For my new friend Aaron

imagine a man with one leg. For years he has had one leg. the other, lost, is a stump ending just above the knee.

His surgeries went well and the stump is blunt. the bones have healed without sharp edges, and the tissues have toughened on the end through proper use of more and more advanced prosthetic devices.

this man's present prosthetic leg is a marvel. It cost his insurance company about 200 thousand dollars. No kidding. the previous one was only 75 thousand dollars.

It has a computer in it that adjusts the pressure of the hydraulics to the terrain and rhythm of his step, gauging speed and activit--a technological wonder and a godsend to him. The dude can play BASKETBALL!!! Incredible. his life since the accident has been rebuilt. he wouldn't have it any other way. His triumph over disability is admired by all, and his mobility is even more than many people with 2 legs.

until the unthinkable happens...

redness, swelling, irritation, chafing--the stump, once so well maintained and toughened, has become somehow deformed. It doesn't fit in the prosthesis like it used to. In fact, it has a bulge--a protrusion of some sort.

Over the next month he is horrified to lose the use of his prosthesis as the irritation proves too much. One morning he rolls out of bed, looks at the now useless prosthetic and turns to curse his irritated stump. To his horror, there at the end of the stump, clearly visible, yet unbelievable, HUMAN FOOT.

Crazy, yes. But there it is. Just the size of one of those rabbit feet that you get on a keychain, is a human foot. Miniature. Pink. Present.
You've got to be kidding me! How could this happen? is this like that lady on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? The one whose tumor was her twin? Gross!
over the next few days there isn't any discernable change. The doctor figures it's an anomaly. Some sort of cell thing, maybe, yet unheard of in medical history.

Photos are taken. Students are lectured. Tests scheduled and finished...

...and the foot is cut off.

After almost a year, the stump is back to normal. for a week.

this time, no redness, no swelling. Just boink! Boom! Wake up, and there's another "FOOTlet" on the stump. This one is just like the first, and it showed up Overnight! The guy literally throws up. He's heartsick. Do you know what it's like to get used to a prosthesis? the bone of the stump trying to punch its way out with every step? Now he has to do all that physical therapy again.

A year later... operations over... stump almost back to normal again, and Boom! another foot.

By now the insurance is up. He's had a reversal of fortune and he's down on his luck. All the sick time has left him out of the kind of cash it'd take, so he has to leave the thing alone. He's a telemarketer, scamming old ladys for their SS#s. And he uses a wheelchair, now.
He starts to drink. He quits starting and just keeps drinking. He hates the foot so much. it ruined his life... He doesn't think of it as three feet.

...this one is the third, you know.
what?
...the third one.
so what... i hate you. you're ruining my life...
...the third one's a charm.
some charm. my life's ruined. i hate you...
...why?
because you're ruining my life with this foot thing...
...i love you.
i don't wanna talk.

and he drinks and scams and sulks and drinks and scams and sulks and drinks and scams and sulks his way through another year... except that he gets really depressed and to make a long story short, he cuts the thing off one night while on a bender. it doesn't heal right, so the prosthesis won't fit. Life not repaired.

So things are bad that year and you know what? Boom. Foot again.

aaaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!!!
...what's that?
I HAAAAAAAAATE You!!!
...you who?
God, you know you're really killing me with this foot thing. It's not even a foot. It's just a... NUBB... With toes.
...would you give me a chance?
what?
...would
...you
...give
...me
...a
...chance?
to do what?
...to grow you a foot?

so duder gives up. now he's hearing voices. He grits his teeth, goes to work, keeps the deformity covered, and tries to make the best of it.
three more years pass and since he discovered that home amputation is the quick track to nowhere, he swears off the self mutilation.
New problem. His stump is now six inches longer and the foot is getting too big to hide. that's right. Longer and bigger.

he starts to get excited.
he's getting the idea.

sure enough, after two more years--there's a KNEE joint! And it's starting to work!

one more year and he can bend it really well, and he's buying size 5 shoes for the thing.
At this point it's a size 7.5, and only about 3 inches shorter than his other leg. He's going to church again, doesn't go on benders, and got a job in his field again.

He has a lot of back pain, and lost all that mobility, but at this rate, in a couple of years, he'll be playing basketball.
His vertical jump will be great without all that pride weighing him down.

there, Aaron. A rough draft.