With a soft sigh, she softly and slowly moved her finger in small circles around her clit, her wetness acting as a lubricant. She let out a small grunt of delight as she let that same finger slide inside of her again, the palm of her hand gently rubbing on her clit with each thrust.

Her eyes were open, her mouth open wide, little gasps of pleasure coming from her throat with the thrust of each of her fingers. She was nearing orgasm. Nothing could stop her now!

Except for that.

“That” was the sound of her neighbor closing the outer door of the apartment building and slowly mounting the steps. She could tell it was she with the way she walked the steps.

With a little giggle and a grin, Linda Wickers playfully leaped from the bed as quietly as she could, swiftly and (at least to her) quietly moving to the eyehole of her apartment door, which allowed her a clear view of the apartment hallway.

Linda never had a true love beyond her parents in her 40-some years on the planet. The only child, she grew up a lonely but happy child, rarely hanging around with the other kids, but all the better for it.

In her very young days, Linda was too tall and skinny for her age, with teeth that seemed to have no decision on where they went. The other kids had been ruthless about her looks, driving her into that shell. Getting braces before her teens did not help, but she had grown to embrace solitude by that stage.

When the braces were removed, Linda grew to her height, and her weight shifted around. Some admitted her to be attractive in high school, but she was deemed too weird to be taken seriously. A couple of times, a boy would awkwardly try to ask her out, but her shell had grown too hard, and she learned to easily reject them at every turn.

High school turned into college, and she joyfully found herself able to lose herself in her studies. She was quite intelligent, but her mind was way too restless. She received good grades in college, but not spectacular. Her inherent shyness kept her from seeing her counselor until way too late, when she found the only thing, she needed to graduate was three years’ worth of foreign language classes.

By then, her parents had become restless about paying her bills and cut her off. She attempted to continue her education for another year, paying for herself with credit cards and some money earned from odd jobs. But it was not enough. Neither was the high school Spanish she had taken, so after that fifth year, she was out, still short on foreign language credits.

During her college years, she hung around with friends, sometimes going to parties or bars. Occasionally, she would “hook up” with some random guy, but it always ended in disappointment.

In her first year, she had lost her virginity to a guy who had also lost his virginity. They had both awkwardly fumbled around together for a while, exchanging sloppy kisses, she giving him an awkward blowjob. He had cum in her mouth, so they went back to awkward kisses until he entered her, thrust three quick times, and came inside of her. Fortunately, she had been on birth control.

Her five college years they resulted in two similar encounters, with similar results.

In her sophomore year, another girl from the school newspaper introduced Linda to the wonders and joys of sex toys. They had gone to a sex shop in a nearby town just for fun, browsing at the different pleasure devices, when the other girl admitted to having more than a dozen sex toys. After singing praise for the pleasure, they gave her, the girl then loaned Linda one of her least favorite vibrators.

Least favorite or not, Linda was bought and sold after one use. The feeling of it vibrating against her clit, the feeling of it inside of her while it shook ... it all drove her crazy and to orgasm within minutes.

After that beautiful night, the joys of solo pleasure became a staple in her life. She used some of her mad money to buy a quiet vibrator, as well as a realistic dildo, so that she could use them on herself at night without her roommate’s knowledge.

At least, that is what she had thought until near the end of the year; as she was pleasuring herself, she heard her roommate let out a soft moan. Linda peeked from under her covers to see her roommate astride her pillow, head thrown back as she rubbed her bare pussy on the pillow.

It was too dark for Linda to see too much, but there was enough light coming through the window for her to watch her roommate riding the pillow to ecstasy. She continued watching her roommate from under the covers, her fingers gliding the dildo in and out of her wet pussy in rhythm with the motions of her roomie fucking the pillow.

At one point, her roommate must have noticed the grunts from the two girls were escaping in unison; a mid-thrust, she turned and looked right into Linda’s eyes, an O of surprise on her mouth. She released a yelp of surprise, dismounted the pillow, sat on the bed with her back leaning against the wall, and used the pillow to awkwardly cover herself as Linda looked from under her blanket in abject terror.

The two girls stared at each other in terror, horror on their faces, until both simultaneously laughed at the folly of the moment.

After several minutes of laughter, Linda impulsively jumped out of bed and handed her roommate her vibrator. Then she jumped back into her own bed again, hiding under the covers that shook with her giggles.

She heard the “buzz.”

She peaked from under the covers. Her roommate still covered herself with her pillow, but her legs came from each side, a hand between her legs. She let out a small grunt of pleasure.

Linda did the same as she continued to slowly move her dildo in and out of her pussy.

Her roommate continued to play with her, and the soft buzz between her legs continued. Her eyes opened and closed, focusing on the blankets Linda hid within each time.

Linda pulled the blankets from her head, breathing hard as she watched her roommate, transfixed. She gently pressed the button on her toy, the soft buzz from the dildo causing it to shake inside of her, causing her juices to flow even more.

Her roommate let out a soft giggle, moving the pillow. Still, it was too dark to see anything, and the blankets on her roommate’s bed covered up everything, but the hint of more caused her to flush even more.

Linda kicked her blankets aside. She wore a nightshirt, but it was pulled up. She knew her roommate could only see her body’s profile. She lay on her stomach, back arched and ass in the air, and Linda was very sure her roommate would have a good view of her hand grasping the dildo and moving it between her legs but would not be able to see anything else.

The feeling of being watched and watching was too much as she laid her head on her pillow and let out a soft scream, the orgasm ripping through her body. Second later, she heard her roommate let out a series of grunts and groans.

After a couple of moments, Linda raised her head from the pillow and saw her roommate lying on her side, looking at Linda with a bright smile on her face.

She let out a giggle, got up from her bed, skipped over Linda, handed her the wet vibrator, gave Linda a small peck on the cheek, skipped back to her own bed, and lay down, mouthing “thank you” before burying her head in her pillow and falling off to sleep in a matter of seconds.

The image of her roommate’s butt as she went back into her bed stayed with her forever.

After a couple of awkward glances the following day, the two acted as if it had not happened. Only a couple of weeks remained in the school year, and they never spoke of it again. Linda never saw her roommate again, but the images from that night stayed with her forever.

Love eluded Linda after college and into her working years. Not having a degree, she found one of the few places that would hire her was a retail store. She regretfully took the position with the freight team, telling herself it would last until she could get the rest of her classes for her degree and work towards a career in journalism.

Days turned into weeks, which turned into months and years. She moved from her parents, continued working, and stayed alone.

She had a couple of random fucks here and there, but nothing that was too last. I found a couple of guys on dating sites and even saw the same guy a few times, but it never was anything that would last for a long time. She knew this, and she was happy with it.

Her toy collection grew. By the time she hit 40, she had a couple of dozen toys. Some were used a lot more than others. But she found that the toys she enjoyed the most were her own fingers. Her fingers knew the right places to touch, the right places to go, the right movements, the right pressure, and the right curvature.

Though she very rarely had sex with another person, she certainly did not avoid sex. Every night, she gave herself an orgasm. Sometimes, she gave herself a couple a day, a few times even more. She found herself to be a bit of a nymph with herself.

She had grown into a beautiful woman, though she rarely admitted it to herself. Thin arching eyebrows covered piercing eyes, which saw over a pert little nose and over full luscious lips frequently wetted by her tongue.

When masturbating, she often did so in front of a mirror, looking at herself and critiquing her looks. Frustrated with her body one day, she suddenly went out for a run for a mile.

She was hooked. A mile turned into a couple, which turned into a 5K, then a 10K, then a half marathon, and even a few full marathons. Linda always ran by herself, making pace awkward with other runners.

She wore baggy clothes and a ballcap at work, hiding herself as she continued to work freight. It was a job, not a career, but she continued to do it.

Occasionally, she would find herself with a crush. Rarely did she ever act upon them. They usually ended in disappointment.

Her neighbor was one of her more recent crushes. She felt her heart flutter as the steps continued up the stairs.

With a small smile and a giggle, she leaned closer to the door, her eyes pressed against the eyehole, fingers from one hand gently pushed against the door. A finger from her other hand slid inside of her pussy, as she let out a satisfied sigh.

Her neighbor reached the top of the stairs and turned towards her apartment door, living next to hers. Linda let out a small gasp.

The girl was radiant today. She was wearing a micro bikini that barely covered anything. Her hair was still soaking wet, and her body was covered in droplets of water.

When the girl stopped at her door, she stretched on her tiptoes, reaching above the door to retrieve the spare key Linda knew the girl kept hidden up there. In doing so, the girl had turned slightly, her back to Linda, giving her an eyeful of one of the most beautiful behinds she had ever seen, cheeks surrounding the slight hint of a thong.

With a curse, the girl dropped the key to the ground, squatting to retrieve it, a perfect heart-shaped ass appearing inches from the floor. The girl stumbled a bit, caught herself, and stumbled a little more before resting again, still squatting, this time facing Linda as the key retrieval continued.

Linda let out a sharp gasp at the sight. The cloth of the micro bikini had crept between the girl’s plump lips, the lighter skin from the untanned bits around her loin now revealed, along with a distinct, bare camel toe. Meanwhile, the bikini top had shifted slightly, one of the girl’s nipples popping out into plain view.

Linda clamped a hand over her mouth as her body racked in sudden orgasm at the sight, a stifled scream letting out.

“Linda? Honey? Are you OK?” the sweet voice of her neighbor said quietly in the apartment hallway.

Linda kept her hand over her mouth. She leaned over to look out the eyehole.

The girl was right outside the door, with a bemused look on her face and a knitted brown surrounded by her fuzzy, curly brown hair.

“Linda? Are you all right, babe? I thought I heard a scream. I ... I think I can hear you breathing. It sounds ragged. Are you all right, honey?” Linda could have sworn there was a for-fun smirk on the girl’s face.

Linda tried to quietly stop from the doorway, her plan interrupted by the squeak of the floor under her feet. She cleared her throat. “Uh, yeah, Angel. I am all right. I just ... uh, I tripped. On the rug.”

“OK, just wanted to make sure you were all right.” There was a pause and a soft knock at the door. “Can I come in a minute? Ask you a question?”

Linda felt her heart stop. Angel had never been in her place. They never showed any interest. Linda looked around in panic. Her place was not a disaster, but it certainly was not neat. She shuffled some papers sitting on a bookshelf near the door. “Uh, I, uh ... let me, uh ... let me get decent.”

“I am sure you are decent enough, honey,” Angel giggled. “Just girl to girl.”

Linda looked at herself in the full-length mirror by the door. Her blonde hair was concerned, but that was usual. At least the shirt she wore covered everything necessary.

“Hell, I am out here naked anyway, so whatever you have one has to be an improvement over me,” Angel said with a giggle.

Linda sighed again and quickly opened the door.

Angel’s face lit up with a huge smile, which made Linda’s heart stop again.

She had crushes on other women before, many times. For some reason, Angel had hit her particularly hard. She had one of those faces and bodies that seemed timeless, yet she was so accessible and easy to talk with. Linda’s previous conversations with her had been few and far between – and awkward – but always fed her fantasies.

Angel looked at Linda through her eyelashes, slightly downturned and smiling. “Thank you, love. Sorry, I am dripping wet.”

“Same here,” Linda croaked out.

Angel laughed and knitted her eyebrows. “Whaaaaaat? Just get out of the shower. You look dry.”

Linda blushed at her verbal miscue. “Yeah, I dried myself, but not all the way, and I am still wet in some ... places.”

Angel giggled. “Been swimming myself. In the river.”

The river? Eww, Linda thought to herself.

“Cool,” she said instead.

She found herself staring at Angel’s still bare nipple.

Linda saw her eyes, looked down, and let out a little laughing squeak. “Oops,” she said, moving the cloth back over her nipple. “Didn’t mean for her to get out.” She let out a little laugh and saw the full-length mirror. She checked herself out, slightly twisting and turning, adjusting herself. “Giving everyone a free show, I guess,” she said with a small laugh, then cleared her throat. “Listen ... do you smell smoke?” she asked, sniffing the air herself.

Linda sniffed the air. She smelled nothing. “Nope,” she said.

Angel shook her head. “Could have sworn I smelled smoke when I came up the stairs. It was strong for a while. And not from a cigarette, either.”

“There have been a couple of small fires here,” Linda said softly. “Small grease fire downstairs about five years ago.”

Angel nodded her head. “Yeah, I heard about that one. I guess there was a pretty big one about 50 years ago, too. They had to fix the place up.” She dropped her voice. “Guess a couple of people even...” she trailed off.

Linda nodded. She had heard about it, too, but that was about all she had heard about. “Do you think the smell from old fires could still be here or something?” Linda asked.

Angel nodded her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess so.” She smiled. “But you don’t smell anything?”

Linda shook her head. “No. Nothing.”

Angel’s smile became even more significant. “OK. Thank you, honey! I was fucking worried!” she let out a loud laugh and suddenly grabbed Linda, pulling her into a big hug. “Forgot to tell you, I am a HUGGER!” Angel said with a laugh.

Linda stammered helplessly. The warmth of the girl’s body ... the softness ... her sweat smell...

“Not gonna go until I get a hug back,” Angel whispered with a little giggle.

Linda wrapped her arms around Angel, returning the hug. She was not a hugger. She avoided human contact, damn it! But the girl felt so good ... the hug felt so good. She embraced her.

Angel held the hug. “Feels really good,” she whispered. The girl was shorter than Linda, her head resting on her bosom. “Feels REAL fucking good!” Angel said with a shout, breaking the hug. “Thank you, love!” She turned, walked to her door, opened it, and walked inside.

Linda’s pussy was a hot, wet mess. She shut the door and went immediately to the bedroom, finishing herself off in seconds.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

For a couple of days, Linda avoided the peephole whenever she heard Angel leaving or entering the apartment.

Her bedroom window allowed the perfect view of the street and adjoining sidewalk. Sometimes after work, Linda lay face down in the bed, looking through the narrow slit in the curtain, trying to catch a peek of Angel as she neared.

One evening, she found herself unable to resist the temptation – she was near the door when she heard the footsteps anyway, she told herself. Why not take a sneak peek?

It turned out to be not so sneaky when she slightly bonked her head on the door in her rush to peek through the glass. Fortunately, Angel had not yet reached the top of the steps, so they had not heard her.

As always, Angel looked radiant when she turned the corner, a wry smile on her face as she nonchalantly walked to her apartment door. Today, she wore a yellow sundress, the hem not even reaching halfway to her knees, held up by a couple of spaghetti straps. Angel stopped at her apartment door, fishing through her purse for her keys.

When she inserted the key into the lock, she paused and turned her face towards Linda’s door, a massive smile on her face.

Linda held her breath. She had tried not to make a noise. Had she made a noise? She was sure she had not made a noise.

Angel let out a little giggle, puckered her lips into a kiss, and with a louder giggle, spun, lifted her dress, and mooned Linda with her bare butt before darting into her apartment with a tiny, free laugh.

Linda stood transfixed, frozen at her door in terror for a few seconds.

Naturally, she was able to recover quickly enough to bring herself to orgasm less than five minutes later.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Though she lay low for the next few days, Linda thought of Angel a lot. Images of the girl she had seen with her own eyes and other pictures from her fantasies flooded her mind at every waking moment and in many dreams.

She realized she had fallen hard for the girl. She was a little bit confused, as the encounter with her college roommate had been her only close sexual encounter with another woman in her life. She had absolutely nothing against lesbians – she knew a few and found them quite charming. She had watched a lot of lesbian porn in her lifetime, finding it just as erotic as straight porn. But she never once in her life had considered a sexual encounter with another woman.

Now, that is all she found herself thinking about. Before sleeping every night, she would bring herself off thinking about Angel. The first thing she would do when waking up was play with herself as she thought about the other woman. She thought about Angel at work – though there was no place for self-pleasure. Work and pleasure were not two words that seemed to go together. When she got home, she would shower and play with herself, thinking about Angel.

She sometimes thought to herself that she was getting obsessed with the girl, but she reasoned that if she was conscious of such worries, then she possessed no unhealthy urges. Besides, Linda thought, Angel was flirting enough—she was interested in her.

But each time she reached that point of thought, she let herself down. She felt she had to let herself down – it was in her nature. She had been alone far too long and let down far too many times to allow herself to get sucked into something like that again.

Linda thought herself too old – hell, she could be twice the girl’s age for all she knew. Running had treated her body quite well, but Linda did not think hers could match the natural desirability of Angel’s body. Linda felt her face too worn and eroded to the ages and ages of solitude. And those years of solitude, oh, how they had worn on her mentally until that was not only what she was used to but also what she embraced.

No, Linda thought to herself as she continued to stock shelves. Angel was way out of her league. Of course, she would continue to talk with the girl whenever the opportunity presented itself, but she was not going to go out of her way to make a fool of herself.

However, she did make a fool of herself at that moment at work when she collided with a customer, spilling merchandise all over the place.

The side of her head hit the corner of one of the shelves, drawing a fair amount of blood and knocking her a bit silly for a few moments.

Because of the amount of blood, paramedics were called in.

An offhand remark caught her attention.

“That is some tunnel vision you have there, miss,” one of the paramedics told her.

Her head snapped up. “What?”

“Well, it sounds like the customer was right there, and you ran right into him. Sometimes we are so focused on stuff, we get tunnel vision.”

Linda nodded absent-mindedly. “Yeah, I guess my mind has been elsewhere for a bit ... but I’ve never had anything like that happen. But ... well ... Sometimes I feel like I have tunnel vision, I guess...” Her voice trailed off.

The paramedic nodded. “How many fingers am I holding up ... don’t look ... out of the corner, how many fingers am I holding up.”

Linda stared straight ahead. “Your hand is over there?” she motioned towards the side. The paramedic nodded.

He moved his hand a little bit more to her front. “How about now?”

Linda shook her head.

“Now?”

Linda shook her head again.

“The blow to the head could have caused this,” he told her.

Linda shook her head. “No ... that’s how it’s always been. I used to see a little bit better out of the corner of my eyes, but it’s less now. That comes with age, right?”

The paramedic shook his head. “Not like that.” He stood up. “If you feel safe enough, we will not take you into a hospital. The blood came from more of a scratch, and there is no swelling where you hit your head.” He paused. “You should get that looked at, though.”

She nodded.

The store manager was nearby. “Linda ... can I talk to you briefly in the office? You are not in trouble, but I overheard something I think I need to talk to you about.”

She nodded and followed him to his office.

After they both sat down, the store manager cleared her throat. “Listen ... I heard you talking to the paramedic...”

“I’m fine,” Linda said. “Just a scratch. I think it was a surprise. How is the customer.”

“He is all right. There were no injuries at all. I think he was more concerned about you. Anyway, this isn’t about the accident. I heard you talking about your eyesight.”

Linda nodded; her brow knitted.

“We, management that is, have been talking a while. We have noticed you have been having a few small incidents, nothing a big deal by themselves, but together, they are drawing a little concern. We have talked and agreed that you sometimes struggle with your eyesight. I saw you walk right into a pole a few weeks ago. You seem shaky going up and down ladders lately. And we are sure you have not noticed someone standing right next to your numerous times.”

Linda cleared her throat. “Well ... I ... uh...” she paused and sighed. “I am not sure what you want me to say.”

“We don’t want you to say anything. And we are not going to force you to do anything. You are not at all in trouble. But ... we have an eye doctor in the store. You know that. We have talked to her a couple of times; she would love to see you any time you want to see you if you want to see her. But I would love it if you saw her.”

Linda nodded awkwardly. “I ... I could make an appointment...”

“She can see you right now. I can go down with you if you want...” The store manager left the offer in the air.

Linda took it. Moments later, she was in a dark room, reading letters off the wall. She struggled with the fourth row with her right eye and almost had an impossible time with her left eye with any of the rows.

“OK,” the optometrist said softly. “I want you to look in here,” she said, motioning to a half dome about two feet wide.

Linda nodded and placed her chin in the holder.

For about half an hour, the doctor shone different levels of light all over the dome, sometimes having her close one eye or the other, sometimes with both eyes open.

After that test, she held a pen-sized object near Linda’s eyes.

She had her set her chin by another box, this one which had a blue crosshair for her to look at, a red line going up and down the rest of the image.

The optometrist reentered the room after looking over the results. She cleared her throat. “Have you been diagnosed with any visual problems in the past?”

Linda shook her head. Even as a child, she sometimes had trouble seeing and wearing glasses until they broke. As she got older, she bought a pair of reading glasses to help herself with what she considered getting older.

The optometrist cleared her throat again, pulling some papers from a nearby folder. “I have some papers on what I am sure you have, something called retinitis pigmentosa. It is a genetic and does progress with age.” She cleared her throat. “There is, however, no cure.”

Linda was in her apartment an hour later, letting the events tumble into her mind.

She had long struggled with her vision but dismissed it as clumsy or her imagination or something similar. To find out it had a name was relieving yet terrifying.

The optometrist had told her she had about 10 degrees of vision left, well below the legally blind limit. The doctor was relieved to find Linda did not drive. She found the progression was usually slow, but it differed between people. Eventually, she could lose all her vision to static and smudginess.

For the rest of the night, Linda researched as much as she could about retinitis pigmentosa using Google.

The more she looked, the more it made sense.

RP can affect one’s peripheral. She’d long had issues seeing out the corners of her eyes.

It affected night vision. Several years ago, she noticed she was stumbling in the dark more and more. Lately, she found she was using her phone increasingly as a flashlight. More and more, she found she had to take her morning runs with a headlamp, even if the sun was starting to rise.

RP makes one’s eyes adverse to bright lights. Linda had long had issues working during the bright daylight. She also found herself almost frozen in inactivity in the “light cloud” at work, where all the lighting displays were located.

Floaters. Flashes. Occasional eye pain. She had it all.

The next months were a blur of events, some moving fast, others not so fast.

First, she found a retinal specialist in town. He was able to diagnose that she did indeed have retinitis pigmentosa, but tested her peripheral and found it was around 10 degrees. Because this was her first test, they could not tell how fast it was developing.

Linda was given a genetic test and found that her RP came from Usher’s Syndrome and could also affect hearing. It was also deemed that type of Usher’s Syndrome could only come if both parents had the gene present. With both of her parents being deceased and no brothers and sisters, at least she did not have anyone to pass the news to.

However, with her peripheral being less than 10 degrees, she was legally blind. Fortunately, she did not own a car and had not for several years. The last time she drove, she simply did not feel comfortable – at least now she had a reason.

She severely limited her amount of time at work, going onto Social Security. It took a couple of tries to get onto Social Security Disability, but once she cut her work hours and one of her retinal specialists sent in the results, she was approved.

Even though she did not yet need it, she found a company which did cane training in a nearby town. She also applied for a seeing eye dog.

Linda also found that there was a Guided Runners program, for which in larger races, a runner could be guided, at their pace, of course.