Hi! March 23, 1995

You’re not getting much new -- I’m just sending back your old with edits on the side.

Wall Club: I was just figuring on everybody hanging out a diffferent place normally -- rewrite the scene where 23 meets Michael for somewhere else, but leave the Wall Club as the nightclub and figure that Helding was just out of it when she took Helen there.

I was thinking Jacine’s leg in the picture was something like the invisible shield... :).

Coastal: Details mostly due to me trying to think of different ways to say they got romatic without being repetitive. It doesn’t really fit with the rest of the story though, and I think I’ll cut the majority of it out anyhow.

Jacine’s Boot: This is another one like her scars -- it keeps getting cycled. I originally just wanted a reason for Jacine to be in bare feet while sitting on the edge of the cliff! But it made sense to me considering other things I’d planned on the Sabatour doing, for the nerves on the leg to also get shattered. I think part of the confusion is because it’s unclear in any previous story exactly what the boot does for her stabilization. I never got around to explaining it in a letter, and it never fit in a story.

Boot Nutshell: Basically, the boot has a bunch of sensors on the inside, lining her leg, that record and feedback the movements she makes, and those are transmitted to mechanical servos that comprise the majority of the boot (it’s approx 2 centimeters thick), and the servos react to distribute her weight by pushing and pulling (compressing, expanding, stiffening, loosening) on various points on her leg. The outside is made of waterproof leather, with a section on the inside down the leg that is held together with straps, that, when undone, allow enough loosening of the boot for it to be pulled off. (Folded leather on that portion. Very secure ties/straps.) However, the boot is only an aid. Jacine has to be fairly careful when she’s wearing it because the mechanics can get overstressed. Mostly the boot works by throwing the majority of the effort of balance on the feet and the upper leg muscles. The nerve feedback is very important so that Jacine knows how she’s walking. The boot can’t make full adjustment by itself -- it can’t be that powerful being that small. That’s why she still limps even with the boot, and Jacine has to put a portion of her concentration just on walking. The boot can’t always interprete correctly for things like turns and sudden movements. When the upper leg muscles get tired, the boot can’t function as effectively and Jacine’s limp gets worse, and the best solution is to also use the cane, throwing the support up on the shoulder, arm, and side muscles, but still using the boot for adjustments on the rest of the weight. When she’s tired all-over, or concentrating hard on other things, Jacine has a hard time consciously adjusting her movements to consider the boot, so she disconnects the main servos and locks the boot straight around the knee (no bending), so that all the weight will be distributed on the upper leg muscles (and foot). This is not the perfered method of use, and actually isn’t very good for the small mechanics in the boot. It’s intended for short term use only, and if she’s going to be any longer, typically takes off the boot and switches to cruthes. Actually, to save wear-and-tear, if Jacine is going to be sitting for any real lenth of time (over 2-3 hours), she’ll take off the boot. In addition to the boot, she wears a leg-sheath that’s main purpose is to keep the sweat off the interior of the boot, and secondarily to help cushion her leg.

March 24, 1995

Back to Coastal Boot: First of all, without any sensations on the lower leg at all, it’s extremely hard for Jas to tell just where her leg is at any given time. Our nervous system is a highly interative series of relays and feedbacks allowing for automatic balance and adjustment. The loss of just feeling is sumountable by many people -- leprosy’s main effect is to kill sensory nerves, and people live just fine with it (nowadays). And just being without a lower leg is overcomible with artificial limbs, etc. But Jacine has a leg, just hardly any muscle. When she intially got out of the hospital, they tried several methods of physical therapy and varieties of gadgets, including just a simple brace that had the same effect as a locked boot. Nothing really worked very well, and Jacine perferred crutches to the brace. It’s a bit awkward moving around like that, and was more of a hazard at school (due to the reactions of the other kids). So, yes, she could wear a simple brace if the sensory nerves were all that was effected, but she doesn’t want to. Secondly, though, I never specified just the sensory nerves. Considering the experiments the Sabatour was doing on nerve regeneration, I don’t think he’d limit it to just the sensory nerves. Most likely, a lot of the motor nerves were also damanged and stressed. If the motor nerves are dead, then Jas can’t voluntarily move her lower leg at all, and therefore, the boot really wouldn’t work. The brace, as an outer artificial limb, might still be applicable, but again, Jacine just doesn’t like it. She doesn’t mind the crutches most of the time; it was just trying to manuever through sand that started her on that line of thought.

Coastal Times: I was trying more for a poetic rhythm and fowing descriptions, trying to capture the mood of when I sit and watch the waves, rather than any true details of the area and times. Actually, the feeling of being lost in the time, a certain timelessness, is part of the mood when I’m wandering the coast lines. But... Okay. Jacine was out there early. Either had a picnic lunch or skipped it. 23 comes to join her about 3pm, just before the tide was at its highest. He stays for about 2 hours, until about 5pm. Then he goes back to the bubble house and Jacine goes down to the beach. She gets there after the tide has started going out, but hasn’t been too far yet. She walks down the beach line for about an hour, hour and a half, and pokes around the tidepools not at the absolute low tide (which is actually not the best for tidepooling), but rather at the mid-tide point, which is when most of the pools are seeable and accessable, but the waters are still rolling over them and you can see the critters feeding, etc. (Absolute low tide, there’s not that much activity.) It was still fairly bright out, but the tidepools were at the base of another cliff, with lots of rocks, and the shadows can get a little tricky. She went back, taking a bit less time to get to where she started, say a half-hour to an hour. This is putting the sunset around 7 or 8 pm, which may actually be a bit early for late May. 23 had been in the bubble tent for all that time, some of it getting dinner ready, a lot of it talking with Chester and working on other stuff. He left just as the sunset started and got down to the beach in less than 10 minutes. Jacine was most of the way back, but still five minutes or so away when he saw her. The sunset lasted probably a half-hour total. Then they both went back to the bubble house. Chester greeted Jacine because he hadn’t seen or spoke with her since the morning. 23’d only been away for a short time. And the season is late May. I know humpbacks are around at that time -- I’ve seen them. But I don’t remember whether they’re coming or going then. Does that clear up the times?? :)