I met Jane and Peter in the park again today. The perfect couple as usual, well threesome I guess if you include Peter's dog Julius. Even now after all this time you can see that she is all he has ever wanted, and he is everything she ever dreamed of - and I was the silly idiot that introduced them dammit!

There is a wise old saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but nobody ever thinks it applies to a blind man. Which just shows you that maybe the person who thought it up didn't know everything!

Jane and I go way back, in fact we went to school together. But don't get me wrong it wasn't like we were bosom buddies or anything (not that anyone could ever really apply the word bosom to Jane anyway - but let's not get catty here). Jane is your original "Plain Jane" - in trumps and I just kind of adopted her as a sort of ongoing charity project. Jane had a great personality and was a straight A student, but I was the one all the boys dreamt about and all the girls envied so naturally I was the one who got all the invites. Perhaps it was guilt or perhaps it was pity but I figured Jane needed all the help she could get so wherever I could I wrangled an invite for her too - well almost every time. Enough, at least, to make me feel good about myself but without cramping my style. But to be honest it was a two way street and she was a great help with homework and study. We had this kind of unspoken, mutual understanding - she helped me through school, and I helped her through puberty.

But that was way back then which just goes to show you that old habits die hard because when Gary rang up two years ago to say that his friend Peter, who was "very nice" - but also very blind - was visiting and he was looking for a partner for him for a night out I declined but immediately thought of "poor old Jane" who was ALWAYS available. I mean, after all, the guy was blind so looks didn't really matter, and she still had a great personality. And so with one single sentence I unwittingly consigned fate to a course that would see me as Jane's best ever friend, Gary as a person I may never forgive, and a disappointment to all the girls I hang out with. "What about Jane?" I said, "she'd be perfect, and I've got her number here."
Jane was indeed "perfect". Unhindered by sight Peter reveled in the unaffected warmth of her personality, her quick wit, the depth and breadth of her knowledge and understanding. He once told me later, after we had met, that it was like he could see again because Jane had a way of opening up the world to him through her eyes.

They were married last year and I know they will live happily ever-after because she is everything he could ever want and he is everything she could have ever dreamed of.

And me? Well beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I'm now envious as all get out at "poor old Jane" and still mad as hell at Gary. As for the girls I hang out with, they may eventually forgive me for not calling them, only time will tell. You see what Gary forgot to tell me on the phone that day was that whilst Peter was blind he was also the most drop dead, gorgeous hunk of a guy I have ever laid eyes on!

D.J. Ludlow Copyright 2002

(From my eventually hoped to be published collection 'Greener On The Lighter Side'. Enquiries from publishers Welcome :-))