* I'm not a native English speaker, so sorry if my English si clumsy sometimes :-) *
Door to my office opened and the lovely head of Laurel, my secretary, appeared.
"Miss Abiel is here," she announced softly.
"Let her come in," I said trying to hide my sudden excitement.
Laura stepped in and held the door wide open for Abiel to enter. I lowered my eyes to the bottom half of the door opening where I expected Abiel's wheelchair would appear. That's why I was caught by surprise when she emerged from the side, erected, slowly and clumsily walking, supported by only a simple walking stick held tight in her only hand. She was not even using a proper crutch!
She stopped at the threshold and looked up at me. She smiled wide when she noticed the surprise I must have had on my face. Then she lowered her sight quickly to watch her steps over the small threshold that she managed to get over without a big problem.
I watched over the whole interesting shape of her. She was wearing a very modest grey business suit with long trousers and long sleeved jacket. On her artificial feet she wore a somewhat shapeless and flat ankle shoes.
Immediately I realized she possessed the full complement of her prosthetics, as I noticed the right sleeve of the jacket was not just dangling empty but was naturally filled, probably by the cosmetic arm. It was bent at elbow and the plastic hand was neatly tucked and hidden inside the jacket pocket. The pockets were specially tailored, with openings not on the top but rather on the back of them.
The rigid and heavy artificial arm hung sort of too low and too forward from the shoulder joint and pulled the jacket down on that side, making it look inappropriately. It surely wouldn't fool anyone for being a real arm.
Abiel managed to find the right rhythm and slowly, but steadily, walked inside my office. Laura closed the door behind her silently as if she'd never ever been there. I stood up and wanted to come and help Abiel, but she stopped me instantly by turning her head when she noticed me move.
"Just stay there, I will come to you," she exclaimed. "I need some exercise, you know."
You bet I knew! I was pretty sure she was doing it on purpose, but a different one. She wanted to put on a show and tease me. I could tell that from the fact she didn't take her regular crutch, only the simple walking stick. Walking with the stick was very hard and precarious for her, having had almost all of her legs gone.
The stick was not secure enough for her and she held it pressed against the side to steady it more when she would lean onto it. That's why the stick was a bit longer than a normal one would be and protruded somewhat to the side as she put the weight on it.
She leaned left, supported by the stick in the hand and basically thrusted the right side of her maimed body forward, pivoting on the left false leg. The full length prosthesis that had been serving her for right leg described a small, swift arc around and landed few inches in front of her.
The artificial right arm swayed just a tiny bit by the jolt and Abiel immediately pushed on the stick and moved its top away from her body to gain the momentum. As her weight shifted onto the right leg prosthesis, and while still supported by the stick, she kicked the short stump of her left thigh forward and brought her left leg prosthesis forward too.
Then she leaned ahead a bit, exploiting the momentum, and quickly moved the stick forward, beside her hip again. That was the scariest moment of each 'step' as she was basically toppling deliberately forward on her rigid legs for a short period of time. Then she literally broke her fall by planting the stick in the right position.
When she got her rhythm right, she would use the rest of the momentum to thrust the right side of her body ahead again and repeat the whole process in a more-or-less fluent motion. But when she felt her balance was not right, she tried to stop her movement and steady herself instead.
That usually meant several quick adjustments of the stick and swaying and turning her upper body for balance. That all accompanied with a look of horror on her face. Most of the time I would then jump and start running to her to prevent her from falling in case she didn't manage to steady herself. Otherwise she would just fall over uncontrollably, unable to do much to protect herself with her only arm. And that's always a dangerous situation.
This time she was doing a good job. She moved forward clumsily but self-confidently. Her body swayed to sides and swung forward in small moves, twists and jolts. I enjoyed the show very much. The big and spacious office allowed me a good and unobstructed view and the slowness of Abiel's walk gave me enough time to focus on every detail of it.
I watched as trouser legs flailed around Abiel's leg prostheses, as the jacket dropped down under the weight of the artificial arm and then it was pulled up when muscles in Abiel's shoulder tensed and she kicked her short leg stump forward. I watched her beautiful blonde hair fly around the pretty face in the process.
Eventually she managed to walk across the whole room safely and stopped in a short distance from my desk. I was overwhelmed by abilities and effort she had shown and I felt absolutely excited by her magnificent body and the way she moved around.
"Will you bring a chair for me and help me sit down?" she pleaded with a heart-melting voice. "I'm afraid I need a rest very soon, my arm and stump are shaking."
I jumped up and grabbed the nearest chair from the small, round meeting table. I positioned the chair behind Abiel, in a proper distance (I had done it many times before). Then I walked in front of her and wrapped my left arm around her waist for support. I could clearly feel the hard upper edge of the hip socket on her right side. I shivered from the contact with the prosthesis.
Then I took the stick from her and held it in my right hand. Abiel's only arm shot up and hooked around my neck rapidly as if it just could not wait to get rid of the stick. Still holding the stick in my hand I wrapped my arm around Abiel's upper back and pulled her tightly toward me.
The rigid artificial arm dug to my stomach hard as it got trapped between us and I got another shiver. Our bodies pressed together tightly, although it was mostly a matter of business as I needed to give her all the support when her leg prostheses would bend under her.
I lifted her up a bit to ease the pressure on the prosthetics and Abiel knowingly perked her pelvis backward and raised her stump up slightly. That released locks in her left leg prosthesis and I started to lower her down and backward onto the chair. I could feel her twist the sexy bottom of hers skillfully and then I heard the clicking sound of locks in her right leg prosthesis. The weird thing started to fold and bend under Abiel as a normal leg would do.
Finally, I carefully lowered Abiel onto the chair cushion and she let go off her arm from my neck and pushed on the armrest of the chair in a pitiful attempt to rise herself and adjust the position on the chair. Noticing that, I grabbed her under the real and artificial armpits and eased her a bit and shifted her bottom backward on the seat. Then I leaned the stick carefully on the armrest of the chair while she checked and adjusted the position of the artificial arm with her good hand.
I knelt down beside her and grabbed the only limb she possessed in my hands.