Once, not very long ago, in a place not so far away, lived a girl named Verona. She boasted a fantastically full, haphazardly happy, and beautifully blurry life.

Each morning she walked upon a sparkling, jewel-studded path, over a bridge…

through a snow-tipped green field, where armored knights saluted her as she passed.

At school, which was nothing less than an ivory spaceship,

a giraffe taught her grammar, and a grumpy frog taught her math.

Her fuzzy-looking friends seemed more or less alike, though some were fluffier than the rest.

One day, when her mother picked Verona up from school, they did not go home to their gray castle beyond the bridge.

Instead, they stopped off to see the optometrist, a tall man who looked strangely like an owl.

He asked her to read strange letters and numbers from across the room.

But all Verona saw were worms, and snails, and salamanders—which was strange, because she was not quite sure what a salamander was!

“I see,” said the optometrist ruffling his feathers, “you’ll need a very strong pair.”
“A pair of what?” wondered Verona.

Her mother drove her home...
through the green field, over the bridge, and up the jewel-studded path.

It wasn’t for a week until Verona saw the owl again. This time he gave her a new pair of glasses to wear. “Now you’ll be able to see cleary,” he said.

Verona put on the glasses, and suddenly the worms, and snails, and salamanders became letters and numbers.

And the owl—well, he was a man wearing glasses just like her own!

On the way home Verona was shocked to learn that her the ivory spaceship was in fact just a tumbledown school.

and the knights in shining armor were only trash cans…

and the jewel-studded path was ordinary cement.

“These glasses must be broken!” sighed Verona. And she threw them in the trash.

Verona decided to live her life as blind as could be, if only to keep her hazy, hap-hazardous things—the things that only Verona could see.

But the next day she awoke with a different view. Curiosity got to her. She pulled the pair out of the bin.

She realized that her mother’s face was delicate and finely featured,

that her pet lion was in fact a sunflower…

and that the penguin that lived with them was actually her dad!

And when she looked in the mirror, she saw a brand new Verona—a Verona who was finer, fairer, and more fabulous than she had ever believed.

Verona saw one other important thing very clearly, too. That was that she could wear her glasses whenever she needed,

and she could lift them off whenever she pleased.

And be with her knights and jewels, and spaceships,

without ever losing what she’d gained.