Glasses

Ralph was talking with his friend, John, as they were walking home from school. It had been a long day, and it had come after a long night, so Ralph wasn't paying too much attention now that school was out. After Friday tests, he was ready to go home and relax - play some games, get some sleep, anything but worry about classes. The two were talking about their plans, as flimsy as they may be, so neither happened to notice the street sign until Ralph ran into it, face first.

The clang of the impact was loud, and it knocked the glasses off of Ralph's face, sending them tumbling to the ground. Reeling back in pain, Ralph didn't notice, and as he stepped the painful crunching sound of breaking glass was unmistakable. Ralph groaned in pain, both physical and emotional, as he realized he had broken his glasses.

"Dude, are you alright?" John asked. His hand was on Ralph's shoulder only a few moments after he had slammed into the pole, attempting to steady him. He heard the crunch of the glasses breaking as well, but he was more concerned with the well being of his friend.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine..." Ralph replied, rubbing at his face. He pulled his hand away and recognized in the blur that was his hand that there was no blood. That meant he hadn't broken his nose, which was good. "I'm just fucking blind now without my glasses." Ralph looked around, trying to make sense of which way he was facing, but everything was a blurry mess. But something in the corner of his eye...

Before he could turn to look at it, John had his attention. "Hey man, don't worry about it. You got a spare at home, right? We just gotta get you back, and then you tell your parents what happened. A couple days with a little bit weaker of a prescription and you'll be good as gold, right?" Ralph could barely make out the reassuring smile on his friend's face and nodded in frustrated agreement. He was right, of course, Ralph thought, as he always was. But that didn't mean Ralph had to be happy about it.

John stuck by Ralph's side as they continued the walk home, paying better attention to what was around them. The shock of the impact and the numb pain still in his face had fully woken Ralph for the first time all day. He couldn't really make out what was around him, but he had made the walk home enough times that he had a general idea of where he was going. But as he looked around, he kept seeing something out of the corner of his eye. Something that hadn't been there before...

John got them back to Ralph's house and offered to help him find the spare. As they were searching the incessant feeling of something being there wouldn't leave Ralph alone. When John had his back turned, Ralph turned quickly back and forth, trying to catch whatever it was that was just at the corner of his vision.

Clear as day on the blurry backdrop, a small imp sat on his windowsill. Ralph felt like he was losing his mind. Clearly he was just tired. There was no way he was really seeing this. But he stared at it long and hard, and the imp never went away.

"Found them!" John exclaimed happily, just as Ralph was about to say something. He turned to his friend and grabbed the glasses, pushing them onto his face and turning back to the window. The imp was gone. "Something wrong?" John asked.

Ralph hesitated for a moment. He couldn't explain what had just happened. He didn't even understand it. "Thought I saw something," he muttered. "Must have just been the lack of depth perception."

John smiled and playfully smacked his friend on the back. "Probably, man. Hey, I gotta head home. Mom'll be mad if I'm not home soon. I'll text you, alright?"

Ralph nodded without saying a word. As he heard the door close, he lifted the glasses off his nose once more, still staring at the window, and saw the imp once more, clear as day.