Free Minds

Chapter 50.

   It took all the energy within me not to claw Rav's eyes out when I woke up the next morning.

   That and the feeling of forks being stabbed through my skull a thousand times per minute, of course.

   I was still pretty close to killing him though. Especially when he, who miraculously didn't seem to feel or look like hell, kept saying, "Damn..." —Not in a good way— and "I could have sworn we hydrated first!"

   If Talise, Camila and Dorian believed my appearance was similar to that of a washed up demon doll, they did a good job of masking it. Or maybe they didn't, who knows?

   I was more focused everywhere else but their glances anyway.

   My hazed out state didn't change the fact that there was still a leg brace to be built. Fortunately, before I could sneak into Cami's bathroom and have a psychotic break at the thought of doing everything by myself, Dorian suggested we all pitched in.

   That was the only good thing about this dumb hangover. And of course, also that my mind was a lost cause in the memory department. Aside from my recollection of Rav and I downing shot bottles and edibles like amateurs, the rest was a blur. At least I didn't have to relive that dreaded night.

   One thing I was certain about from all this, though, was that you'd have to kill me before I consumed alcohol and edibles purchased from the trunk of a shady motel staff member's car (Rav's confession this morning) again.

   Thank God for the painkillers Tali brought from Ridgeton at my request.

   Right after breakfast, we got to work in the basement. After Dorian and I worked on the sketches to put the kind of leg brace I envisioned to paper, we assigned everyone else a role.

   Tali and Cami were to focus on acquiring the right measurements for the brace. It involved measuring the various parts of Talise's lower limbs, particularly her leg and foot. This was going to be the basis of Dorian and I's construction.

   Rav, on the other hand, found the most qualified tutorial videos on the manufacture of leg braces. Since the videos were more than we anticipated, he began jotting down what he believed were key things to note.

   Dorian and I, while the rest carried on, tended to the machine parts we'd picked up at the junkyard and the tools Talise acquired from my home. Our main intent involved separating the tools and parts we actually needed for the brace from the others. By the time we finished, the measurements and notes were ready for us to begin.

   The next couple of hours were spent on the construction of the brace. After Dorian and I had marked and sawed the measured machine parts, hammered, sharpened, shaped, welded and glued, my vision was brought to life. It took the sudden awareness of people's presence in the room for me to stifle the tears that arose at the sight of the leg brace.

   The curved plastics that were to accommodate Tali's leg and feet were surrounded by a boot-shaped metal covering. The tiny spaces between the plastic and metal at the heel area was what was going to serve as the hideout of some of the cameras. The rest were going to be placed into one of the tubes we used to make the metal parts. There was a temporary covering at the bottom of the tube which could hold the cameras and be removed easily for the devices to fall out at the right time.

"Dorian," I turned to him beside me.

   He had the same look of awe while staring at the leg brace. I couldn't have any of this without him and he had to know that.

"Yeah?" he replied, shifting his eyes toward me.

"I just wanted to say good job," I gestured to the brace. "This wouldn't have been possible if you didn't help out. Thank you."