Ben takes a closer look

"So what exactly did he tell you?" asked Bonnie, as Ben continued to goggle at the girls. He still seemed deeply distracted, somehow. "The man in the turban, I mean. I want to know what stupid sales pitch you fell for."

"Right," said Ben, watching her intensely. "Yes. The sales pitch. He said the glasses were made from ancient Indian rock crystal that would focus the natural radiation of my gaze."

"So if you looked at girls real hard, all their clothes would disappear?"

"Um. Yep. Pretty much."

"Ben Hoolihan," Susie said, severely. "That's awful. You should be ashamed of yourself." She couldn't help but notice that he seemed to be looking at her, real hard. It made her skin tingle. He couldn't actually see anything, could he?

"Actually, there was more to it than that," said Ben, a slow smile beginning to form on his face. "He said if I looked long enough and hard enough, the girls wouldn't be able to hide anything at all. They'd have **** but to stand still and let me see everything, and I could never get in trouble for it at all, no matter what happened."

"Well, I think that's perfectly disgusting."

"I guess it is, a little."

"I hope you feel a downright fool. Falling for a sales pitch like that."

"He said," said Be, thoughtfully, "that once I got good at it, I could make girls do anything I wanted, just by taking a long hard look at them. But I don't think that can be right. I mean, they're just regular glasses."

"Yes," said Susie, uneasily. Why was he staring at her so intensely? Where were his eyes pointing? What part of her, exactly, was he looking at?

Why did she feel that strange, cool sensation on her skin? And why were the people around her starting to nudge one another and giggle?

Susie looked down. And, predictably, squealed.