Something Like Lightning (47 page)

He glanced over at Nathaniel, who shrugged. Whatever
icks tsfy
meant, Inga had said it quite a bit yesterday too. He kept trying to figure it out in context, but so far the meaning eluded him.

As Inga fit the socket over his stump, he had flashbacks to the little clinic in Austin. William had stood there with an encouraging smile on his face. Nathaniel was almost in the corresponding spot, standing off to the side with his arms crossed. His expression implied he was ready to break something if this didn’t work out. That made Kelly chuckle, easing his nerves somewhat.

“How does that feel?” Inga asked, tugging on the socket.

“Good,” Kelly said, shifting his weight. “Actually, this is great!” Unlike the socket he already owned, this one didn’t ride up on his ass.

The material felt softer and more comfortable too. That might change once part of his weight was resting on it, but so far... “It fits like a glove!”

Inga looked puzzled a moment, then smiled. “Ah!
Handshuh
.”

“Hand shoe?” Kelly repeated. “Is that what Germans call gloves? Shoes for the hand?”

“Yes,” Inga said, returning his smile. “It makes sense!”

“I guess it does,” Kelly admitted. “So what do you call pants? Leg shoes?”

“Leeder-hosen,” Nathanial said. “Even I know that one.”

Inga looked amused. “Lederhosen,” she corrected, replacing that long “e” sound with a short one. “When you say
Liederhosen,
it sounds like musical trousers. Normal pants are just called
Hosen
.”

Kelly shook his head. “Maybe we should stick to English.”

“I agree,” Inga said with some degree of pride.

“Why is this one so short?” Kelly asked, looking down at the socket. It only covered his stump, leaving most of his upper leg free. “The socket I had before always rode up on my junk.”

“Junk?” Inga asked.

“Uh, that’s difficult to translate,” Kelly said quickly. “I mean it went all the way up to here.”

Inga watched him gesture at his hip and looked surprised. “You didn’t have a sub-ischal socket?” When he looked clueless, she added, “You have enough leg left that I don’t believe you need so much support. Would you like to see if I’m right?”

Kelly nodded. The socket came off again, and he watched in fascination as she connected the leg to it. The prosthesis was a thing of beauty, deceptively simple in appearance, gunmetal gray and sculpted to resemble a natural calf muscle. All that technology packed into one efficient package. It truly was a marvel, and if the promises were accurate, soon it would allow him to do everything he could before. Well, besides swimming, showering, and the one activity he missed most.

“Ready to stand?” Inga said.

“Okay.”

He grabbed hold of the balancing bars, but barely needed them as he stood. Inga encouraged him to take half a step forward. Then back again. She was blocking his way, one hand held out as she coached him on how to bend the Genium knee. This practice session dragged on, Kelly tempted to politely shove Inga and her rolling stool away so he could try walking for real.

“Stay patient,” Nathaniel said, reading his expression.

“Yes,” Inga said. “You must be patient. But I think you are ready.” She rolled backward to the end of the bars. Finally, path clear, Kelly took one step forward, then another. His concentration was focused downward at first, his hands hovering just above the bars, touching them occasionally. By the time he reached the end, he turned around without thinking about it. Inga called out, telling him how to turn correctly, but the technology was so damn good that he managed just fine. He looked up as he walked to the other end, catching sight of Nathaniel. His jaw was clenching, his face increasingly red, and he was breathing through his nose. The big lug was on the verge of crying!

Kelly smiled at him, too happy for tears at the moment. He reached the end and turned again. Inga stood as he got near, holding out her hands but stepping away from the bars. “Would you like to try without support?”

Kelly was barely touching the bars anyway. Without hesitation, he walked to the end of them. And beyond. Without crutches, without a cane or any other kind of aid, he was walking. Inga stood and stayed in front of him, walking backward in case he needed assistance, but he was fine. So much so that Inga’s back bumped against the wall.

“Very good!” she said with a laugh. “You’re a quick learner.”

“By the end of the day, I’ll be running laps,” Kelly joked.

“Jogging?” Inga asked, looking surprised. Then she saw his smile and relaxed again. “Not today. Maybe in a week, you can try.”

His brow furrowed. “Not on this leg. The Genium doesn’t support running.”

“Icks tsfy
,” Inga responded.

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. The leg you have, it’s a... uh... X2.”

“I still don’t know what that means,” Kelly said.

“The X2 leg is designed in cooperation with the United States military.” Inga guided him back toward the bars. “Right now it is for soldiers, but in the future, there will be a civilian release too.”

“But what you’re saying,” Kelly said, “is that I can run on this leg. The one I’ve got on right now.”

Inga nodded. “Yes. Of course. Just not now.”

“Not now because it hasn’t been developed fully, or—”

“You must learn to walk,” Inga stressed. “You must train. Once you have, you can run with the leg you are now wearing.”

Kelly glanced at Nathaniel, who nodded in confirmation while still trying to clamp down on his emotions. Kelly didn’t hold back. For the first time in a very long while, both his hands were free to wipe away joyful tears as they spilled from his eyes.

“I need to sit down,” Kelly said.

Nathaniel glanced over at him with something nearing concern. “You all right?”

“Yeah, just normal tired.”

The day had been spent walking. Kelly couldn’t get enough of it. They strolled the artsy shops of Kreuzberg and walked the length of the Berlin Wall—or at least what remained for tourists to gawk at. For lunch they ate a kebab from a fast-food truck that didn’t offer seating. Then they took the S-Bahn through the middle of the city, stopping at random stations to see what they would discover. Most recently they had walked down a busy shopping street, the sidewalks so packed that they felt shoved along by the crowds. Kelly almost missed the excessive courtesy his crutches often earned him. But not really. Being on his feet all day had been wonderful, and now he wanted nothing more than to sit.

“Let’s grab a beer,” Nathaniel said, pausing in front of a restaurant door and triggering irritated grunts from the pedestrians around them.

“Sounds good,” Kelly said, pushing open the door, “but let me order, okay?”

“Feeling brave?” Nathaniel asked.

“Yup!”

The restaurant was dark and cozy, lit by orange lamps that gave the illusion of firelight. The booths were wooden, only thin cushions providing any comfort. Kelly remained silent as they sat, not wanting the waiter to hear they spoke English. Sure enough, he came over and plopped down two menus, both of them covered in indecipherable text.

“Was zum Trinken?”

Whatever that meant. Kelly spoke the two words he felt he’d pieced together.
“Tsfy beers. ”

The waiter raised an eyebrow.
“Zwei Bier? Welches denn? Pilsner? Hefe?”

Kelly stared in response.

The waiter stared back a moment, then took a menu, opened it, and tapped a finger on one section.
“Welches
?
”

Kelly glanced down at a list of brands, choosing one with Berlin in the title. People were always raving about local beer, so he figured it was a good choice.

The waiter leaned over to see and asked,
“Himbeere oder Waldmeister? ”

Kelly nodded hopefully in response.

“Na gut, ”
the waiter said.
“Beides. ”

Thankfully he then went away, Nathaniel chuckling as he did so. “Very impressive!” he said.

“Shut up,” Kelly said. “I managed, didn’t I?”

“Hopefully. Who knows what you really said. The guy might be on his way to call the police.”

Kelly waved a hand dismissively. “Then it’s a good thing I’m equipped with a military-grade leg. This thing probably has secret deployable missiles, so don’t mess with me.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Nathaniel said, eyes twinkling. “How does it feel? As good as the real thing?”

“Almost,” Kelly said. “One of my butt muscles keeps twitching on that side.”

“Maybe something needs to be adjusted. You’ll have to tell them tomorrow.”

“That’ll be a fun conversation.” Kelly frowned. “Listen, I’m really grateful for all of this—”

Nathaniel raised a hand. “Thank Marcello, not me.”

“I definitely will, but between you and me, I’m worried. Having a leg of this caliber is wonderful. It’s only the first day and already I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at... everything, really. But no prosthetic leg lasts forever, and I’m dreading the day this one breaks down. I plan on calling my insurance company as soon as we’re back and opening a separate savings account, but if I ever need an entirely new leg, I’m not sure I’ll be able to afford it. I know they say it’s better to have loved and lost, but in this circumstance, I hate the idea of returning to the life I knew.”

“Was it so bad?” Nathaniel asked.

“No,” Kelly said. “Of course not. The accident could have been much worse. Day to day, I was happy. I don’t know what I’m trying to say, other than getting what you want can be scary, because then you have to face the idea of losing it again.”

Nathaniel stared at him, frowning slightly. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“Zwei Berliner Weisse,”
the waiter said. He set down two drinks on the table.
“Noch was dazu?”

Kelly shook his head instinctively. The waiter wandered away. That was good, because at the moment he was struggling to find words. Instead of mugs, they had received comically squat versions of wine glasses. The beer—if that’s even what it was—came in two different colors. One was red, the other green. Sticking out of both were fat black straws.

“Wonderful,” Nathaniel said, “you somehow managed to order us clown beer.”

Kelly stared a moment longer before laughing. “This is some sort of joke, right? Something they do to stupid tourists who think they can speak German?”

Nathaniel shrugged and peered at the printed image on the glass. “It looks like a little kid sitting in a beer mug. Maybe this is the beer Germans give to their children.”

“Is that even legal?”

“In Germany it probably is.” Nathaniel pushed one of the glasses toward him. “Here. You drink the green one. I figure it’s the most likely to be poisoned.”

“Thanks,” Kelly said. He sipped gingerly on the straw. The flavor was sweet. He still wasn’t sure if it was beer, because it mostly tasted like some sort of fruit syrup.

“Not bad,” Nathaniel said, after half-emptying his glass with one swig, the straw resting on the table. “I’m not sure I’d want to get wasted off them, but it’s kind of good.”

Kelly nodded and made them swap glasses so he could try the red kind.

Nathaniel watched him grab the straw from his old drink and used it to sip from the new one. “You don’t have to worry,” he said. “If anything ever happens to your leg, you’ll get another.”

“How?” Kelly asked.

Nathaniel took a deep breath and shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. But I’ll make it happen, no matter what. I promise.”

Kelly smiled with his eyes as he continued to sip. The two tiny beers didn’t last long. Rather than stick around and suffer any more awkwardness with the waiter, they used the menus to figure out what they owed and left the money on the table.

Not too far from the restaurant was a department store with impressive window displays called KaDeWe. Not the most catchy name, but he probably didn’t know how to pronounce it correctly. He wondered if German tourists ever stood outside Walmart and shook their heads in puzzlement. Not that Walmart could be compared to a store like this, since what they entered was clearly a high-end store.

“I need new shoes!” Kelly declared. “And maybe a nice pair of jeans. I won’t have to fold one leg anymore! Oh my god! Do you have any idea how exciting this is?”

Even if he didn’t, Nathaniel smiled in response. Maybe the beer had loosened him up a little, because as they were riding up the escalator, he reached over to take Kelly’s hand. Such a simple pleasure, and a maneuver that would have been complicated just a day before. Nathaniel didn’t let go when they reached the next floor, and even when Kelly shook him loose to try on shoes, the second he was finished, Nathaniel sought out his hand again.

He was forced to let go when Kelly stepped into a dressing room to try on some black slacks that had caught his eye. He grabbed a jacket on the way in. Both were much more form-fitting than those he usually found back home, but Kelly liked that. He stared into the mirror and felt like he was dreaming. He had just dressed himself without struggling or hopping around. Now he was standing there, and to the naked eye, he looked just like anyone else.

“You almost done in there?” Nathaniel asked.

“Come see,” Kelly said. He continued staring into the mirror as the curtain behind him opened. Nathaniel came close, put his hands on Kelly’s hips, and considered their reflection. “What do you think?” “Handsome as always,” Nathaniel said.

“Thanks,” Kelly said, “but I mean... I look normal!”

Nathaniel smiled at him from over his shoulder. “Normal? I don’t think so. You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

Kelly felt like swooning into his arms. Instead he smirked and said, “You’re just saying that because of the new leg.”

Nathaniel shook his head, his gaze unwavering. “Take it off and throw it in the next dumpster you see. I don’t care. Go back to your crutches if that makes you happy, or let me carry you anywhere you want to go. I’d do anything for you, Kelly. Absolutely anything, because I love you. You know that?”