Topic: Twinkle, Twinkle

Lirssa Sarengrave

Date: 2010-08-04 13:21 EST
Twinkle, twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are...

It was quiet in her room. The mural on the walls shown in half shadows from the faint light of her window. The streetlamp below could not reach so far as that fourth floor with any real power. In days past, in the apartment across the way, she would have closed up the window, shuttering out that light. She couldn't bring herself to do that. Lirssa could not put herself in a dark windowless room.

The late hour did not mean she allowed herself to be sleepy. Her arms were tired. Her shoulders ached, but she had not spent nearly the amount of energy as she used to. And sleep was not a pleasant place to go. There had been a few nights early in her return when her mind had finally given in to slumber. She had been sure she had fallen asleep in her wheelchair, staring out the window, but whenever she woke, laughing through panicked breaths, she had been in bed. It must have been Papa who got her there. Maman likely could have, she was so very strong, but with Firefly to carry it made no sense for her to be lifting Lirssa, too. She never asked, but she always gave them both a smile in the morning.

In these later days, weeks of routine, Lirssa could now maneuver herself well enough to get to bed and, more importantly, toilet, by herself. That had been embarrassing. She tried not to think about it when her parents had to help her. She talked about anything else than what was going on. There were the exercises, too. She did not do much in those but chatter away. Little sprinkles of words constantly falling that helped her pretend this was an everyday normal thing to have her Maman or Papa work her legs and her feet, make them move. She chattered to keep her mind busy. If she stopped, if she thought about it like in the quiet of her room at night, then she could remember why her legs were immobile. It was especially difficult at night when the dark came and the nightmares. Like this night. The house had a syncopated rhythm to it, unexpected beats pulsing uncertainties. Papa was mostly quiet, as if he were still lost in that dream maze and not sure where to turn. Maman was steady as a rock. She kept going, kept trying, and drew in the strangeness of their lives to make it their own. It had been a long time, or felt that way, since she had a new driver. Between the two, the music had changed, taken up a yearning half beat, and it was beyond Lirssa just what to do but keep smiling and laughing and being glad she was alive while the sun shone.

Lirssa shook her head. She did not know why she was thinking about it. It was something to think about, she supposed. Something to keep her awake until she just could not stay awake any longer. Dante lay on her bed, or more the bottom bunk of the beds where she had taken to sleeping, and looked at her. What was he thinking" Was he trying to show her that the bed was an okay place to be? Was he confused like she was about what she would do or become if her legs never got better"

He whimpered, just one soft note and rolled to his back on the bed. Look, he seemed to say, it's comfortable. "Alright," Lirssa sighed and pulled on the wheels to back up to the bed, then turned one and the other to get the right angle so she could pull herself onto the bed. All she needed was to make sure her hip hit at just the right place, and then she could twist herself about and drag her legs up one at a time behind her.

She had, with a modicum of self praise, gotten very good at it. She also hated that she had gotten very good at it. The stars on her painted toes flashed in the sliver of lamplight. Stars. How can she be their star when she can't climb or dance or flip or tumble or " her hands hit the mattress " "Not anything.?

Dante huffed as he got off the bed and curled up on the floor near her bed and chair. Lirssa lay back, and drew the covers over her. Her fingers ran up and down the edge of the comforter the piano scales she practiced that day. It was one of the few ways to use up her energy, that and rolling herself all over the city. Her shoulders did not like that much for long. Her fingers stopped pattering and her hand closed about the milkglass charm hanging from her wrist; a gift from Mrs. Koy to urge healing. A faith she honored if she could not share. A light touch over the figurine, then Lirssa stretched one shoulder and then the other, feeling a yawn tug at her throat and crack open her jaws.

Needles. They were so small in the eyeless phantom's hands, showing bright lightning flashes beneath the single light in the dark room. Then they were huge when they pinned through her ankles and along her legs. She was like a bug on display at the museum, enormous swords digging past flesh and bone. She wanted to scream. She tried to tell the phantom to stop. The needles kept coming. Her throat was locked against any words. Her arms were pinned down. A needle-sword aimed for her head

She woke. Her throat felt red-raw as if she had been screaming, but as she looked around and saw where she was, she started to laugh. He did not get her. She was home. She laughed through moisture at the corners of her eyes and then looked to Dante, but the dog was not alone. Another figure stood there, a hand outstretched, no needles, no swords, just open and loving.

Lirssa Sarengrave

Date: 2010-08-07 10:32 EST
Lirssa lay on her back on the floor in the large living room. The entertainment set on the wall was playing one of the John Wayne movies Lirssa was currently addicted to watching while doing her exercises: Wings of Eagles. She did not watch directly, except that one moment with John Wayne lying there, unable to move. She looked at his eyes. She saw her own truth.

The day outside was another warm, sunshining, hustley-bustly day in Rhydin. Not yet time for lunch, but almost and that was when she particularly liked when Papa was able to sometimes take breaks to come and have lunch with them and help her with her exercises. Exercise of the moment, the bend and stretch to the ceiling. Each leg in its turn with ten repetitions of making it bend, then straightening it so her painted toenails pointed to the ceiling. She wore shorts so that it was also a good time to do a visual assessment of the skin to see if any damage had happened that she could not feel. Lirssa, of course, was trying not to giggle watching her leg move. "Does it feel like it is stretchin' at all, Papa?"

Ali was currently reduced to work behind the scenes; Lorelei had proven herself so capable in his absence that he was reluctant to disturb her. He finished paperwork of a morning, spent time with them at lunch and afternoons and evenings seemingly at random either at home or away. When he was present he was exquisitely careful with both of them, gentle, quiet, reserved.

So he was with Lirssa right then. He pushed her knee against her chest, long fingers dexterous and mindful as he positioned her leg. "A little more than last week, I think," he responded. His hands were visible, and his face as he looked down at her; everything else was cloaked and shrouded in another in an endless series of tunics and trousers that he wore these days. This set was in a midnight blue.

"That's good. I don't wanna loose my ability to get all pretzled up." Nodding and smiling, secretly just begging her toes to wiggle, do something. She smiles up at him. "Oh, and the yoga, too. Gotta be able to do that." Her fingers wiggle beside her body. "Betcha that helps you, doesn't it?" Though, to tell the truth, she didn't know how much yoga he'd been doing.

He confirmed it in his response. "I haven't gone back to it yet." He leaned a little weight into the leg. "Any trouble breathing?"

"Oh." It, like so many other changes around her, sent trickles of cold into her belly. She shook her head at his question. "Mm....nope." She watched the TV a moment, grasping courage in an ephemeral picture, and then looked back at her leg being worked and on to her Papa. "Papa, Miss Eva asked me about studies...umm...," a shrug, "that day you and Maman were out running errands." It was a question within the statement.

He worked her leg in silence. After a moment or two, she screwed up her courage and asked, "Well, seeing as I'm still learning and stuff from you and Maman, and books, and you both know killer lots, I was wondering...if maybe I could just study with you until I'm better" You always helped me on my Maths anyway." As if justifying her request with past facts.

He considered the logistics of it, as he sat back and uncurled her leg: toes to the ceiling, then the sole of her foot. Going to school would present a number of challenges, but she was losing time that they'd wanted her to have in that more formal setting. As he thought about his position on it, he asked, "Who are you spending time with, these days?"

She wasn't quite sure what he meant, but taking her best guess, she offered up, tallying on her fingers. "Trace, Jeb, stopping by some of the foster homes, haven't seen Nicholas." She glanced up at her Papa, suddenly self conscious that she mentioned it at all, and added in a hurry, "And people at the duels and inn and stuff. —Oh, and Val, too." The nod of sharp affirmation tapped her head against the blanket covered floor. "He works at Mister Johnny's shop."

"Just one of the boys," he murmured, and laid her leg out, to switch to the other.

She giggled. "Boys are more fun. Girls are all...whiny." Her nose crinkled. "Leastways the ones my age. Am I whiny and don't know it' I wouldn't think so or Jeb'd just tell me to stuff it." But it was obvious she needed confirmation from her Papa, who knows the ways of the world.

"I don't think you're whiny at all, no," he confirmed. "As for your studies...I would be happier talking to Fio about it before any decisions are made. What have you planned for tomorrow?" His eyes followed her leg as he rocked it up, too-thin fingers wrapped around her knee, poised on her calf.

It's the phantom memory, she's rather sure, that made her think she's feeling the warmth of her Papa's hand against her skin. As much as she's longed to feel the furnace of him, she's convinced her mind that she can, when she can't. She doesn't even bring it up, but there's a wistful smile at that memory, the first time she could hug him without being flung out of Place. "Breakfast, reading, piano, lunch, and...something and maybe to the inn at night. It's — my thing." Her hands went out to her side, little Egyptian tut move she had seen in flickers, or movies she supposed, and her hands flop to the floor again.

"What about you?" She lifted her head to look at him with a grin and wiggle of brows.

"I wondered whether you might care to take a side trip with me." He stretched her legs out and looked them over, pulling down a flap of blanket that had decided to ruck up and get in the way.

So excited her hands instantly went up in fists of victory. She was already celebrating. "Oh, where?"

"To do something I have not done in a very long time." He didn't see any scratches, discoloration or bruising. "I am rolling you over, now," he warned her. He always did, before he took her hip in hand and eased her onto her side, from there to her belly.

Hands down to aid in the rolling over. "Papa, you're teasing me. You know how curious I am. Are we going....umm..." And she giggled again as her thoughts flew off into dozens of possibilities. Hands folded beneath her chin, she beamed a starshine smile wondering what it was.

"Well, you may guess, or I can tell you." The skin on that side looked normal. He ran his hands down her leg, their heels together and putting just a bit of weight into it, fingers spread as he felt for lumps or bumps or any other anomalies.

"Oooh....we're going...driving?" Her first guess was a guess that received no time for confirmation as she guessed another, "Sailing?" Her mouth scrunched up in thought, while her foot gave the barest twitch. It's one of those twitches that a person well informed of the body would know was reflex. It was the instinctive impulse of a nerve bypassing communication with the brain and just reacting to a stimulus. Lirssa had no conception of that quiver.

Ali went absolutely still at that, staring down at the back of her ankle framed by his hands. "You are close," he said absently, and hit her Achilles tendon to try to provoke the ankle-jerk reflex again.

The communication was obviously ill informed. The foot quivered again. The pulse was weak but there. Something was trying to re-grow and learn its way again. "Oooh, close" Ohh...umm..." Her fingers now twisted together as she tried to think, "Sailing is close...close.." she stopped and whispered, "are we gonna fly?"

"Got it in one." He tested the other ankle.

It was not one, but her mind was leaping forward into the thrill of the idea. Her breathing barely worked and came out a gasp. "Oh, Papa, are we really?" She could not roll over, but she did look over her shoulder at him. She'd bypassed the starshine smile. Her entire face was aglow with the very idea.

The other ankle, however, was mute on the subject of reflexes.

Back to the right foot, where he rubbed his thumb along the sole of her foot, digging it in a little as he went from heel to toe looking for a plantar reflex. "I'd wanted to go to the Aerodome after lunch, yes. You're welcome to come along. Surely they have an old prop plane we can rent for an afternoon."

"Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh!" Her entire upper body wiggled with excitement, and she laid down, with her arms out to the side, making required plane noises like from the movie still playing. "Just wait until I tell all the boys that I went flyin —-"

The reflex sounds, pinged out its instruction and the toes started to fan out just slightly.

"Lirssa, be still." That came out a touch sharper than he'd intended.

Abashed, she instantly stilled and whispered, "Yessir, sorry."

"Rolling you back over." He suited action to words, straightening her legs out the instant she was on her back.

So her fingers were still wiggling, but that didn't keep her from being properly rolled onto her back again. "So, all clear in the southern peninsulas?" Indicated her legs with a nod. "I've been trying to be very careful so not to get all scratched up." But he did not answer and offered her a hand to sit up. Lirssa took it the hand and smiled at the warmth of it, sitting up properly. And once she was upright, Papa felt along the space below her kneecap until he was reasonably sure he'd found the tendon, then struck it with the side of his hand.

Lirssa blinked at that. She was still glowing, but now it's mixed with confusion. The leg remained still, only rocking from the motion of the strike. "Miss Eva add this to the exercises?"

"Dammit. No." He gave it another thwap, just to be sure.

The leg remained impassive. The reflex was not sending its signal, or if it did it was not making the full path. Lirssa wanted to ask more, but at the 'dammit' decided she'd just let him do what he needed to do. What she found curious was she's almost sure she felt the warmth of his hand touch the skin of her leg when he did that. It was so fast though, she just wasn't sure.

His fingers ran back down her leg to her ankle, twisting under it to trigger the Achilles tendon again. When the foot twitched, Lirssa felt her heart plummet to her stomach and snap back up into her throat. "It moved." She focused on her foot, trying to get it to do it again. "I saw it move." She near growled. At any other moment, it likely would have been comical to see her focusing so hard like she was constipated. "Move it." She snapped at her foot. With methodical serenity, he followed through with the plantar reflex, grasping her heel and moving his thumb heel-to-toes. Still, even when it didn't move at her command, but at his, her toes moving so slightly, she smiled and with hope renewed, like an oasis in a desert of only determination, she gleed at her Papa, "They moved. We're gonna do it. We're gonna get better, and" she dared to speak it, ?—I think I can feel the warmth, Papa." She could not feel the pressure, but the warmth, now — now she was certain. She felt it.

Ali cradled her foot in his big hands and looked up at her face. It was like stepping into sunlight, only without the overheating of concrete or stone. Just the joyful warmth around her foot, and she smiled wide and bright. The sunny day outside had nothing on her. She reached a hand out to him. "Thank you."

And he reached for that hand, and pulled her into his arms.

((Adapted from live play with many thanks to Ali al Amat's player))

Lirssa Sarengrave

Date: 2010-08-13 22:46 EST
The maternity swimsuit Fio'd had to purchase on the way to the 'pool' was just one more surreal thing in an utterly surreal twenty-four hours. It took her a good fifteen minutes in the dressing room to figure the thing out, and more than once, she called out over the stall door, "Are you sure I have to wear something for this?"

Lirssa sat in her wheelchair sporting the suit they had picked up for her. It had been — interesting, to put it mildly to get it on herself. "Yeah, that's what it said on the sign when I rolled by. Appropriate swimwear must be worn at all times." She plucked at the leaf print suit and it snapped back. "Next time we can go to the swimmin' hole and you can be stark naked iffin ya want. But this place, probably better for us. Listed momma and baby classes, too." Lirssa had done a lot of reading on the windows outside.

Fionna emerged reluctantly from behind the swinging door, garbed in a sapphire blue maternity suit - a tank - applying a little lipstick in a vivid shade of red called "Kiss My Assets" as she went. Her feet were bare; someone had helped her paint her toenails at some point. She'd braided her hair, for ease's sake. "I've never worn a swimsuit to swim in in all my life."

Big smile, knowing just how her Maman felt, she flashes two thumbs up. "But ya look killer, Maman. Shows all your baby makin' curves. I overheard one guy down at the Hook n Sinker a few years ago say that he likes the way a pregnant woman looks. Only, well, he was sorta yelk...but still..." Lirssa rolled after her. "I used to wear just my old motleys or clothes to swim." A shrug up of her shoulders, she watched Maman out of the corner of her eyes. Things were just a little sketchy since yesterday, and maybe she was talking too much. With that thought in mind, she pressed her lips together.

She looked like she had vying thoughts about how to respond to that. In the end, there was a decision: 'say nothing, but teach her how to castrate a man with her pinky nail later' appeared to be the sum of it, from her eyes. Instead, she smiled and gestured for the door leading to the pool. "Come on, guppy. Let's see if I still float."

"Yay!" Hands up in the air. She gave the enthusiasm a jolt to squash her own fears. Her heart was beating a bit faster. She knew her Maman could sense things like that. Deep breaths, thinking her heart into slowing down. She forced her breathing to match the pushes on the wheels. The excitement, the delight of something new. "We've never gone swimming before together. It's like — family stuff." A light laugh as she made it out to the pool and inhaled the strange pitched smell, like after a rain but sharper. "It's so blue!"

"We've done things together," it was almost a question. She thought, she was sure, there were so many memories with the girl, and the love was real. There had to be some common experiences supporting it all. "But yes, it is family stuff." The chlorine scent was strong in the humid air, and the room was very bright. "It's the tile - that color. It's pretty, isn't it?"

Lirssa nodded and ignored the looks she was getting. She was used to looks, and she pretended it was because of her hair or her suit or her eyes, not because of her pale skinny legs. Maman was getting a few looks too but more sympathetic ones. Could almost see some of the ladies thoughts "Poor woman. Has a cripple on her hands and going to have a wee one, too." Tsk, tsk went their small mind thoughts.

"I personally like the yoga in the mornings — well, and the ice cream out, too. And then there was my first ever real Yuletide." She listed them off more for herself. So many things they had done, happy things. There were many sad things, too, but she didn't need to remind either of them of that. It was around them too much. "And your birthday and seeing my first flicker show!" She set the brakes of her wheelchair near the pool.

Fionna didn't even notice anyone staring, or if she did, it didn't bother her at all. She chatted with her as they walked along the side of the pool, toward a cluster of empty lounges, and the shallower end of the water. "And books, and puzzles, and cooking. Piano. Painting." She plucked things at random from her head, like a magician pulling scarves out of thin air, and threw them out there. "Do you want to set up base here?" She pointed to a pair of chaise lounges with a small table between.

Lirssa turned to look over her shoulder and watch her Maman set up their spot. A big smile and a wiggle of brows. "Looks perfect."

She made a production of it, too, draping two towels over the chairs for them to sit on, and putting cold drinks out of her bag on the table. Other towels went on the foot of the chair she chose for herself, and the bag was stuffed underneath. Lirssa watched it all go out, what of the movements were Grace and what were Mirielle or Missie" They were all in there, a quintet learning to play together once more.

"So," she said, rising and looking around to catch a lifeguard gawking at her. She arched one of her perfectly groomed eyebrows at him, her hands on her hips. Then her eyes ticked back to Lirssa. "Looks like I am hot in this!" she winked. "Where should we ease in" Over there?"

She shrugged up her shoulders to her ears and then looked around to the lifeguard and back to her Maman and nodded. "Told ya!"

Looking around, she nodded to the place, undid the brakes and wheeled that way. "Looks like some steps nearby for ya." Reset the brakes again.

"Okay. Let me get in, and then I can help you, if you lean forward....sound good?"

Lirssa reached down to draw one foot off the wheelchair footrest and then the other. "Iffin you just hold up my feet so they don't go gettin all scratched up, I can get myself down there. Not much different from the lamp post tricks I used to do. That was all arm work, too. Only, here, well, can't keep my legs from folding up underneath me like." With both feet off and resting against the side of the pool, she waited for Maman before the next move.

Fionna moved around the corner to take the steps into the water, and waded over to where Lirssa had parked her chair. "I think I can manage that, petite. Here," she reached for her, clasping her feet carefully, and keeping them about six inches up from the cement.

A smile, "Thank you," she gripped the metal braces at the front of the wheelchair. Arm and back muscles working to lift her bottom up a little, and then she swung forward. Her legs were floppy nothings in the safety of Maman's hands. "Just a little bit down," doing just as she says, the arms controlling her body. By the time her bottom was on the edge of the pool, her legs likely in the water, her arms were behind her. She released and laughed. "Step one accomplished! Ooh, feels kinda cool, doesn't it?" And hands to the sides of the pool, she looked to Maman for confirmation. There were times she had discovered her legs told her falsely what was warm or cold, not often, but it happened.

"It is cool; it feels really good, in fact," she said, and then that sudden, penetrating look that popped up from time to time over the last two days. "How far up can you feel that?"

Lirssa thought about it, looked down at her legs. She reached down pressed her fingers along her legs from where the water reached almost up to her knees. Then she grinned. "The whole way, I think. I mean...feels like." She scooped up the water and trickled it over her knees and the smile went wide. "I feel it. And it is cool. It isn't wrong." This time, but she doesn't listen to that little voice grumping from a corner of her mind.

With hands to either side, Lirssa lifted her body up and then lowered herself into the water, her upper torso confirming what her legs had been telling her, though the sensation of the cool water did send a few goosebumps up and down her arms.

"That's good. That's really good!" The turquoise reflection of light off the water painted ripples on the ivory of her cheeks as she smiled. "Can you feel this?" She slipped her hand under the water to tickle behind Lirssa's knee. She was ticklish there, herself, so it was worth a try.

Lirssa peered at her knee, her arms treading water underneath her to prop up her upper body as she watched. "It feels warm." The smile big, her tongue sticking out a little between her teeth. "I can feel both now. Warm and cold. That can only be good. Right?"

"That is incredibly good, yes," she murmured. "It's amazing progress."

She reached to put an arm around Maman's shoulders. "How do you feel" Nice not weighin so much, huh' Does Firefly make ya feet hurt' Back hurt?" She listed off complaints she's heard other soon mother's make.

She slid an arm around Lirssa's back, and slid her other under her knees, floating out a little deeper with her. "Everything hurts, but don't tell Papa. It's all normal, I've done this before, but he would worry."

"I won't tell him. Long as you're sure it's normal. You talk to Miss Eva 'bout it, yeah' She'd not let anythin' happen." Spoken with absolute confidence, then a mouth twisting question. "You know Miss Eva, yeah' Dark hair, scar on her cheek?"

"Mm," she murmured, shifting her arm slightly until it was under Lirssa's thighs, rather than her knees. "I think so. The doctor?" She could see her, in her mind's eye, and had mixed thoughts. "I am sure I probably did."

"Yes'm. She doesn't practice regular like, but she takes care of our family. Might be, when ya get your whereabouts and such, we should go see her and all."

"The book," thinking back to what she'd read in the journal they all had been keeping, "has my appointment schedule in it. Between the three of us, she's spends more time at the Eye than she probably does at home. We can check the next time when we get home. It's no hurry."

She let her hands glide through the water, a big smile, her head leaning back and then bringing it up sharp, "I'm not troublin' ya with carryin' me, am I" I can float iffin you wanna float, too, or swim."

"If you'd like to float on your own, I can let you go. You sure?" A nod, and then another. "Yes'm. At least, I'm pretty sure. Guess we'll find out." A titter of laughter, she started to lay back and tightened her stomach a little to move into a prone position. As she moved, she puffed out a hurried breath, somewhat nervous but liking being a little daring with the safety of her Maman nearby. "If nothin' else, I can hang on to the side of the pool and float that way."

The aquamarine of the pool sparkled in the sunlight that slanted in from the skylights overhead. She turned her so she was parallel with the edge of the pool. "Put your hand on the edge there," nodding toward the white rim of concrete.

Water sunk into Lirssa's ears, and her nose crinkled up at the crackling sound. Lifting her head up, the water poured back out. She reached for the side of the pool, fingers curving over. It was a light tether. "Yeah, that's probably best. Good thinkin."

Some boys playing on the other side of the pool squealed, as one dove in and sent water flying everywhere. Fionna shot her head up, staring that way like a deer in the headlights for about 30 seconds. Then her shoulders relaxed, and she gave Lirssa a quick and embarrassed smile. "Okay. Here goes." And she eased her arms down and out from under her.

Lirssa smiled and nodded, her legs went down a little, but without the impulse of muscles floated as if, well, to put it bluntly, as if belonging to the body of the dead. But she kept afloat and her free hand went up to give a thumbs up, rocking her sideways a bit. "Is good, Maman! Try it!" The rolling waters of the playing boys rocked her a little as she floated and looked to Maman for her to join in or set to swimming.

She ducked down and tipped her head back to get her hair wet, then straightened and plowed her hand lightly across the surface of the water to splash Lirssa. "It IS good!" grinning and ducking under the surface. Now where did she go"

A sputtering, blinking laugh at the splash. Yet when the water was cleared of her eyes, Maman was not to be seen. A tilt, more treading of water with her free hand, she tried to spy out her moving form in the rolling waters of the active pool. Without realizing, her right foot twitched to assist in the turning. "Where are you?" Grinning at the impish nature of her Maman.

Got her! She reached up from beneath and tickled her ribs, then moved a few feet down near, well, her feet, and tickled her left heel, then her right.

"Omigosh!" She gasped and her body collapsed briefly in a fit of giggles, fingers gripping at the side of the pool to keep her head above water as she laughed. When the tickles moved to her feet, she felt the warmth of her Maman's hands and the reflexive sensation to get away from the tickles twitched her feet again. "Maman! I'm gonna get you back for that one of these days." A teasing threat flashed in bright green eyes. "One of these days....what?s that feel like, Maman' Knowing that...that you're gonna know without the book?" She mused softly to herself.

Lirssa Sarengrave

Date: 2010-08-13 22:51 EST
Fionna burst from the water at her daughter's feet, shaking her head and blinking the chlorinated water out of her eyes. "Lirssa" Can you hoist yourself up on the edge if I help" Just for a minute?"

"Yes'm." Puzzled at the question, but she reached with her other hand to obey. "Just need a boost to my legs, probably easiest behind the knees, I reckon." And with her elbows cocked behind her, she lifted herself up to sit on the edge.

She took her knees, and when Lirssa pulled up, she lifted. The, she rotated her so she was sitting along the length of the edge. "Turn just a bit so we can stretch your legs out."

"Yes'm. Um...what?re we doin'?" Lirssa asked as she glanced about the pool. Most of the people had long since taken the two of them into the myriad of their aquatic society. Some of the boys made weird faces, but...well, they were boys. She rolled her eyes at them and looked back to her Maman.

She was still in the water, and splashed through it as she walked a few steps down toward her feet. I thought I saw something, but I'm not sure it wasn't my eyes in the water. Can you feel my hands?" She touched the top of her calves with both hands, watching Lirssa's feet.

A twist of a curious frown, she watched her Maman's hands. "Yes'm. Well, feel the warm of 'em. Like...like sunlight on 'em."

"Keep telling me what you feel." She moved her hands down her legs slowly, encircling them with her fingers and thumbs.

Lirssa nodded, murmuring "same" as the motion went and then, she nearly barked when Maman's hands hit just above the ankle. "I feel that!" The emphasis on feel impressing with more than just a warm sensation but the true depth of it. Lirssa focused on the sensation, eyes narrowing and her left foot gave a wobble. It was little more than a fumbling step, like how one moves after their foot has gone numb for a long time. She blinked at her Maman.

She skimmed the tip of her fingernail along her ankle this time. "And that?"

As if she were tickled, the nerves in her ankle told her to foot to twist sideways. "Yes'm. I felt it. And I felt that move. It wasn't just..." She did not exactly know how to describe what it wasn't just doing, but her fingers were wiggling so fast, the surrogates for her feet that used to shake with the energy.

The energy and excitement rolled off of Lirssa in waves. Fionna tried not to let it affect the way she was interpreting what she was seeing. All the same, it was welling up in her like a bubble, rising and lightening. "Can you try to move it yourself?"

Lirssa chewed on the inside corner of her mouth. "I'll try." And it was apparent in the way she frowned and stared at her foot that was she trying. A similar look likely to be on Fio's face in a month or so's time. The bit of her mouth released, the teeth began to grind together and just as she was turning a bit too red for sense, the foot shook a half inch one side then the other. Lirssa let out a breath and flopped her hands against the cement. "That's not what I told you to do." Evidently, she had been expecting perfection.

She squeaked, covering her mouth with both hands, her eyes bright on the girl.

It was not until she realized her Maman's squeak and reaction that she had, in fact, moved her foot. Sure, it didn't do what she wanted, but it had moved. "We did it! We did it!"

She peeked at her, eyes smiling above the tips of her fingers. "You did - oh, Lirssa! It's so wonderful. This is such a good sign." she dropped her hands to balance herself against the side of the pool. "Such a good sign."

A big sigh, the breath out, she rolls back to lay on the edge of the pool smiling at her Maman. "See, all that work you and Papa've been doin" It's helpin." A beat, a big smile, "I'm so glad you're here, Maman." It wasn't just the here of geography. The here was a lot more. "Are you gonna miss them?" She was afraid to speak her own feelings on that without knowing hers"

Fionna's smile softened a bit, and she studied her for a long moment before reaching for her hand and clasping it between both of hers. "There isn't really any them and me. There never was. They were me, you understand" And I am them. No one's gone away, not really."

Her upper body twisted so she was more on her side, and her other hand covered the outside of her encompassing hands. Lirssa smiled and nodded. "I'm glad. So you gonna wear red rain boots sometimes?"

Her eyes lit up, and she may have been serious or teasing. "Do I have red rain boots?"

A little giggle and Lirssa's free hand dipped to splash a little back. There's that revenge splash she talked about.

Fionna sputtered and let go of her so she could scoop handful after handful of water up out of the pool and onto her, laughing.

"Omigosh!" It was on now. Lirssa had as much of both of her hands in the water as she could to fling the water up at her Maman. "Next time we come," sputtering, hack, cough, laugh, "I'm gonna jump in and really splash ya!" Sputtering squeal and roll into the water. Acrobatic reflexes had her grabbing the side of the pool to keep up.

The squeals from both of them along with the water flying out of the pool to wet the pavement was enough to bring the long arm of the law down on them - or more precisely, the whistle of the lifeguard, a teenage boy who started shouting something about shenanigans.

At the whistle, Lirssa's shoulders drew straight up to her ears and she gave her Maman a wide-eyed "uh-oh" look and then whispered, "You started it." A titter of laughter on the tail end of the false complaint.

Both brows shot up and she clasped her hands over her heart, letting her mouth drop open in a perfect display of incredulity. "Me" Me?""

"I don't care who started it! You're both out for fifteen minutes!" the kid lifeguard wagged a finger at them.

"Oh brother," she muttered through her grin, sharing a look with Lirssa that said, 'Is he for real"' without words.

Gaping at the charge and the penalty. She then huffed and gave her Maman a mouth twisted grump look that said 'guess so.' She reached for the edge, cocked elbows once more to lift herself out. The lifeguard got a "Cranky pants." softly cast his way.

"Pfft," she huffed at him under her breath. When Lirssa was out, she waded over to the steps and carefully climbed out herself. Soaked and wobbly, she padded over to girl and chair. En route, she also gave one smirking woman a cool and quelling stare.

"Shall we wait and get back in, or do you want to get dressed and go tell Papa the news?"

With the chair nearby, she reached back, same sort of trick, to pull herself up into the chair, dragging her legs up with her. "I think," she grinned with the idea, "we should go tell Papa. And get ice cream."

Fionna definitely noticed the difference in and out of the water. She'd forgotten what it was like not to feel so forward-heavy and ungainly. At least in her own perception. "I feel like a walrus," she muttered to herself. All that was missing was the mustache.

"Let me grab our things, then," she said, dredging up another smile (truthfully not that hard).

"You look beautiful, Maman. If a little drippy." A little laugh, she rolled to the chairs where their towels were and took up one and started drying off what she could while Maman got their stuff, putting a few of the items in the wheelchair pockets.

Fionna got everything packed up, save a second towel which she used to swipe herself down with as they headed back to the dressing room. The bag hung off of the back of the chair. "I'm hungry....are you hungry' What should we get besides ice cream?" The swinging door of the locker room cut off the answer from anyone around the pool who might be wondering what they were having for supper.

((Adapted from live play with many thanks to the player of Fio Helston))