"You mean she's…" I tapped my head.

"Of course not!" my mother walked nervously across the kitchen and returned. "It's just that she gets a little caught up about things sometimes."

"Guess I don't have much choice."

When we came back into the front room, Jessica hadn't moved. Her blouse was so thin that I could see the line of her shoulder blades through it. Just like I'd thought, there was no bra strap crossing her back.

"Well, I'm going off to bed," Mom said. "Ross, you can help Jessica to her room upstairs when she's ready."

I sat down at the other end of the soft and looked at my cousin's profile. The long straight nose and the way her cheekbones were so high made her look like some exotic princess. She felt my stare and turned slightly.

"You really don't want to take me along, do you, Ross?"

It was just like I'd always thought: blind people could smell things out. "It's no big thing," I said quickly, deciding to be honest. "We can work it out."

"I won't be any trouble; really I won't." Her hands came alive again, the finger interlacing. "Could you move closer? I feel funny talking to someone I can't touch."

Jessica had touched me lots of times before. I could even remember a time when I was five and Jessie had been ten. We'd played a game where I frowned or smiled or made some other kind of face and she tried to guess what I was thinking just by running her fingertips over my lips and brow and chin. But this time when her long fingers tickled my cheeks, I got a terrific surge of excitement… right in my crotch. There was a powdery fragrance about her, too, that I hadn't ever noticed before. Behind the dark lenses of her glasses I could see the blank look of her open eyes.

"How are things at school?" I asked, lamely trying to make conversation.