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The Guy and the Missing Leg

by Melissa Llanes Brownlee

e lost it in a motorcycle accident. One of those unexpected moments, cruising along the highway, the sun searing the lava fields around him, tourists, their convertible top down, swerving into him as they rubbernecked their way to their hotel from the airport.


He said he didn’t miss it, laughing at the bouncer who yelled at him for parking his Camaro in the handicap spot, waving his prosthetic around like a maniac, hopping towards the shocked and apologetic man, screaming is this proof enough for you.


I would kiss the scars, lick the lines of drawn together flesh, massage the remains, his moans of lower, lower, my hands skimming ghostly skin, ghostly calf, ghostly ankle, tickling each missing toe, sending each one home.

H

Author's Note

I got my motorcycle license this past summer as well as my first motorcycle for my birthday in October, and the irony is not lost on me that I have this story about a guy who lost his limb in a motorcycle accident. I wrote this before I ever considered getting a bike of my own and sometimes the idea of what would happen “if” pops into my head as I ride.

Melissa Llanes Brownlee (she/her), a native Hawaiian writer living in Japan, has work published and forthcoming in Quarterly West, Wigleaf, The Threepenny Review and Cutleaf Journal, and honored in Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and Wigleaf Top 50. Read Hard Skin (2022) and Kahi and Lua (2022) and look out for Bitter over Sweet (2025) from Santa Fe Writers Project. She tweets @lumchanmfa and talks story at melissallanesbrownlee.com.

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