LOVE ON THE RUN - Sample Chapters

Chapter 16

Mason stared at the stump where his left arm used to be in the bathroom mirror. He still felt the arm, as alive and as attached as ever-it just wasn't there. Something about phantom pain, the doctor said. What he'd give for some real phantoms to do psychic surgery on his head right now. 

The doctors had commended Zinio for thinking fast enough to put the arm on ice. Wasn't his fault the only way out of that pickle was inside a tank with a mean temperature of a hundred and six. So much for the ice-and the arm. 

Marty walked in on him, fixated on the same reflection he was looking at. "You gonna stare at it until it grows back?" 

"That's the plan." 

"What about, 'The less of me there is in body, the more of me there is in spirit?'" 

"Got it off a fortune cookie." 

"Two billion Chinese can't be wrong." 

"They can certainly afford to be. In China, as in Japan, they have robotic maids. I need one of those to take care of Harper." 

"Trade me in on a robot? Nice guy." 

He finally looked away from the reflection of himself in the mirror and set eyes on Marty. "You know I will not stop until you're entirely miserable. The campaign will be relentless, and hard won, but I will achieve my goal. I'm not an ex-army grunt for nothing." 

"Ah, you're a lightweight. You should have met my real father. Now there was an asshole. He reached all shades of pitiful you haven't even contemplated yet." 

"Yeah, but he didn't have my stamina and determination." 

Marty leaned in to whisper, crooking his finger to get Mason to lean over. "I know you think you're really far behind Harper, and all, but trust me, you'll soon forget to feel sorry for yourself." 

"Your pep talk needs work, kid." 

"All I have to go on is Redbook magazines, cut me a break. If you'd like to take a twenty question survey to see if you're the man of Harper's dreams, I'm your guy." 

Mason returned his attention to the mirror. "Maybe I should just throw a towel over it." 

"Hey, you just lost your arm. They cut out my heart when they abandoned me with the rest of you. I didn't deserve that. I have-had my whole life ahead of me." 

"You ever stop to think that's why they left you? Maybe they figured you'd grow up a lot faster around us and be the kind of people they always wanted to be." 

"How do you figure?" 

"The secret to life, kid, is taking the lemons life gives you and making lemonade out of it. They could never do that. They have to make life larger than it is to stand it for five minutes. Maybe they didn't want you self-destructing like that." 

"So their leaving me with you was an act of selfless devotion and supreme love? God, and I thought I was good at spin control." 

Marty stomped out of the bathroom. Mason raised his voice after him. "Yeah, play dumb all you want. But we both know you figured this out already without me having to tell you." 

For a while, Mason went back to staring at the new him. Don't tell me you don't know when to do a strategic retreat, soldier. 

He went to open the cabinet the mirror was facing-with his invisible arm. Ending up cracking his spine instead with the torso twist. Good one. Looks like your rational mind isn't the only part of you trying to get used to things. He opened the cabinet-this time with his right arm.