The Story of Michael Lintz

By Wilson Devereau

At 24 Michael Lintz had accumulated more erotic and traumatic experiences than most men at any age. Although to meet him, you'd never suspect that he knew anything beyond the usual shallow self-indulgences of the average callow young man in his mid-twenties.

To know Michael well, however, is to know--even in brief--his family history and his own special niche in that history, for Michael's extraordinary life can be said to have begun with his one-legged great grandfather, a man named Johan.

Born on a farm near Delmenhorst, a few kilometers from Bremen in the northwest Germany of 1895, Johan Lintzegge at age five suffered the loss of his right leg due to an accident with an axe, an accident that was never clearly explained by Adolph Lintzegge, Johan's farmer father. His leg missing from mid-thigh on, suffice it to say that tough young Johan survived without medical help and succeeded in becoming, according to his father, a "totally worthless cripple."

Adolph was very old country and very old-fashioned, and in 1895 primogeniture was still very "in" and, since Johan was Adolph's and Maria Louisa Mathilda's first-born, Johan was the inheritor. But now he was a useless cripple and the farm would have to go, somehow, to the second son, Andreas. But how? The only way the law would allow Andreas to inherit was for son Johan to be out of the way. Dead. Or gone.

When it was absolutely certain that Johan was going to survive, Adolph had decided that Johan would emigrate to America, since it was being done by other German useless every day. So Adolph began saving for that one-way ticket he would supply Johan when that one-legged embarrassment reached eighteen. As he should have expected, there were unexpected developments along the way, such as the fact that young Johan had fallen in love with a pale tiny little wisp of a girl named Elisabet, who was neighbor Jakob's sixth of seven daughters and whom, it so happened, Jakob was delighted to unload at a discount for ten taler. Getting rid of Johan cost papa Adolph one hundred thirty taler, counting the ten for the purchase of Elisabet. Fifty he generously gave Johan for pocket money and seventy went for the two one-way tickets. Expensive, but worth it.

In 1913 at eighteen Johan wed sixteen-year-old, five-foot tall, ninety-pound Elisabet who was terrified of the monster with one leg. Tickets in hand they were shoved off to Bremen right after the wedding, one valise between them, Elisabet's other dress and petticoat rolled into a bundle she carried with her. They celebrated their wedding night in a hostile hostel on the Bremen waterfront where they were made fun of because of Johan's one-leggedness as well as their evident rusticity.

The erotic ritual of the wedding night proved to be Elisabet's greatest moment in life. Cowering in terror before the beast and monster she believed this man to be, she discovered that Johan was the most tender and most considerate of lovers and Elisabet had never before had such beautiful things said to her, and no one had ever touched her so gently and lovingly, and she recapitulated and made Johan feel like he'd come to heaven; and it was this night that both discovered the erotic power of the missing limb's scarred fleshy residue. What was called in German Stumpf became the center of Eros's universe.

They sailed the next day for America and disappeared from the lives of Adolph and Jakob forever. Johan knew full well why he was bundled off to America with fifty taler in his pocket. At least they had given him an education and he could read and write and he had learned, far better than anyone would have dreamed possible for a cripple, how to farm and how to plant by the season and the moon, and how to husband his resources. Johan was far brighter than they realized because, since cripples are to be ignored and shoved to one side or used until they dropped in exhaustion, they never explored the real Johan.

The crossing was a nightmare of seasickness for Elisabet and she lay in Johan's arms most of the time, her body tortured with being off-balance and her stomach screwed tightly shut. Johan was afraid she'd die of starvation, and indeed at Ellis Island some of his fellow passengers helped him carry her for she was so weak with exhaustion and hunger that she could no longer stand.

He had kept some dry biscuits to give her once they got to land, and these she ate and drank a little water and seemed to recover somewhat. Then they sat at a desk talking to a man who didn't understand what they said. Finally another man, his back turned to them at another desk, yelled something and they were shooed off to the other desk.

This second man spoke German but was most unpleasant when he saw that Johan was a worthless cripple and, pointing at the missing leg, made loud remarks to his neighbor fellow officials which they laughed at. Johan could not understand the language but he understood the intent.

Finally with a satanic gleam in his eye, the official explained that he was also an agent, and as an agent he was looking for a young couple to send to a place called Dakota where a man named Gutterman would give them a home, a job on his farm and so on, did they like that? Johan knew then that he had come to the right place. Here in America it didn't matter that he was a cripple, America was the land of opportunity for everyone, even if they did put his name down as Lintz instead of Lintzegge.

Of course the agent didn't tell them that a one-legged man was not at all what was wanted, but he congratulated himself for getting rid of them and not adding another beggar to the streets of New York. He knew Gutterman would explode with rage at his money being wasted this way, for it was he who had already paid the train fare out there, but Gutterman could do nothing about it and that was that. So Johan and his ailing bride were sent off to the railroad station. On the way Johan had found a nice official who had changed his money to American money, and kept half of it for himself, lying to Johan about the exchange rate. Johan was, of course, grateful.

The train trip took several days, much of that time being spent waiting for the next train in large dirty stations. When the train finally pulled into the little town in North Dakota where Johan and Elisabet were to stay, they got off apprehensively for here they would meet the man who was hiring them.

Gutterman was waiting. As the short, stocky one-legged youth and his puny woman were the only ones to get off, he wondered what could have happened to the couple he had expected from the agent's telegram.

He sat high in his wagon behind a team of horses, whip in hand and shouted out in German to the cripple if they knew a couple named Lintz. Johan looked at Elisabet and they both started walking to the wagon. Standing just below the towering Gutterman on his wagon seat perch, Johan announced that he was Johan Lintzegge and this was his wife Elisabet.

The response was completely unexpected. Gutterman, who was a very large man, flew into a rage of catastrophic proportions and, shouting German obscenities mixed with American ones, he took the butt end of his whip and, from his perch up on the wagon, started beating Johan in the neck, head and face until Johan dropped to the ground while Elisabet screamed and screamed and the station master looked on blandly and went back to his task. The beating was also witnessed by another man who was not far away in his buggy. When he saw Johan drop to the ground, he told his horse to get over there, arriving just as Gutterman was pulling away in his wagon.

The man climbed down from the buggy and went to the fallen Johan, Elisabet cradling his head in her arms and weeping hysterically. He spoke several times and finally gently touched Elisabet's shoulder which caused her to look up.

Edgar Brownlee smiled at her and Johan opened his eyes. Edgar noted that Johan's face was welted with red where he had been struck but apparently his eyes were not injured and his mouth was not bleeding, so he was all right. Brownlee assumed correctly that they knew no English and since he knew no German, he could only guess at what happened, for he knew about agents in New York distributing cheap labor to the hinterland, and he concluded that Gutterman was infuriated at being sent a man with but one leg.

Edgar Brownlee and Rebecca, his wife, were strange people: They cared about members of the human race, specially those who were not as fortunate as others. Edgar asked them to get in his buggy, which they did, Elisabet sitting on the narrow back of it hugging the valise to her and her own bundle in her hand. Brownlee could guess from their odor that they hadn't bathed in a matter of weeks and that the clothes had not been off them during that time. He didn't try to use pantomime, but spoke his own language and knew that in time they would learn it. Patience was all that was needed.

What Edgar intended to do with them was clear to him and he knew it would be fine with Rebecca. They had homesteaded their farm, had lived in a tent their first summer last year while they built their two-room house and a kind of barn for the horse and other animals when and if they could ever afford to buy some. It was back-breaking hard labor, but Ed and Beckie both thrived on it and now the good Lord had delivered help in the form of a young German couple, their arrival paid for by neighbor Gutterman. He talked in a steady stream to Johan, knowing full well that Johan understood not a word, but he knew that the drift of it would carry through. Anyway, they were going to have to learn English so there was no time like the present.

Edgar also had an idea beyond the good Lord's. What if he took Johan to the land office here in town and set them up to homestead? The land next to their small holdings was available and while it wasn't the best land in the USA, it was arable.

The buggy with its occupants was heading out of town when Edgar turned back, an action which put a large question mark on Johan's aching, welted face in addition to genuine fright. This man had changed his mind and they would be left at the station, alone in the world. But the buggy went into the town, in all its primitive 1913 glory, not back to the station. Then it stopped at a small building and Edgar got down and motioned to Johan to do likewise. Johan grabbed his crutches and obeyed.

Following Edgar into the building, he was racked with curiosity. Edgar smiled and spoke to a man at a big table and they discussed things for a long time, motioning to Johan so much that Johan knew they were talking about him. True. Edgar told the story of what had just happened and was finding out how Johan and Elisabet could get land and homestead their own place.

Well, it seemed that there was nothing against it, but did Johan want this? The homestead agent pursued his negative thoughts overwhelmingly. Did Johan even know about homesteading and that sort of thing? And anyway he only had one leg and a cripple couldn't homestead a flea and it was piddlin' piss of an idea but, the agent then smiled and admitted, it was a good one. It would help his poor record of unloading land in an inaccessible part of the USA although he didn't let Edgar in on this.

The only snag was Johan's ignorance of the language and his lack of funds to get started. Edgar made it clear that he would help and that Johan could pay him back in labor. The agent said he would set the wheels in motion, and Edgar turned to Johan and said, with a beaming happy face, "Would you like to own your own farm?" To the happy face, Johan instinctively happily responded "Ja wohl!"

"You see?" Edgar said to the agent triumphantly.

"I'll put it in the works!" the agent answered.

Edgar turned to Johan, held out his hand which Johan took, and as they shook hands, Edgar said, "Congratulations, Johan, you just became a landowner!" Turning to the agent, Edgar added: "And make sure it's the land adjoining mine."

The agent laughed and said it was as good as done, even if it would take several weeks.

Edgar turned to the eighteen-year-old lad on one leg, put his arm around the young shoulders and together they thumped out back to the buggy. Elisabet saw the look on Edgar's face and knew that something good had happened and she looked at Johan's face to read what it was, but Johan was only smiling, with nothing else written there. And once more they set out for the Brownlee homestead.

It was over ten miles away and it took the horse better than an hour because the load was so great. When they arrived, Rebecca was outside bringing in the wash off the line and then she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that that soft-hearted husband of hers had brought home guests. And she guessed correctly that they were from Germany because of the way Johan was built: short and stocky; and because Elisabet had tied a kerchief over her head.

She came to the buggy. "Well, Ed, I see you went and done something out of the goodness of your heart, but did you do the shopping I asked you to do?"

"It's under the seat." Then he turned to the young couple and said, "Get down and meet my wife." They sat there until he gestured. "Beckie, this in a couple I found at the railroad station." Then he explained how Gutterman tried to kill the boy and how the girl screamed and cried. "I figure Gutterman was madder'n hell 'cause the boy's one-legged. Hell! That ain't his fault. I bet he's just as good at doing chores as anyone on two legs."

"And mebbe a lot better," Beckie said with a grin. To which Ed replied: "Woman!" It was supposed to be a threat, but it sounded more like he said "I love you."

"I can git a whiff of 'em clean over here, Ed," Beckie said. "No time like the present. What's their names?"

"Damned if I know," Ed said. Turning to Johan, he said, "My names Edgar Brownlee and this here is my wife Rebecca. Call me Ed. What's your name?"

Of course there was no answer, so Ed patted Rebecca on the back and said, "Rebecca." And she patted Ed on the back and said, "Edgar."

There was still no trace of understanding, so Ed pointed to himself and said, "Edgar." Then he pointed at Johan.

Suddenly Johan caught on and said, pointing to himself, "Johan. Johan Lintzegge." and he got out a paper from his coat pocket and gave it to Edgar, who read the name at the top.

"Johan Lintz. It doesn't say Lintzegge. So I'll call you Lintz."

But Johan said Nein several times and then looked at the paper and protested in German. But Ed held up his hand. Pointing to the paper, he said, "You're gonna become a landowner and a farmer and the papers'll be easier to get done if you use only Lintz." Then with emphasis, he jabbed a finger into Johan's chest and said "Mister Lintz." Then he said pointing to Elisabet, "Mrs. Lintz." To which Elisabet responded, "Elisabet!"

"All right, Elisabet," Beckie said, "you come with me and bring your bundle because you're gonna take a bath and whew! you sure need it." She took Elisabet's arm gently and headed for the house.

Inside she took Elisabet to a small room off the kitchen and showed her the wash tub and the soap and did pantomime of washing under her arms. Then she took a kettle from the range and pretending to touch it pulled her hand back and said "HOT!" Elisabet laughed with glee and did the same and said "HEISS!" Then they both laughed and Beckie pointed to the tub and to the large bucket of cold water and said, "Get yourself clean!"

With Rebecca gone, Elisabet settled down to a bath.

Outside, Ed had taken Johan for a tour of the barn. In the barn he and Beckie had boarded in a corner so it was a room and had started to make it liveable because they thought they'd try to talk her kid brother into coming for the summer to work for them, but that wouldn't be necessary now. Meanwhile Johan and Elisabet would have a place to live in while the homestead went through. There was a bed with fresh straw and a blanket and Johan smiled.

Edgar was describing everything in English and now and then Johan would imitate a word or two and Ed would repeat them. They drifted back to the house in time to see a shiny scrubbed Rebecca emerge with her other dress on.

Johan shouted and hopped over to her using the crutches only to connect hops, but she pushed him aside and said something which made him laugh and turn bright red. Then he looked at Ed.

Ed laughed and said to Rebecca who had followed Elisabet out of the house. "I hope there's more hot water. Johan is as smelly as an old goat."

"Don't worry, Ed, I put another kettle on. Johan!" He turned to Rebecca. "Come with me and take your bath." She motioned to him and he followed her into the house. Beckie went through the same procedure as before, and withdrew.

Then she took Elisabet into the kitchen. "Can you cook?" She pointed at the stove, at her mouth and pretended to chew. Elisabet caught on and nodded vigorously. "Strudel, Pfannkuchen, Sauerbraten, .." and then she rattled off a stream of German obviously having to do with cooking.

Two months later they knew quite a bit of English and were very excited about getting land, and the day that they learned they had become homesteaders, Johan and Elisabet hugged each other and wept. And Ed and Beckie let a tear fall in sympathy. They had grown very fond of the young couple and could see what truly great people they were.

Things worked out very well. Elisabet had six children, three of whom survived to adulthood. The oldest boy, born in 1919, was August, the fourth of the six. When he was twenty he married Sarah Brownlee with whom he had virtually grown up. They got land which Johan had pried out of a homesteader who was failing, and it was contiguous land. August and Sarah and neighbors built their house in 1939. It was a modern bungalow!

Two years later in 1941 their first was born and they named him Eigert. Meanwhile another war came along to embarrass Johan and Elisabet with being German, but no one cared. They were complete Americans by now.

Eigert Lintz also married at age twenty in 1961, and his wife. Mildred, was a cousin of the Brownlee family. Having nowhere else to live, they moved in with grandpa Johan and grandma Elisabet and their first was born in 1963, Thomas by name. Shortly after Thomas's birth, Eigert's father, August, was killed in an auto accident and Sarah went to live with Rebecca and Edgar, leaving an empty house. So Eigert and Mildred moved in. Son Joseph arrived in 1965 to keep Thomas company and three years after that, Michael was born.

Michael was not at first aware of the fact that he was born into a sort of dynasty, headed by the founder, one-legged Johan. But by 1971, when Michael was three years old, Elizabet folded her tent after six childbirths and years and years of hard farm labor and withdrew to life elsewhere. This left Johan alone in his house, but Mildred had the perfect solution to that. The house was across the road and about a city block to the south, and so Mildred moved all three boys into the house where each could have his own bedroom and built-in baby-sitter great grandpa would never get lonely.

The "own bedroom" idea appealed enormously at first, but soon it palled and Tom and Joe went back to sharing a room with Michael butting in and sleeping on a cot. Michael, at age three, had his reasons: he liked to watch his two brothers when they got undressed.

One day when he was three, Michael was toddling about the living room when he caught sight of great grandpa sitting and reading. The stump had always fascinated little Michael as did the one-leggedness, and here was "him" with that "thing" there instead of a leg, and he could look at it up close.

He went over to the chair and grandpa put the paper down and watched little Michael. Michael stood leaning against the seat of the chair staring at the uneven form of the stump as it showed through the trouser leg. Then he reached out and touched it. The touch went home to Johan and reminded him with great clarity of Elisabet's touch. Michael didn't stop but liked the way it felt and both hands started touching and squeezing lightly.

The average man dresses to the left, but Johan dressed to the right--that is, his genitals had lain alongside his stump for all these many years and today was no exception. And all these years the touch of a hand on that stump had only one result and, again, today was no exception.

Great grandpa Johan watched as his thick penis grew to its full heaviness and full length and wondered how to stop the child, but decided not to do anything. The kid wouldn't know and certainly wouldn't do anything, so it was best to ignore it and say nothing. But three-year-old Michael found a new lump to touch, the extra bulge running the length of the stump and he began to compare the way it felt and the way the stump felt because they had such different textures. The long lump was hard as rock and the other big lump under the hard one was soft. Michael was fascinated by the difference and continued to play with both, one under each hand.

The outcome was inevitable. It had been weeks since his late wife had done the exact same thing, and it felt so good that Johan couldn't help himself--and Michael watched and felt with his hands--as there came a pulsing and twitching and swelling and then a large wet place appeared on the trouser leg and spread with each pulsation. Michael noticed it and touched it and then took his hands away and backed off.

"Whassat?" he asked.

"I gotta go to the toilet," grampa answered as he reached down to the floor for his crutches. He rose and thumped away to the bathroom. Michael didn't think anything more about the incident other than his memory recording the two textures of the two lumps.

By the time Michael was four, he had explored grampa's stumps many times, and some of those times grampa had to go to the toilet. The night following one of those explorations, Michael went to grampa's room after everyone had gone to bed and asked grampa if he could sleep there. Grampa had just put on his old-fashioned nightshirt and didn't think it was a good idea, but said yes anyway.

Twice that night grampa had to get up to pee, but little Michael didn't awaken. The next morning little Michael, who always slept in the raw, woke up and showed grampa what he had down there and grampa looked with curiosity. Michael at age four had big balls and a cock that looked like it belonged on a sixteen-year-old. Grampa was impressed but said nothing except "get dressed now."

All day great grandpa thought about the extraordinarily endowed youngster, and how, even at four, he had the stocky Lintz body, his calves already bulging and his thighs beginning to be massive. And the penis was definitely a Lintz. He even considered telling his grandson, the boy's father, Eigert about it, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to do it because he might have to divulge what the boy had been doing to him all this past year. True, the boy hadn't been asked or told to do it, on the contrary, the lad had discovered it for himself, but grampa had allowed it. That's what Eigert would not understand. After all, Eigert still had a wife who could take care of that sort of thing and he didn't have Elisabet any longer.

Michael didn't make it a practice to sleep with grampa, so the times he did get in bed with him were at random intervals. This went on throughout Michael's fourth and fifth years, but once when he was five he climbed into bed with grampa because he had something on his mind.

He lay on grampa's right, his left leg pressed against grampa's right stump covered by the nightshirt, and put his right arm across grampa's chest. Then he said, "Grampa, how did you lose your leg? Do you miss it real lots?"

Johan was startled by the question. Then he realized that he hadn't thought about that leg for many years, certainly nothing like when it first happened. Then he wondered if he should tell the boy the story. It wasn't the kind of bedtime story one tells anyone, and certainly not a five-year-old.

"It vass yus an accident. It vass so long ago I can't remember. Go to sleep now." But the boy was not to be put off.

"Please tell me, grampa. I asked daddy and he didn't know said I should ask you. So tell me how it was. Did somebody come along with a big knife and just went whoosh! and cut it off? Was that the way? Did you fall under a tractor and the wheels sliced it off? I have tried to think how that could have happened. Could I see where your leg was? I like to feel it." And he was groping the stump and rubbing it as he had done a number of times before and grampa was reacting as usual. "Can I see it? Will you tell me what happened to it? Please, tell me, grampa. I won't tell anyone. Please. I won't tell, I promise."

"All right, look at it," grampa said and pushed the covers down and pulled his old-fashioned nightshirt up to his chin, exposing his entire pelvic area and everything that went on there at that time. Michael looked intently at the scars and ran his fingers lightly over them and then he took hold of grampa's large, thick, hard-swollen penis and felt that. "How did they take your leg off, grampa? Please, tell me."

"You promise not to tell? I tell you."

"I promise," Michael said, still holding huge cock.

"I vass five years old, yus like you, Michael."

"You lost your leg when you were five like me?" Michael sounded shocked.

"Dat's right, boy, dat's how old I vass. It vass terrible. I was wit my fadder and a man who vorked for him and ve vere in the voods and they vere chopping down de trees. Dis one big tree fells down and ve go to it and de begin choppin off de branches and then I climbed onto de tree and a branch broke and I fell just as de man was to chop a branch and he chopped off my leg."

Michael interrupted by making a loud noise and hiding his face. Grampa put his arm around the boy who was shaking and sobbing as he tried to get in closer to grampa. He flung his arms about grampa's neck and sobbed and sobbed, while grampa muttered about being sorry he had told him the story.

When Michael had finally calmed down, he said, still gasping for breath and fighting back tears, "Did that really happen? A man chopped your leg off?"

"Ja, Michael, dat iss how it happened."

And Michael started to cry again and then he scooted down to the stump and began to kiss it and caress it with his hands and talk to it, saying all sorts of odd things about how he loved it and how lonely it must have been all these years not being a whole leg, and he took hold of grampa's still hard cock and kissed it and said how glad he was that it had kept grampa's stump company and how good they looked together, and he kept it up for what seemed to Johan like a very long time until finally it tapered off and Michael seemed to return to normal. At least he was very quiet for a short time.

Then he looked grampa in the face and said, "It must have hurt sompin awful."

Grampa nodded, "Yes, it did and bled too. I vass in bed with it for a long long time while it got better."

"Did they call a doctor?"

"No, dey never got a doctor. Dere vasn't any. But I got all right, but my fadder, he didn't like to look at me because he could remember vat happened and de man who did it left and never came back. So my fadder sent me to America. Michael I tell you somting. If I had not lost my leg, I vould never have been in America. To my lost leg I owe my whole vonderful life. Because I lost it I marry Elisabet, and have dis family dat I luff so much."

"Do you love me, grampa?"

"Very much my liddle Michael."

Michael hugged grampa tightly. "I love you grampa more than anybody in the whole world."

"Dat's nice, boy, but don't you love your mama and papa? De love you."

"Yes I love them, but not as much as I love you. I love you and your leg that isn't there and your big thing. You have everything I love." Michael kissed grampa on the cheek and nestled his face into grampa's chest under grampa's left arm. Then he went to sleep.

Grampa was turned on by this, but there was nothing he could do about it with the boy clasped to him that way.

When Michael was six he stayed more closely with Tom and Joe because they had reached the age of experimentation and Michael loved to pretend to be asleep and watch them play with their erected cocks. Michael had noted that they weren't as well-developed as he was, but he had no intention of showing them what they didn't have. Nosiree! He liked watching too well for that!

Tom was only fourteen and Joe twelve, but they knew well what went on. They jacked off (Michael was asleep with one eye open) and finally got the courage to jack each other off! That was when Michael really got excited! That was a night to remember! But Michael still, during the day, would see grampa in his easy chair and play with that stump that supported another elongated stump sitting side-saddle. Michael knew quite well what he was doing, although he hadn't known at age three when he started it, other than by sheer instinct.

The boys had a first cousin named Leroy Hodges who was one year older than Michael. They didn't play together very often even though they lived less than a mile apart. Leroy's mother was Eigert's sister, a Lintz with the characteristic Lintz stocky build. Leroy, however, got his father's genes as far as build was concerned and at twelve he was already five-ten and built like a bean pole. The most important part of him, however, was Lintz from beginning to end, and that was about seven inches already at twelve.

Leroy was an only child and had been brought up in the best farm tradition, because at twelve he could do everything a man could do on the farm. He ran the tractor, plowed, harrowed, milked the one cow they kept, slopped the pigs--did everything. His dad also had a lot of machinery for handling the harvest. Others referred to his farm as "mechanized."

But one beautiful day it happened, as it has happened on so many farms throughout the USA, making farming--mechanized farming--one of the most dangerous occupations in the nation. Leroy's arms got caught in some of the machinery and both were mangled and torn off above the elbow. Twelve-year-old Leroy was armless.

The Lintz family went into shock, including Michael whose shock took a slightly oblique turn. Then not long after it happened and Leroy was stabilized, the whole family went to the hospital to call on Leroy. At the hospital bed there were tears from Leroy's mother and tears from Michael's mother. But it was Michael who said, "When will you get new arms?" He was thinking ahead.

Leroy, grateful there was somebody with his head on straight, answered that they were going to start as soon as the bandages came off. Michael looked at the bandage stumps which Leroy could flip around and his organ rose.

The family left and Michael went home with them and listened to the maunderings of his mother and dad and they mentioned grampa and how it was odd that there should be another amputation in the family and how terrible it was to lose both arms. And Michael's mother said that now Leroy would never marry because he was a cripple. And Michael thought about grampa and that grampa had married and that Leroy hadn't had his thing cut off any more than grampa had and look at grampa! Grampa had poked gramma Elisabet all those years and was still looking for somewhere to poke! Michael didn't say that out loud, of course.

Leroy's accident had happened early in June and by September he was wearing two hooks and planning on going back to school. Michael had called on Leroy with great regularity all summer long and had kept up with the progress of the prostheses, had learned to call them that, and knew as much about them as Leroy did.

In fact sometimes when he was with Leroy he helped Leroy with peeing. He even wiped his ass once when Leroy had to defecate. And he helped Leroy learn to eat with the hooks. Leroy liked having Michael around because Michael was down-to-earth practical and didn't come all over emotional like his mom did or his dad for that matter. Leroy knew that his dad blamed himself for the accident, for letting Leroy do so much. Michael simply did what Leroy couldn't do, and Leroy appreciated that. With Michael Leroy was himself, arms or no arms.

When school started the Hodges took Leroy and Michael to the school to talk to Superintendent Burkley Thompson about Leroy. It was clear that Leroy was going to have to have someone like Michael to help him through the day. Thompson was concerned that Michael wouldn't be in the same classroom, but Leroy didn't care nor did Michael. They could get together between classes for whenever Leroy had to go and they would eat lunch together and all that. Thompson was relieved, although he didn't say as much, that the school didn't have to take care of Leroy's toileting. The family obviously wanted Michael to do it.

Michael was an amazing lad. Everyone said so. He didn't mind doing everything that Leroy needed, even though it was unpleasant. But Michael figured if he could wipe his own ass, he could sure wipe Leroy's, and anyway, Leroy had not one but two beautiful stumps to look at. The Hodges were also enormously relieved that Michael had worked into the situation so well, and they even talked privately about asking Eigert and Mildred if they minded if Michael moved in with them, their real motive, of course, was that it would certainly make life easier for them.

By November the Hodges decided to discuss the matter with the Lintzes. And surprisingly enough the Lintzes agreed. Michael would get full board and would share Leroy's room. "It's just like Leroy getting a brother!" Mrs. Hodges had exclaimed.

As for Michael, he was delighted. He had long since tired of Tom and Joe and grampa had failed very much and was in a rest home, although Michael often went to visit him there. Michael still loved grampa best of all, and maybe after him he loved Leroy next. He would tell grampa all about Leroy and bring Leroy with him to see grampa and they would talk about amputations and compare notes. Leroy had adjusted quite well, and even talked about someday getting married, although he still had bad days.

As to marriage, the Hodges of course took a very negative attitude, saying that no girl in her right mind would marry a man who couldn't even go to the bathroom alone. But Leroy had long since learned to shut them off.

Meanwhile Michael had moved in and they shared a bed and it became clear to Michael that Leroy was no exception, that he got erections just like Tom and Joe and himself. One night soon after Michael had moved in, they were talking.

"Did you see that big lump beside grampa's stump?" Michael asked Leroy.

"Yeah! Man he's really got one, hasn't he?"

"Yeah," Michael answered. "And I saw it once. I even touched it."

"Aw come on, you never did!"

"Sure I did," Michael said. "I sometimes slept with grampa and one night the covers slipped off and there was grampa with the biggest whang I ever did see!

"Yahyahyah listen to you," Leroy interrupted. "You're only eleven years old and you never saw anybody's whang except maybe your own."

"I did too see grampa's and I seen Tom's and Joe's plenty. A lotta times. They're always playing with them. And what would you know, you're only twelve. I bet you never saw anybody's and I seen Tom and Joe and grampa. And they're all big, too. Grampa's biggest, though. It's huge really huge! And I took hold of it 'cause I like it and it was hard I mean hard."

"Golleee," Leroy said. "When you took hold of it, did he squirt stuff?"

"Naw, I didn't jack him off or anything. Leastways not then."

"You mean you jacked off grampa some time?" Leroy was impressed.

"Sure. Did it all the time." Michael was very blasé.

"You know sompin?" Leroy said slowly.

"No, what?"

"You're a liar. A big fat liar." Leroy was angry. He hadn't seen any other cock but his own and to have a 'leven-year-old snot-nose kid tell him such crap! "Bet you don't even look at your own itsy-bitsy weenie!"

"It's bigger'n yours, you dumb knuckleheaded baboon, bigger'n yours, bigger'n yours, big--" Michael was interrupted.

"Shut up, Michael, and pull the covers down and take a look at my dingdong and you'll see how big it is." Michael was suddenly silenced and looked scared. "Go on, big mouth. Go on, I'll show you something like you ain't never seen!" Michael hesitated. "Go on! Don't be a scaredy-cat!"

Michael could feel his own cock poking him in the belly and he desperately wanted to see what Leroy had down there. . .and then it came to him that Leroy would never be able to touch his dong again, never be able to fondle it the way he liked to fondle his. Michael suddenly felt very sad about Leroy. Then he pulled the covers down and there was Leroy with a really big knocker sticking up in the air.

"See?" Leroy was tauntingly nasty. Michael looked at it with interest and longing. Then he pushed the covers off his side of the bed and showed Leroy his own thick cock arched up and touching his belly. But Michael knew that Leroy's was bigger. Maybe an inch longer.

"Did you ever try to jack off?" Michael asked.

"Did you?" Leroy shot back at him.

"Yeah, but nothing happened. I used to play with grampa's stump and his thing would get real big and I would rub it and then there would be a big wet spot on grampa's pants."

"Hooollly Moses! You really did jack grampa off! Holy catfish! And he let you do it?"

"He didn't stop me," Michael said quietly. "I guess he liked it. Did you ever jack off?"

"Yeah. I tried it, but now . . ." and Leroy lapsed into the depression that hit him fast and hard sometimes when he remembered that he had no arms and that so much of what he liked to do would be forever denied him.

"Can I touch it?" Michael asked softly.

"Yeah, go ahead," Leroy answered sadly.

Michael reached out and softly, gently put a forefinger on the foreskin that still covered the head of this very large cock. He ran the finger up and down the length of the cock.

"That feels good. Pull the skin back and let me look at the head of it." Michael with thumb and forefinger pulled the skin toward Leroy's belly.

"Oh wow but that felt super." He looked at Michael who was still staring at the cock. "Michael."

Michael didn't look at Leroy.

"Michael," Leroy repeated.

"Huh?"

"Jack me off, will ya? You know I can't do it. Please. You help me pee and stuff, try to jack me off. I've tried it but never got anything, but I've been having wet dreams. So maybe it'll work."

He stopped and Michael, his face sad, looked up at Leroy.

"Don't you want to?" Leroy went on. "You did grampa."

Michael didn't answer but made the decision and got into a comfortable position, his own hard cock throbbing against his belly. He took hold of Leroy's dong with one hand and closed his entire fist around it and then started to pump it up and down as he'd seen Tom and Joe do. Leroy began to mutter softly and unintelligibly and within the minute Leroy was shooting his first load while wide awake!

Michael put his hand over the head of Leroy's cock while it was squirting and felt the stuff, warm and smelly, in the palm of his hand. Then he sniffed it and then he put his tongue to it and Leroy was repulsed by that.

"Holy shit! don't eat it! Stop it. What are you, some sort of goat?"

Michael looked at Leroy and said, "It doesn't taste bad at all. Just different. Here." And he held his hand up so Leroy could taste the gunk that lay in his palm.

"Knock it off," Leroy said with making a face.

"No, try it. It's different."

Leroy hesitated for a moment and then he tasted his cum. Michael was right. It tasted different from anything he'd ever tasted before. He didn't think he liked it. "It doesn't taste very good."

Michael tasted it again. "I guess you have to get used to it."

There was a pause before Leroy said, "Try yours. Here. Lemme try it." Leroy slid down until he was lying flat and then Michael moved up on the bed until his cock was even with Leroy's left shoulder and he then lay on his left side, his cock, still curled up and touching his belly, near Leroy's left stump. Leroy leaned over and with his right stump massaged Michael's cock. Michael watched, completely absorbed by the exciting sight of Leroy's stump massaging his hard cock. A bit of ooze came out of Michael's piss slit and was visible because Leroy had pulled the foreskin back and behind the glans. Michael also felt something else but he couldn't have described it and didn't know what he was feeling, although he knew he'd never felt anything exactly like that before.

Leroy continued until he was tired and then gave up. Michael leaned over and kissed Leroy's stump.

"Whatdya do that for?" Leroy said as he pulled away from Michael.

"Because what you were doing felt so good. I never felt anything like that. Your stump is the greatest thing there is."

"Liar!" Leroy was, without warning, crying.

Michael was startled and upset to see Leroy cry. He lay down and hugged Leroy. "Please, Leroy. Please don't. Please." He held Leroy very tightly and rubbed his head.

"Mikey I'm scared. I don't have any arms and I'm scared. What am I going to do? How'm I gonna get through school? Pop says I gotta learn everything I can. Mikey. I don't wanna. I don't wanna." And at that point the sobbing began in earnest. Michael was beside himself with anxiety because he had never seen this before and didn't know it could happen, hadn't expected it. He sat up and pulled Leroy up and held him in his arms while Leroy sobbed and sobbed and Michael sobbed too out of frustration since there was nothing he could do for Leroy.

The attack faded slowly and they lay down and both drifted off to sleep.

That year for Leroy was hell. But Michael helped him pull through. Leroy's classmates were understanding and kind because they could see themselves in Leroy's place and it wasn't any fun. They saw the endless limitations come and go with nauseating regularity.

By the time Leroy was in the twelfth grade, he had a girl friend, a serious one with whom he was in love. And she apparently liked him. They went everywhere together. She was a farmer's daughter, a cute little auburn-haired girl with big bouncy tits that gave Leroy a hard-on every time he saw them.

On one of their dates a few weeks before graduation, he proposed marriage, explaining rapidly that he was aware of his enormous handicap and that he really didn't know what he was going to do with his life, but that he loved her very much and wanted to marry her and have a raft of kids.

She looked at him and said firmly, "Leroy Hodges, you're not handicapped and I don't ever want to hear you say that again. You're a very handsome man, you're smart, you know twice as much as any guy in school, and if you hadn't asked me to marry you, I would have. Yes, I know that there are things that are not convenient for you, but they're minor compared to us. We're the ones who count. You and me! Leroy I love you and I'd marry you tonight except I have to tell mom and dad first. So drive me home and come in with me while I tell 'em!"

When Leroy told Michael he was going to get married, Michael smiled and congratulated him and told him he had seen it coming! He told Leroy he even knew the very day when Leroy realized he was in love. Leroy was startled.

"How did you know? And when was it?"

Michael smiled. "It was last January. I asked you if you wanted it and you said for the first time ever `no'. I had seen you mooning at her and I knew right away that you wanted her to do it for you. And that's the way it ought to be. You're really in love with her, aren't you?"

"Mikey, I'm really in love. I dream about her, as you've undoubtedly noticed. And she doesn't care about the arms. She doesn't care, Mikey!! It's like you. You just take a guy as he comes, with or without arms, it's OK with you! She's like that, Mikey!" Leroy stopped there and looked a long moment at Michael. "Mikey, you saved by life. You may not know that, but you saved my life. I would have killed myself long ago if it hadn't been for you. I can't thank you enough. You gave me the guts I needed." Leroy put his hooks around Michael and hugged him and planted a kiss square on Michael's mouth. And grown-up, super-sophisticated, seventeen-year-old farm boy Michael bawled like a baby!

The last and only other time Michael had bawled like that was when great grandpa died and took his two irreplaceable attributes with him. And now Leroy would be lost to him. Visible, but lost.

"I wish you luck and happiness, Leroy," Michael said, wiping his face with the back of his hand. "I'm gonna miss you. I'm gonna miss you a lot."

"I'm gonna miss you, too, Mikey. I don't think you'll ever know what you've meant to me, growing up this way." He shrugged the prostheses so the hooks rattled. "And I thank you for everything you've done for me. Everything!"

That was the last time Michael really had a good talk with Leroy because Leroy very soon after school went to farming with his father-in-law who, together with his wife, were "emancipated" where a little thing like not having any arms was concerned. And of course their daughter was like them but, this had occurred to Leroy who had seen it in others in high school, only more so: She was turned on by Leroy's twin stumps. Their marriage was enormously successful sexually. Michael knew exactly how much Leroy had "developed" since age twelve. It was close to three inches added to the seven already there! He and Leroy used to kid about equipping it with a hook and joining a circus as The Man with Three Arms.

Deep down inside Michael was feeling an emptiness that was entirely new to him. Suddenly the stumps that had always been there were gone: six years ago the one had been replaced by two, and now there was no stump left.

The following year, his last in high school, was without focus. He had lived at home with Tom and Joe who still roomed together and who had long since become well-endowed lovers completely devoted to each other, although only Michael knew this, but they guessed he knew so he was denied access to their room, which pissed Michael off until Joe made a crack about did Michael miss sucking Leroy's cock now that Leroy had married. It was the kind of remark that most people would be enraged by, but Michael was pleased because it was proof that he was right about Tom and Joe. So he answered the crack with, "You're damn tootin I miss it. And you don't want anyone better than you competing for Tom's cock!" Joe blushed scarlet and the conversation stopped.

College was in the offing, and Michael took it, although half-heartedly. He didn't know what to do without a stump to help him through life. His enrollment counselor was a senior majoring in psychology so he suggested Michael take psychology as an elective that first year. After fifteen minutes with him, Michael figured no amount of pyschology would help the poor bastard, but he agreed thinking it might be useful in understanding himself and his strange and apparently innate desire for a stump to live for. So it was arranged that he take a course in psychology in addition to the freshman required courses.

The psychology was a total failure because Michael already knew more than any of the books and certainly more than the pathetically uninformed instructor who had a master's degree in How to Show Your Ignorance. Michael quit the class in a major explosion that rocked the Dean's office and threatened Michael with expulsion. But Michael just laughed at the jugheads and finished his first year with honors in everything else, thereby causing a lot of freshmen to wonder what was going on at the school of their choice--leastways it was their choice because no other school with standards would have them.

That was Michael's only year at that school. Since the previous fall when he went to college, Michael had put himself through a grueling self-examination regarding his dependency: he couldn't live without a stump at hand, as it had been his focus since age three. The stump was first and foremost, ahead of any other appendage. This was bewildering and mysterious and highly irregular, but there it was. It was also something that was completely and totally unmentionable. But Michael had the organizational ability to ask himself where he could find a lifetime supply of stumps, and then, of course, the idea came home. He would become a prosthetist and every day would be a day with a stump!

Michael had also asked himself almost daily for the past year, "Do I want to be an amputee?" But the only answer he ever got was a vague internal stirring and a sort of "I don't think so."

That summer while working on the family farm in tandem with Tom and Joe, he investigated and decided on a prosthetics school in Chicago. The decision was not difficult, since there was only one other school offering a certificate in prosthetics. It would take two years and Tom, Joe and his dad all agreed to lend him the money.

So late August of the following fall, the week before Labor Day, nineteen-year-old Michael had temporarily moved into a motel in Chicago fighting the noise, people, buildings and other impedimenta a large urban blight brings with it and, as requested by the school, this one day he headed for the place where new students were to "enlist" for accommodations and possible roommates.

He found the building and the room and as he approached it, he felt odd--zingy--as if something were about to happen. When he got to the open door, it was apparent that the room had a great many young men and women in it, most of whom were sitting in school chairs filling out papers on the desk arm.

When Michael stepped through the door, his eyes met and locked with those of a young man sitting in one of the chairs filling out a form, and Michael immediately felt everything fall into place, into focus after two years of fuzzy edges, even though he noted that the guy had all four limbs. But he was mesmerized by the steady gaze and pleasant face so he walked directly to him and sat down on his left in what was probably the only vacant chair in the room.

They looked at each other and a smile curved their lips and they knew they had both found each other.

"You have to fill out a form," the fellow said pleasantly. His voice had a cool quality like his face and body. There was about him a kind of leanness, a suggestion of remoteness. Michael, on the other hand was, at 5'7", all there: 175 pounds of solid, stocky, chunky muscle. They were precisely opposite as if planned that way. "The forms are on the counter." He nodded his head in the direction of the counter.

Michael rose and went to the counter in a kind of golden haze. Behind the counter an exceptionally good-looking dark-haired young girl said, "Want a form? Here you go. Just fill it out completely and return it to me." The smile she cast his way was dazzling.

Michael looked at her a moment and then, coming to with a start, said. "What?"

Her face betrayed her thought: "Oh boy, another one! Where do they come from?" Then aloud and with great care she said, as if talking to a foreigner who knew no English: "Just fill it out and bring it back to me when you're through."

"Yes, mam," Michael said dutifully, causing her to think: "The deep south! Only in the deep south are they that polite!"

Michael turned and again looked into the eyes of that guy and knew that the fellow had been watching him the entire time.

Seated again he held out his hand. "Michael Lintz, and please, no `Mike'." The other took his hand. "Philip Beacon. And likewise, please don't call me Phil." They didn't shake but held on for several seconds too long.

Michael broke the short silence. "I'm registered in prosthetics."

Philip said, "So am I."

On both their parts, there was a moment of praise-giving to God for small favors.

With considerable difficulty Michael discontinued looking at Philip and began reading the form and, pulling a pen from his shirt pocket, began filling in the blanks. When he got to the question "Do you want a roommate? If yes, fill in completely the compatibility form on the reverse.", he stopped and looked at Philip who was still looking at him.

Philip took the plunge before Michael. "I don't have a roommate, but I'd like to have one."

"I don't either and I would too," Michael said. "Shall we just tell them that we want to room together?"

"Well -- " Philip hesitated.

"Well what?" Michael tried not to sound impatient.

"I -- " and again Philip paused. He turned his head away as if to collect himself. Finally: "No. I don't think so."

"Philip." Michael said quietly but firmly. "What's wrong? Did I--"

"No! You haven't done anything it's just that, it's--OK!" Michael could see that Philip was having some kind of internal struggle, but he couldn't find any cause for it. Then Philip turned and faced him squarely. "OK, here it is. I'm physically disabled." Philip muttered the words so softly that Michael barely heard them.

"You're physically disabled?" Michael repeated very quietly.

"Yeah."

Michael looked down at Philip's legs and what he saw made his heart leap with joy, and also made him open his mouth and take a quick breath. The left pant leg at the knee barely showed two things sticking up like braces. The right pant leg curved down over the knee with no sign of kneecap or bulge of muscle.

Michael thought "This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me!" Aloud he said, "You're going to be a wonderful roommate. Here I am going to prosthetics school and my roommate already knows more than the teachers. Please room with me, Philip."

Philip looked stunned. "How did--"

"Never mind how I know. That's why I want to be a prosthetist."

Philip looked warily at Michael. He had had this experience once before and it was very unpleasant, and the man who was so attracted had tried to explain it but finally admitted that the attraction was a mystery. Philip had not been able to accept it. And here was another to whom he, Philip, was attracted and who was attracted to him. And the attraction was obviously--or was it?--prior to Michael's seeing that he wore two prostheses.

"Michael," Philip sounded urgent. "When did you know?"

"I knew the moment I looked down at your legs. I hadn't noticed before."

"Why hadn't you noticed?"

"Because I hadn't looked at your legs because I couldn't take my eyes off your magnificent face." Michael was talking very very softly and then he barely said, "You're the most handsome person I've ever seen."

Philip heard it and turned pink. "Let's finish this up and get out of here. We've got a lot of talking to do."

Michael simply nodded and in silence finished filling in the blanks. When he was done, he looked at Philip and they rose and went to the counter and told the young lady they wanted to room together.

"I think that can be arranged. We'll let you know--did you leave a contact?" She looked at Michael's form. "Yes, I'll call the motel tomorrow and let you know Mr. Lintz, Mr. Beacon. You'll probably be assigned to one of our handicapped apartments, Mr. Beacon. I assume that's all right with you?" She looked at Michael.

"Absolutely. Whatever."

"Then it's settled. I'm sure you'll like the place. Have a good day!"

Michael and Philip again thanked her and left.

Outside in the hall, Philip stopped and looked at Michael. "I don't know what I'm doing or why I'm doing it."

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing and I know why I'm doing it."

Michael looked at his watch and said, "Come on, let's go back to my motel. There's a good restaurant next door and we need to eat and then we'll go to the motel and talk. There's several hours of catching up ahead of us."

Seated in the restaurant, their order taken, Michael and Philip sat quietly and looked at each other.

"The things I'd like to say are things I can't say so publicly," Philip said. "Let's talk about school. When did you decide you wanted to be a prosthetist?"

"Last spring. I had a long talk with myself and what I like and how I like to live, and I concluded that being a prosthetist would satisfy my desire to be of use to others in the way I like to be of use to others. I know that sounds pretty goofy, but it's the truth and I'll explain. I have a strange background where amputees are concerned and I want you to know about it. If it causes you to change your mind about rooming with me, the loss is mine. Are you ready for it?"

Philip looked worried. "I'm not sure. But go ahead."

Michael looked around at the few people in the restaurant. "What I have to say won't make much sense to anyone listening in now and then. But I'll speak low anyway." Michael paused to try to reach a beginning.

"My great grampa was born in Germany and came to the states in 1913 at age 18, with a tiny slip of a thing as his wife. He had lost a leg at the age of five because a woodsman accidentally chopped it off with an axe."

"Good God!!" Philip turned white.

"He told me the story himself when I was five. But I'll have to back up. When I was about three--I remember it very clearly--I discovered he only had one leg. Well, I suppose I knew it, but anyway. He was sitting in a rocker and I looked at him and there was only one leg but when my father sat in a rocker there were two. So I went over to grampa and looked for the other leg and I saw this hunk of something there on the chair seat and it had on a pant leg like the other leg so I figured that it was his other leg only it was very short. I touched it. And it felt soft and I put both hands on it and kind of pushed--well, kneaded it."

At that point the waitress arrived with their order. "Who gets the kosher ham and cheese on rye?" She said deadpan.

Philip answered, "That's me."

The waitress put the sandwich in front of Philip and, turning to Michael, said, "And you're the goy wanting the hot pastrami." She put the plate down, laughed at her own wit and disappeared.

"What was that about?" Michael asked. "What was that hot past...I ordered a roast beef sandwich..." Michael lifted the bread, "and that's what I got. She's nuts!"

Philip laughed at Michael's ignorance of life in the Big City.

"What's so funny?" Michael asked.

"The waitress. She called my ham and cheese sandwich kosher."

"What's that?"

"Michael, have you heard of Jews?" Philip asked.

"Sure. I practically grew up with a Jewish family in the little town where we did the family shopping."

"Did you ever learn anything about their religion? Or their eating taboos?"

"Eating taboos?" Michael asked incredulously. "What're you talking about?"

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