The next few hours pass without incident. Joy tries once to get up, but Master Mind convinces her he would hold her down if necessary, and Joy relents.
She asks for water and food, and has to be carried to the bathroom once by Master Mind.
Then she falls asleep while Suzy, Master Mind and I watch over her.
The first Dreamer to appear is Madelyn. She appears on the deck. She runs down the ramp and onto the porch.
It is impossible to not notice that this woman who had no legs for all the time I knew her is now running with shorts on two completely new legs. It is very strange. And when she passes me I notice how tall she is now.
“How is Zhoy?”
“She is sleeping, she is fine,” Suzy says softly. “I think she’ll be all right.”
Madelyn stands over her and looks at Joy’s wound. “It is very troubling,” she says.
“Oh, she gave us such a fright,” Suzy says. “She climbed on the roof and fell off!”
“Oh, mon dieu!” Madelyn exclaims. She looks at her. “But she is okay. She is okay.”
“Ah, Madelyn,” I just can’t help myself. “I see you are walking around with legs.”
She looks down. “What?!” her voice is as high as I’ve ever heard it. “I did not notice!”
She bends over and touches her legs.
“I can feel!” she exclaims.
She touches various parts of her legs, experiencing the feelings. “It is so real! I have not had legs in so many years!”
She pinches her leg. “Ow! I did felt that!”
She straightens and tries to walk. She walks this way and that way.
Joy wakes up silently and looks at her walking.
“I can walk without thinking of it! I am walking as if I walk every day!”
“You got them when Joy was on the deck, bleeding,” I tell her. “You just jumped in to help.”
“I never saw you with legs,” Joy says.
“Zhoy, how are you?” Madelyn immediately goes to Joy and touches her cheeks.
“I’m okay. Really. It just hurts a bit.”
Madelyn nods.
“Do your legs hurt a bit now that they’re back?”
Madelyn looks down, thinking about it for the first time. “No. They don’t hurt at all. They never don’t hurt at all.”
She looks sad suddenly and her tanned face becomes redder. Her wheelchair appears behind her.
“Master Mind,” she says. “Catch me when I fall.”
Master Mind moves closer to her, arms outstretched, ready to catch her.
“Wait!” I say. “Don’t you want to walk around a bit before you lose them again?”
She shakes her head, her face red, her eyes full of tears. “This is it,” she says.
She looks down. But nothing happens.
She shuts her eyes. “Master Mind, catch me now.”
There is silence and nothing happens.
She opens her eyes and looks down at them. “I do not understand!”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt