She seemed especially feminine, too, waiting gracefully for when that she could go to the cabin with Sis and me. Feminine. I smiled at the unfamiliar idea. Somehow I'd always thought of Jessie as a blind person first and a girl way down the line some place. That she had fantastic legs and a trim, curvy body and tits like Teeny Buston… that didn't seem to matter. A blind person was just a blind person. They were… different. But now as I sat there looking at Jessica in her short skirt and bright-colored blouse, I found myself comparing her to girls I went to school with. Jessica may have sensed my stare, because she tossed her head so that her raven-black hair tumbled over the fronts of her shoulders. There was a tiny mole on her right cheek and I wondered idly if Jessie knew it was there.

My mother got up. "Well, I'm glad it's all settled. Would you like a glass of milk, Jessica, before you go to bed?"

"No thanks, Aunt Martha." Her fingers lay still in her lap.

I followed my mother out of the room and as soon as the kitchen door swung shut, I gave her an impatient look. "Look, Mom, it's pretty rough country up there and Jessica being blind and all that means I'll have to be the one to lead her around all over the place."

"Now, Ross, you know the kind of person Jess is. Why, some sighted people don't get around half so good. She's very independent."

"But one of these days she's going to fall bad and…"

"Your cousin's not afraid of a little spill occasionally." My mother took my hand. "Ross, she's such a good girl and it's especially important this time that she get this vacation." There was a worried look on her face.

"What do you mean by that?"

Mom took a deep breath. "Jessica's been having… problems. She doesn't have any close friends her own age, and the people at the school say she works too hard. Lately she's been getting a little psychiatric counseling, but her mother and I feel that a vacation is really what she needs."