a-American Copyright<br >in whole or in part in<br >2tine Books， a division<br >neously in Canada by<br >and Schuster. Inc<br > places and incidents<br >~ are used fictitiously.<br >sons， living or dead，<br > FTER THE EYE EXAMINATION DOUG GARDNER SAT<br > across from Dr. Jeffrey Weiss in an office so dark<br > with its heavy leather furniture， murky brown wallpaper<br > and dim lighting， the only good light a desk lamp on the<br > doctor s desk， he thought it might have been a psycho-<br > logical ploy. Everyone leaves here thinking he s going<br > blind and is， therefore， in desperate need of Dr. Weiss s<br > ophthalmology. Weiss was trim， about six feet tall， with<br > a full head of blond hair. He was probably one of those<br >people who regularly passed Doug on the jogging track<br >in Central Park while Doug slogged along. Everyone<br >passed him. Doug loathed jogging and did it because of<br >the articles， all that evidence about cardiovascular ben-<br >efits that would keep you alive longer. Nobody gave you<br >an actual number， though. Will one thousand miles of<br >tedious jogging give you an extra six days， six weeks?<br >And when do. you get your jogger s bonus， he wondered.<br >Now， when you re still able to eat a pastrami sandwich，<br >or at the end when you re already on a life-support sys-<br >tem?<br ><br >