there were still many pages that had, what I can only presume to be, more pictures of dots. Beth was quite entertained by my failure and proceeded to tell me what "numbers" were supposedly hidden in the jumbled dots.

Right...

Well I got a prescription for glasses that day that allowed me to see the board clearly, but while I have visited the eye doctor many times since that fateful day, I have yet to see any of the imaginary numbers they have supposedly hidden in the jumbled dots. Still; they hand me the little book every time and ask me what numbers I see on several pages before they give up.

I think it's a trick question.