Justin hangs back as Joy approaches Madelyn with a smile.
Charlie stands behind Joy. He’s shy but he wants to experience every second of this crazy life.
“Do you speak French, Joy?” she pronounces the name ‘Zhoy’.
“I don’t know,” Joy answers happily. “What’s French?”
Charlie peeks from behind Joy. “She doesn’t speak French, miss,” he says.
Madelyn takes a deep breath. “Then it is harder.”
Both Joy and Charlie are looking down at her. Even though Madelyn is clearly a tall woman, standing without legs she is shorter than them.
“Zhoy,” Madelyn speaks slowly, choosing her words. She knows English, but it is hard for her. “Do you know what it is like to… to win?”
“Yes!”
Madelyn shakes her head. “Non, non.”
“I do! I win all the time!”
Madelyn is determined. “You do not.”
“I beat villains almost every day!”
Madelyn looks at her. “I do not know what that is, but you do not know what it means to win…”
Joy opens her mouth, but Madelyn opens her own mouth to speak, and Joy stops. Huh. She does not do that even with Justin. “You do not really know what it is like to to… to win… if you do not lose your legs and, uh, how do you say, and then you work so hard that you are better than before!”
Joy stares at her.
“You understand, Zhoy?”
Joy nods. She looks stunned. I do not know what she understood from that, but apparently more than I thought.
I look at Justin. He is staring at Joy with fascination.
Then Joy snaps out of it. “Okay,” she says happily. “Show me you’re better! Let’s race!”
Justin raises his hand, but Madelyn is quicker.
“Okay,” she says, smiling. “Let’s race.”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt