Machine Man (serial)

I felt very excited after Lola Banks left the lab. She was the first person I’d shown my prototype leg, and her reaction exceeded all my hopes. To be honest, I had been bracing myself for her to be grossed-out. And maybe most people would have been—would still be. But not Lola. She had knelt beside the leg. She had touched it. Gently. Almost affectionately. I thought about that for a long time.

It was getting late. My lab assistants had left a long time ago. I was probably the last person down here. But I didn’t feel tired. I looked down at my leg, the good one. Well. “Good” was the wrong word. I mean the one I’d had since birth. I rolled up my pants and turned it this way and that. It looked fat, and weak, and ordinary. The more I looked at it, the more it bugged me.

18.