Chapter 4

The owner knew me.

"Hey, Pammy. You headed out?"

"Yeah."

I nodded.

"I can't spend my whole life a cripple, or living off someone else."

"I have to stand on my own."

That night, Chester told me, brief and to the point.

"The team's leaving for Bayport in a couple days for a match."

"I set aside two cases of instant noodles for you. Be good, Pammy. I know it's rough for a few days."

"I'll make you something nice when I'm back."

I watched, quiet, as delight rose in Chester's eyes.

He'd been looking forward to this match for a long time.

Three years ago, Chester was the best player on the court.

If it weren't for me dragging him down.

He might have gone pro.

But now, because of me, all he could take were odd, day-to-day jobs.

"Okay, go."

"You're free, after all. You shouldn't be tied to me."

Chester's eyes went a little red.

He kissed me on the forehead.

"Wait for me. Be good."

The day he left.

I took the wheelchair out for the first time.

I tried to work out how to walk a stretch on my own, all the way to the station.

But on the way I ran into a fortune-teller.

He stroked his beard and looked at me with a sigh on his face.

"Young lady, you were born to great wealth and fortune."

"It's only because you took on someone else's karma that you've ended up like this."

"Do you want everything to go back to how it should be?"

The whole of me went still. I stayed silent a long while before I turned around.

"Sir, is there a way?"

I did what the fortune-teller said and went to the hospital to be fitted with a prosthetic leg.

Every few days I went in for rehab training.

The doctor looked at my condition and offered a gentle word of comfort.

"No need to rush. When a prosthetic's brand new, walking is slow at first. Take it a step at a time."

"Once you get used to it and recover, you'll be free of the wheelchair for good."

At the end, the doctor asked me, puzzled.

"It's been three years. Why didn't you think about a prosthetic from the start?"

I lowered my head.

Because there'd been no need.

Chester had said he'd stay by my side forever, that he'd be my legs.

So I let the one empty leg under my skirt just hang there.

But now, I didn't need anyone to be my legs.

A prosthetic was just fine too.

Chester had gone to Bayport for the team match. He wouldn't be back for two weeks.

He'd set aside two cases of instant noodles for me.

Thought I could hold out until then.

But I didn't want to live like this anymore.

Needing someone else just to survive, like a dodder vine clinging to another plant.

The day before I planned to leave, Catherine got hold of my phone number from somewhere.

She sent me one obscene, intimate photo after another.

And beneath them, message after message.

All of it a taunt.

"Pamela, to Chester you're nothing but a dead cripple."

"See that? On the days he's not with you, he's either on the court with me or in bed with me."

"At first I just wanted to have some fun with him."

"But now I think this man's actually pretty good."

"No one dares fight me for what I want."

"So, Pamela, do the smart thing and clear out on your own."

"Otherwise, you'll lose to me anyway."

I stared at the messages, quiet, and then I smiled.

"Fine. I'll give you what you want."

The next day I moved the prosthetic with effort, packed two simple changes of clothes.

I left the keys on the entryway shelf.

Then, one step at a time, I made my way downstairs.

"Driver, take me to the airport."

Just before leaving, something occurred to me and I opened my phone.

All those messages and photos Catherine had used to taunt me the day before.

I forwarded every last one of them to Chester.

The next second, my phone started buzzing like mad.