hello there, hi! please, come in, come in—thank you for stopping by, very good of you, and at such short notice! yes, yes, it is very serious and I will tell you straight away, but first you must sit down, here, just next to me, lovely. how good of you to come! yes, of course, of course, I’ll tell you:
      today I simply cannot be responsible for my legs—it is of no consequence why!—but if you would hold them, please, carefully (tomorrow I will be ready to be responsible for them again) and move them in their various ways, then I would be very grateful. now, if you grasp each foot like so, around the arch of my foot, yes, just like that, see? how willingly the whole leg follows the foot’s lead, bending and flexing so nicely! it will be very easy to take my legs on a walk down to the water or maybe (if we are up for it, the two of us) even to the horse pasture.
      —payment! no, no, let me be clear: you do not have to help—it is entirely up to you—and, of course, no hard feelings! but I do hope you are thinking about how important my legs are to me and what it means that I would entrust them to you? but are you considering that fully? mm. yes. —excuse me. this is not something I take lightly or do for amusement! this is—
      so you will do it? yes? really? thank you, thank you, I can’t say how grateful I am. It means very much to me that you would help and… —ah. I can already tell this is just what I need! sometimes, it is just too much: each morning to wake and to have all your limbs waiting, expectantly, for you, for you to take charge, to move them this way and that, and to do so enough that they are happily weary, but also carefully and deliberately, so they do not get pinched or scratched or sit too long on an uncomfortable bench! and if they get themselves—us!—into some sticky situation, well, they don’t deal with the whole mess, do they, no, no, no… of course, one can’t blame them; but, still, after some time, one yearns for a little space, a little time of one’s own. —wouldn’t you agree?
      oh. if only my whole body could be out of my jurisdiction, for even a single day. to have someone else manipulate my fingers and blink my eyelids and straighten my spine out of its habitual curve! —but don’t worry, even I would not ask you for that; we can only ask so much of those around us, at least, I have always thought so. but to cross and uncross my legs as I read and to stretch my toes briefly and infrequently—well, I would do the same for you, of course, if ever you needed.
      and the legs are enough, yes. already, I can feel the responsibility waning, draining out of me like water stubbornly from an ear. what lightness it leaves behind. yes, this is just what I needed. and tomorrow, when I take my legs back, I will be very grateful for them and they, well, they will be excited to have me back too, in their own way.
      but today—today I will think of nothing but my book, and what my arms and I would like to make for lunch, and then in the afternoon, with your assistance, the horse pasture! yes, that will be just the thing on a day like today. what lightness.