Spirit in Motion
From the United States in lane 4....
It never stopped hurting, the stump that now was tucked into silicone and covered up with carbon fiber, thin straps hooked around in order to hold the running blade in place. Once in a while the burning from the chaffing would still, usually when she was in the ice tub or the whirlpool but even then, she had the ghost sensation of her left leg there, wanting to wriggle toes that had been gone for almost 15 years.
The damage had been too severe that late spring afternoon, then the necrosis set in. There had been no choice then it was amputation or her life.
There were some days she wished they let her die instead.
She couldn't handle the sympathy--the pity--in her parents' voices, in her sisters' eyes. She didn't want to go back to the East coast to be an invalid, to be made to feel dependent on them. The doctors in California didn't offer much better but at least she was happy here. She could lay on the beach and be nothing in peace here. She could be nothing here. Without meets to train for and compete in...she was nothing. She watched nothing, not football, wouldn't follow anything on tv or the papers, screamed at anyone who mentioned the Athens Olympics. She was supposed to go and claim her throne, to be the successor to Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Denise Lewis. She was supposed to become America's Golden Girl. She'd even let to call her that stupid 'Glamazon' name, if it meant she was carrying gold around her neck
All gone. All gone because of her stupid knee and the stupid gangrene.
Alex tried his best. He postponed anything regarding his transition to be there for Dee, to try and keep her focused and she loved him for it, she really did. No-one had been more surprised when he asked her to marry him, because he was the one that took the brunt of her bitterness and her anger and her loathing of the world. When she gave up, he was the one who started to hint that she could still compete, even when she screamed at him to stop talking about it. To stop leaving Paralympics information anywhere she could see it. But he brought her around. He convinced her to take the PT seriously. He was there to get her fitted with a prosthesis. He was there when they had to go through refit after refit. He was there to help her take her first, shaky strides forward on her own, even when she barked at him that she could do it on her own. He was there when she couldn't. He was there to hold her and let her cry while they watched Athens. He held her while she cursed out Kluft and Skujyte and Sotherton.
He called her out on her bullshit and finally, he had been there to get her to Beijing.
Get her there.
Not be there.
A drunk teenager and a speeding car had made that possible.
All she had left now was this. No joy. No love. Just the gun and the need to win. Nothing else mattered. Because she didn't have anything else to matter.
On your marks! Get Set!
BANG
Dee woke up to blaring in her ear and a terrible smell. How could she have slept through her alarm, she thought groggily as she rubbed her face. More importantly, how could she have slept through Cricket's barking, asking to go out. She yawned again, pushing mussed hair around and looking at her clock. It was a nice day for a Tuesday...
A Tuesday?
