From the landing the lighthouse looked indistinct. (indistinct: unclear, blurred, faint) Miri blamed the glass until her sister put on her glasses and saw every brick. Her astigmatism made a point of light appear stretched. (astigmatism: alternate name astigmia) An impairment could alter perception in a way that a perfectly accurate drawing might still belie. (impairment: damage, deterioration, diminishment; perception: awareness, understanding, discernment; belie: contradict, misrepresent, falsify) Miri went downstairs to borrow the cracked window from room six.
She asked visitors to look through its wavy pane. Some could perceive two lamps where there was one. (perceive: notice, discern, detect) For others the distortion gave the impression of motion. (distortion: warping, deformation, contortion) One man sat down, troubled by vertigo. (vertigo: spinning sensation, whirling sensation, illusory movement) Miri removed the pane immediately. A second look through clear glass did more to assuage his disorientation than her elaborate account of the optical effect. (assuage: alleviate, ease, soothe; disorientation: confusion, bewilderment, discombobulation)
Her sister refused to lend the exhibition her spectacles. "I'd rather keep seeing my bus." Instead she gave Miri a drawing of the light as she saw it. The two paintings hung side by side, each distinct, each signed by the person who had seen it that way. (distinct: separate, discrete, different)