Leg Spoke

Leg spoke. He spoke softly from Left Buttocks with something Spirit called an ache, an ache that was rising and falling, flowing out of his left cheek to a burning spot on the top of Thigh, radiating down Leg, and activating the skin encircling Lower Leg. Leg used to be taciturn. Leg never used to make any trouble. Leg never-drawing-attention-to-himself was something both Leg and Spirit took for granted, like democracy. Pins and needles roved up and down Leg.

Breath said, “Let me help. Don’t hold me. Let me go.”

Leg’s pain moved into Groin. Leg had never needed attention before. Now everything was all about him. Other Leg crossed over Leg, making things worse. Leg crossed back over Other Leg. Spirit was fantasizing about getting a hack saw and sawing Leg off. “There will just be phantom pain if you do that,” Brain pointed out, so she wasn’t going to. She was just going to imagine it. Leg wasn’t scared of her.

She took him on a walk early every morning. Leg protested at first, but he was able to forget himself for long stretches of the trail. Knee made a fuss. He was stiff. He didn’t seem willing to hold the rest of Leg up. He hurt. “You can’t just forget about me,” Knee said. “I might be the primary problem. Or I might not be. Or it might be Spirit who is responsible for all of Leg’s problems.” Spirit wanted to run away because she wanted to be free and her freedom was being taken away from her, but Knee was telling her she couldn’t run and, moreover, there was nowhere to go.

Sometimes Shin just wanted to crumble. It was as if Shin was being kicked. Perhaps there was kicking going on all over Body, kicking and pummeling, just because Body could be kicked and pummeled. Who wanted to kick and to pummel other Spirits’ bodies? Spirit knew who; Spirit just didn’t know why. The reasons didn’t seem good enough. That was because “good” was being taken out of the equation. Bladder spoke. “You better pay attention to me,” Bladder said, and Leg helped bring Bladder into the bathroom to relieve himself.

“There is relief to be found,” Bladder reassured Spirit. “Don’t give up,” he added, before going quiet. Then everyone went quiet as Spirit perused a book, but as Hand put the book down on the table, Knee reasserted himself, aching with the need for attention. Attention was given, and Knee subsided again into an iciness in Calf. Calf was positively electric, igniting Other Calf in Other Leg; then everyone came to rest. Spirit was having an idea.

The idea was that this was all Back’s fault. Back didn’t want to get involved; Back denied it was him, but he was compressing and drying out, and now something was touching a nerve. What could Back do? Spirit tried to give Back what Back wanted, but it was too late. Back was always complaining now about having to carry the rest of Body upstairs.

Foot didn’t usually speak up, but Foot had been screaming in the middle of the night for two nights in a row now. Spirit had cursed Foot and downed two Tylenol PMs. Foot had been quiet last night and all day, except for on the very bottom of his sole where something was rubbing despite the new socks Spirit had covered Foot in. Foot was usually quiet, especially when Spirit placed him in a certain new shoe, a leather shoe, a shoe made from the skin of an animal. Spirit had bought this shoe in three colors. She wanted to be kind to Foot and Other Foot so that they would stop asking her for attention.

Spirit now commanded everyone to rise and to go out to the deck where the sun was shining. Eyes looked over the edge to the terrace below, where large shapes, moving slowly under the live oak, coalesced into turkeys. “Seven turkeys,” Brain noted. Other birds were suddenly chirping and cackling. Ears drank them in, and everyone quieted.