"HEY! WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT!"

Jeff Johnson heard the shout from behind him as he walked down the sidewalk away from the math building. He turned to look and just barely had time to see a bicycle come hurtling toward him at high speed, its brakes screeching before it hit him.

Jeff knew the bike riders on the State University campus were speed demons so he always looked carefully before crossing bike paths, but this guy was coming at him from behind on the sidewalk. He barely had time to react before the biker brushed past him and careened into a line of concrete barriers separating the sidewalk from a driveway. The biker and his bike bounced off the barriers and hit Jeff in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Jeff fell to the ground with the biker and his bike on top of him.

Jeff couldn’t breathe. He scooted back, pushed the rider and his bike away, leaned over and put his hands on the ground, taking the weight off his diaphragm. That allowed him to breathe a little better. The biker had the wind knocked out of him, too. Neither of them moved except to try to sit and lean over in order to breathe more easily. Minutes passed while students walked casually around them, ignoring them. Eventually Jeff and the biker started to breathe more easily.

"Are you OK?" the biker managed to gasp.

Gasping, Jeff managed a "Yep."

The biker pulled himself completely off Jeff and he noticed that the biker had only one leg, a right leg. His left leg was a very long thin stump sticking out of his biking shorts.

They sat there for several more minutes, Jeff staring at the biker’s stump and both trying to find a more comfortable position. They both groaned.

"My bike is wrecked." The front wheel was badly bent. There was no crank on the left side presumably because the biker didn’t have a leg to use it. It was some sort of mountain bike with a big shock absorber in the middle. Other than the front wheel and the missing crank, the bike didn’t look too bad.

"Are you OK?" Jeff managed to say it quietly.

"I think so." The biker noticed Jeff staring at the stump and flexed it upward, put his hand around it and stroked it while watching Jeff and smiled.

"Is your stump OK?"

"It’s not a stump. It’s a stub."

Jeff was pretty nervous looking at it but, in spite of his stutter, he managed to ask him what the difference was.

"It’s congenital. This is the way it came. Look at my shirt."

He turned, held out the front of his tee shirt and let Jeff read it. My parents had a romantic vacation ... and then he scooted around so he could read the back ... and 9 months later all I got was this little stub. The shirt had an arrow pointing down toward his stub.

Jeff laughed. Because he stuttered, his laugh normally sounded like he was choking, but because he was out of breath, it sounded as if he were strangling.

"Are you OK????"

Jeff managed to tell him it was just his laugh combined with breathlessness.

"Would you help me take my bike over to the SU repair shop?"

Jeff nodded and managed to stand up. Using his stub, the biker stood up, too. Jeff held out his hand and said quietly, "My name’s Jeff Johnson."

The biker grasped Jeff’s hand, put a little extra pressure on it to take a short hop on his one leg. "My name’s Jimmy Klosters." Before he let go of his hand, he put a bit more pressure on it and hopped his foot closer to the bike. Jeff noticed he had a large right foot that he hopped and rotated to maneuver.

"Do you want me to carry the bike for you?"

"No. I can handle it. I’ll need you to help me walk since I don’t have my bike to ride. Stand on my left side." He didn’t seem self-conscious asking for help.

-------------------------

Jeff picked up his book bag, walked over to him, stood on his left side and watched him pick the bike up with his right hand and sling it over his shoulder. He put his left arm around Jeff’s shoulders.

Jimmy hop-walked along pretty quickly. Jeff had to walk fast to keep up. Jimmy didn’t put much weight on his shoulder. He mostly used him for balance. Jeff couldn’t believe what this guy could do with his leg. As he hop-walked along, Jeff noticed that his stub would move around just a little bit from time to time, almost as if he was unconsciously trying to use it to walk or keep his balance. It brushed against his leg a couple of times.

When they went in the door of the repair shop, Jimmy let go of Jeff, put his hand on the doorframe for balance, hopped forward and put his stub on the low counter. Using the low counter, he walked over and laid his bike on the high counter. The repair guy knew him.

"Jimmy, you back again?"

"Yeah. I ran over this guy after coming down the steps from the math building." Jeff finally put together how the accident had happened and why he hadn’t seen Jimmy. Jimmy had followed him out of the door of the math building, rode down the steps and then came up behind him on the sidewalk. "Can you fix it for me fast? I need it to get around."

"Can you wait a half an hour?"

Jimmy looked at Jeff. He nodded. "Sure. We’ll be back in half an hour."

Jimmy put his hand lightly on Jeff’s shoulder as they headed out the door. "Let’s go over to the cantina. I’ll buy you a drink. I owe you that much for running into you."

As they walked along, Jimmy touched Jeff lightly on the shoulder, only putting pressure on it when they had to dodge pedestrian traffic. Then, his stub wiggled around a bit more, too.

At the cantina, they got their drinks and Jeff walked him to a booth in the back. He was going to sit across from Jimmy, but Jimmy asked Jeff to sit next to him on his left side. Jimmy sat close to Jeff and propped his stub up against Jeff’s leg. Jeff looked down at it.

"You like it?"

Jeff nodded nervously.

"I was hoping you would. It’s OK to touch it."

Jeff reached down and brushed his fingers lightly over the stub and then pulled away. It really turned him on.

"That feels good. Touch it again. It’s the least I can do to apologize for running over you."

Jeff nodded and touched it again. "It’s really nice." He put his hand around it and stroked it just like Jimmy did after the accident and noticed that the tip was harder than the sides. "I really like touching it."

"I’m glad. Not many guys like touching it. I especially like the way you stroke it. Would you like to see more of it? I’d enjoy that if you have the time."

"Yep. I was just going to the library to study for a couple of hours."

"Then come back to my place and clean up. I’ll show you my biking trophies and medals. You can check it out more then." He wiggled it, stroking Jeff’s hand with it.

"I’d like that."

He took his hand away and they talked. He asked him why he was so dependent on his bike.

"It’s how I walk. I don’t use crutches or a prosthetic leg. I use my bike and my stub to get around."

"What about in your residence hall or the classrooms?"

"I especially use the bike in those places. I park my bike next to my desk in the classrooms and I keep it in my room with me. I use my stub a lot to get around in my residence hall." He raised it up and rubbed it against Jeff’s leg again.

He asked Jeff about his stutter.

Jeff told him that he had always had trouble speaking but that if he spoke quietly, he could do pretty well. He told him he was taking bonehead English and was majoring in Computer Engineering.

Jimmy told him that he was a junior, doing a double major in math and business/finance with a goal of working as a stock and bond analyst.

Jeff told him he was a freshman, interested in math too, and maybe would do a double major as well but wanted to see how well he did in Calculus III before he made a decision.

Jimmy asked Jeff whom he had for Calculus III and he told him.

"I’m sorry to hear that. He’s a good teacher and knows a lot of math, but he has absolutely no sympathy for students. Work as hard as you can. It might be enough to get a good grade."

Jeff didn’t tell him he had the highest grade in the class on the first two tests.

They finished their drinks. "Well, we’re going to have to get going so I can pick up my bike. I’m really sorry I ran over you but I’m glad I got to meet you."

"I’m glad I got to meet you, too." They shook hands and then Jeff reached down and stroked the stub again. Jimmy smiled.

Jimmy had every reason to smile. He had had been stalking Jeff because he thought Jeff was a devotee and incredibly handsome; he wanted to find some way to meet him. He had followed Jeff out of the door of the math building so that he could stop next to him on the sidewalk and casually introduce himself. The collision wasn’t part of his plan, but the result was much more than he had hoped for.

-------------------------

After spending half an hour at the cantina, Jeff walked Jimmy back to the bicycle repair shop. When they got there, Jimmy again used his stub on the low counter to walk. Jeff was becoming more and more impressed by the way he used things and people around him to act as a left leg. He was not self-conscious at all.

His bike was done and he used his student card to pay for the repairs.

"Would you stay here for a minute and let me ride it around for a bit to see if it’s OK?"

Jeff nodded.

Jimmy went out on the plaza next to the bike shop and rode the bike around, making it stand on its front wheel and on its rear wheel and bouncing it up and down on both wheels. Jeff thought he was going to buck himself off the bike, but he used the stub to hold himself on the seat. He rode back to him.

"Wow. You can really ride well."

"Yeah. I’ve loved bicycles ever since I found out I could use them to get around."

He got off the bike, put his stub on the bar and they headed off toward his room. He used the bike as his left leg. Again, Jeff was impressed. Clearly he didn’t need crutches or a prosthetic leg.

"Do you have a roommate?"

"No. Because of my stub leg, they let me have a room to myself. My stub leg is useful for more things than walking and riding a bike."

They laughed.

Jimmy led Jeff through an automatic side door to his residence hall and stopped at the first unit, just inside the door. Jimmy’s single room was like Kevin’s – smaller than Jeff’s bedroom, but very nice. Inside, he put the bike up against the wall next to a sleek racing bike and used his stub to walk over to his bookshelves. "These are my trophies." Jeff followed him and saw a bunch of biking medals and trophies from several different years. The room seemed to be arranged so that he could make maximum use of his stub.

"You must be a great bike rider to have won all these."

"Thanks. These are mainly for races and these for endurance rides."

"Wow, these are really great! You must be one heck of a bike rider!" Jimmy gave Jeff a big smile.

"Yeah. My long leg is really strong and my stub leg is my secret weapon. I can use it to help me get more power when I pump."

"Yeah. I noticed how you used your stub to hold yourself on the seat when you tested the bike." Jimmy smiled again. Jeff was beginning to love his smile.

"My stub leg may be short, but it’s really useful. Let’s get cleaned up. I have my own shower and plenty of towels." He pulled his shirt off and sat down to take off his shoe and sock. "Would you help me take off these bicycle shorts? They’re pretty tight." He stood up and Jeff squatted down and pulled down on his bicycle shorts. They were very tight around the huge thigh of his long right leg, but he managed to get them off and down around his ankle. They came off his stub leg easily because it was so thin. He was cut.

While Jeff was squatting down in front of him, Jimmy put his hands on his shoulders, stood up on his toes, rocked his foot and then lifted his leg slightly. Jeff got Jimmy’s shorts off easily. He looked up and saw his entire stub. He lightly ran his finger tips along it.

"Now, I’d like to help undress you. I’ll bet you get a woody playing with my stub leg." He was right.

He asked Jeff to stand up while he used his leg to squat down in front of him. He stabilized himself with the stub. The stub was long, but it wasn’t quite long enough: he had to squat down pretty far and tilt his pelvis but it was just long enough to take short "steps" with. Jimmy took off Jeff’s shirt and he helped him take off his shoes, socks and pants. He stood up, put his arm around him and they walked to the bathroom and got in the shower.

Jimmy got the soap and squatted down to wash Jeff’s legs. "Even though you were wearing long pants, you have scrapes and scratches on your legs. I’m sorry I hurt you." He spent a lot of time on his left leg, washing it, stroking it and even kissing it.

"You like my legs?"

"Yeah – you have a matched pair. I especially like long left legs like yours; yours really turns me on."

"I like stubs legs like yours."

"Yeah, I know." Another beautiful smile.

Then it was Jeff’s turn to squat down and wash Jimmy. There were a bunch of scratches and scrapes from the accident on his right leg. When he got done washing it off, he kissed the inside of his massive thigh.

"You like my leg?"

"Yep. Both of them. I like them because they’re different from one another."

Jimmy gave him a dazzling smile. Jeff washed off the stub leg and noticed that it was bruised very high up inside at his crotch. He figured it must hurt pretty badly, yet Jimmy did not act as if he was in pain. When he was done, he kissed the stub, too. The front and sides were hairless but a small amount of short fine hair ran down the back of it.

"Hold my stub leg so that I can walk without putting my hand on your shoulder."

Jeff cupped his hands under his stub and they stepped out of the shower. He had towels in the bathroom and he dried Jeff off while Jeff held his stub. Then he squatted down and, by duck walking using his stub, dried off Jeff’s legs and his stuff. When he was done, Jeff reciprocated.

"I didn’t realize you could walk using your stub leg directly."

"Yeah. It’s actually more useful than you might think."

---------------------------------------------------------

When they were done drying off, Jimmy asked Jeff to help him walk back into his room from his bathroom. "Hold my stub again."

He walked him over to his bed and they sat down on it next to one another. He rubbed him with his stub again.

"I think we need to put some antiseptic cream on your scratches. It’s over in my desk drawer."

Jeff went over and got it. Jimmy asked him to lie down flat on his back. He put the cream on the tip of his stub and, kneeling over him, used it to spread cream on his scratches. He clearly enjoyed showing off what he could do with his stub leg.

"Stub legs are more useful than you think."

"Yours is really useful. What else can you do with it?"

Then, it was Jeff’s turn to put cream on Jimmy’s legs. He put cream on his fingers and applied it to his stub bruise.

"OW, that hurts!" Jimmy tensed. Then he looked at Jeff slyly. "Well, you can use a stub to walk, to make friends..." he stroked Jeff’s hand with his stub. "... to get a single room, to ride a bicycle, to do girls, to spread cream, oh, lots of stuff. It’s really useful."

"To do girls???"

"Absolutely! I was very popular with the girls in my high school. My stub turned them on and they asked me to give them nubbjobs with it. They liked the way I could move it around and they liked the fact that it was always hard and wouldn’t make them pregnant. I could get them pretty worked up with it. I was very popular.

"Girls fought with one another to take me to dances and parties. I never had trouble getting around because at least one of them would be available to walk me wherever I wanted to go once I was off my bike."

Jeff asked him if he preferred men or women.

"Men."

"Only men?"

"Only men."

Jeff continued putting the cream on the scratches on Jimmy’s leg. When he was done, Jimmy told him where to find the tissues to wipe off his fingers. He asked Jeff to put the cream back in his desk drawer and get the lubricant that was there.

Jeff got the lubricant and lay down next to him on the bed. Jimmy stroked his leg with his stub until Jeff became hard. He asked him to lie on his back again and he knelt over him. He put some lubricant on his stub and stroked Jeff with it until he came. When he came, Jimmy gave him another dazzling smile.

"That felt wonderful. You are really good with your stub. I like your smile, too."

"As much as my stub?"

"Yep. May I do you now?"

"I’ll show you how. Stay on your back. Move your left leg over here."

He put some lube on Jeff’s left leg and mounted it, grabbing it between his leg and his stub so he could rub himself back and forth against it until he came. When Jimmy came, he kissed Jeff and produced another one of his dazzling smiles.

Jeff used the tissues to clean them up again. When he was done, he rolled over next to Jimmy and hugged him. He was very lean from bike riding and Jeff enjoyed the feel of the muscles under his skin.

"Thank you. I really like your hard body. The bike riding must really keep you fit. There’s not an ounce of fat on your body."

He hugged Jeff back. "I should be the one thanking you. You’ve got a great body, too. You must work out a lot to have such a great chest and arms."

"I’m in training. I’m a member of the swim team."

"With your huge chest, you must be great at the butterfly."

"Yep."

"Would you walk me over to the dresser so I can get dressed?"

Jeff cupped his hands around Jimmy’s stub and they walked over to it. He got out a clean tee shirt and put it on. This one said ... This little stub IS my left leg. Like the other shirt, it had an arrow pointing down to his stub. He got out clean bicycle shorts and held them up. Jeff noticed the left leg was cut off at the crotch to show as much of the stub as possible.

"You like to show off your stub leg, don’t you? A lot of guys are ashamed of their deformity. They try to hide it. You don’t."

"Yes, I really enjoy showing my stub leg. But, I’ve never felt that I was deformed or crippled. I liked my stub leg and didn’t think it was abnormal. I never thought there was anything wrong with me.

"My earliest memories were of fights with my parents. My parents thought there was something wrong with me, thought my stub leg was deformed ... ugly. My dad was disgusted that he had fathered a ‘deformed cripple’ and was ashamed of me. My mom wanted me to hide my stub leg so no one could see it. She was ashamed of me, too."

"So, you’re proud of it? That’s why you show it off?"

"Sure, why not? My stub leg is a normal part of me." He moved it around in Jeff’s cupped hands. Jeff stroked it.

"Why don’t you wear a prosthetic leg?"

"Both mom and dad wanted me to wear a prosthetic leg to hide the stub and make me look like I had a matched pair – you know, normal. I hated the prosthetic leg. It was heavy. When I wore it, I couldn’t use my stub. It never felt or looked normal to me. No offense, but I think I’d look really abnormal with a matched pair. I like the way I look. I only felt normal as a one long leg, one stub leg guy. I could never work the prosthetic leg well and when I wore it, I found out what it felt like to be a cripple."

"No offense taken. Actually I think you’re right. You’d look really strange with a matched pair of long legs. You look normal just the way you are." Jimmy gave Jeff another big smile and a hug. Jeff kissed him on the shoulder while they hugged.

"When I was little, I got a tricycle for Christmas. After some experimentation, I figured out how I could use it to get around. I realized I wasn’t really a ‘poor little crippled boy’ like everyone was always saying."

"Were your parents happy you could get around using the tricycle?"

"Are you kidding? They were very angry with me. I had to fight them all the time. They would hold me down and put the leg on me and force me to use it. As soon as I could get away from them, I would throw the leg away and hop and duck walk back to get my tricycle. It was a constant battle between us."

"Why don’t you use crutches?"

"I used crutches to go to grade school, but I never liked them because I thought they made me look like a cripple. I practiced with one of my older, smaller, crutches using my stub on the bar to walk, but my parents punished me for doing that. I figured the crutch just extended my stub leg down to the ground so I could walk better, but my parents didn’t see it that way. They wanted me to hide my stub."

"Why don’t you use crutches now?"

"A bicycle is a lot more useful than crutches. I can go farther and faster on a bicycle than I can on crutches. I don’t need crutches. I have a pair around here somewhere, but I hardly ever use them."

"When did you start riding bicycles?"

"My parents gave me my first bicycle when I outgrew my second tricycle around age 9. I taught myself to ride it. Later, I asked them for a larger bike but they wouldn’t get me one. They still hoped I would use a prosthetic leg. Instead, I got jobs cutting people’s grass and saved up enough to get the bike I wanted. Later, I tutored students in math and worked at a supermarket and a car wash. Since then, I’ve bought whatever bike I liked and done pretty much whatever I wanted with my stub. That’s why I came here to Amputee State University: I knew that I could pretty much do as I pleased with my stub and my bike here."

"You call old SU ‘Amputee State University?’"

"Sure. Haven’t you ever heard it called that?"

"No."

"Well, this place is so friendly to amputees and there are so many amputees here that that’s what we call this place."

"I’ve never seen you at the meetings of the organization for students with disabilities."

"I never go because I do not consider myself deformed or crippled or disabled or handicapped or whatever the current politically correct word is these days."

"Do you have any disabled or handicapped or whatever friends?"

"Oh yeah. We have our own private group. We do lots of fun stuff. Some of us like to bicycle, so we often go out riding on Saturdays. Would you like to come with us sometime?"

"Yeah. I really would, but I work on Saturday mornings."

"How about this coming Saturday afternoon at 3:00PM?"

"OK. Is there anything you can’t do with your stub leg?"

"Yes. I’d really like to be able to climb the climbing wall in the athletic center. I tried it, but the holds that stick out of the wall hurt the tip of my stub leg and I couldn’t use it the way I’d like to help me climb."

"Why don’t you put a shoe or cup on the tip of the stub leg?"

"I’m working on it."

Jeff and Jimmy helped each other finish dressing. It was time to leave, but Jeff didn’t want to go because he had enjoyed himself so much. They exchanged phone numbers and email addresses.

"Are you going to be able to ride your bike with that bruise on your stub?"

"I think so. It doesn’t hurt that bad right now."

"I need to get over to the library to study. If you need someone because of the bruise, let me know. I’d really like to get together again. I really enjoyed being with you. I really like your stub and I’m glad you’re comfortable with that."

"I enjoyed being with you, too. I have a fetish for long left legs. I’m glad you’re comfortable with that." He smiled. Jeff kissed him on the neck and fingered his stub. Jimmy kissed him back and stroked his left leg.

-------------------------

That evening as they were getting ready for bed, Billy asked Jeff about girls. "What are they like?"

He asked him what he meant.

"I mean, how are they different from men? What is their stuff like?"

Jeff told him that women’s stuff was all-internal and that they had an opening where the man placed his thing. When the man had his orgasm he ejected sperm that traveled into the woman and fertilized an egg if one was ripe.

"Yeah. I know about the biology but I want to know about the sex."

Jeff said that he did not have any experience with women but there were sites on the web with pictures and diagrams and stories that pretty much explained everything. He asked Billy if he had ever looked at them.

"No. I’ve never been able to find anything like that."

Jeff did a search and showed him a few sites. Some were pretty explicit. He asked him why he hadn’t seen them or talked with his high school friends about them or about sex.

"After grade school, my parents took me out of public school. I was home schooled. I didn’t attend a high school, so I didn’t have any high school friends. I never dated. I used the computer a lot, but I never found any sites like this! Maybe my parents locked them out of my computer. They’re very strict."

Sometimes Jeff scratched and rubbed himself in front of Billy just to see his eyes scan wildly. Billy never touched himself. Jeff wondered if he had ever had an orgasm, so he asked him.

"I don’t know. What’s it like? How would I know?"

Jeff told him he’d know.

"Do you have them?"

Jeff told him he did and that he could stimulate himself to orgasm by rubbing himself.

"I was never allowed to touch myself. My parents always seemed to know what I was doing and I was punished if I tried anything. What about you?"

At this point, Jeff was feeling uncomfortable and started stuttering so badly that he couldn’t continue. He said they’d have to discuss it some other time and they climbed in bed.

"Good night."

"KA."

In bed, Jeff reflected on the fact that Billy, who was straight, wanted to learn about sex with women and was asking him, a gay guy, and the biggest expert he knew on the subject of women was Jimmy, also a gay guy. Life is full of ironies.

--------------------

On Saturday, Jeff rushed through his work at the AC and got to Jimmy’s at 2:30PM. Jimmy wasn’t ready to go, so while he got ready, Jeff went and rented a bike and a helmet at the repair shop. SU encourages students to bike rather than drive cars because of the limited parking space on campus, so it was pretty cheap to rent a bike and helmet.

When Jeff got back to Jimmy’s place, he was outside with five friends, all of them male above the knee amputees. He introduced Jeff to them. They seemed to be about evenly split between rak and lak amputees.

None wore a prosthesis and all wore cutoff biking shorts so that each could display as much of his stump as possible. Jimmy’s stub leg was the thinnest, followed by a guy with a short withered stump. He was an rak and Jimmy kept checking out his muscular left leg. Jeff kept checking out his thin stump. His name was Tommy.

There was an lak, Gerry, called "The LAKinator," who seemed to be in charge. He was tall and extremely muscular. He looked like a weightlifter. Jeff asked Jimmy why he was called "The LAKinator."

"He looks like that action movie star. He was in the military and is very dominant and aggressive." Jeff noticed that his stump was so short, the left leg of his biking shorts had to be cut off very short to show it. It was fat and round like a balloon; the curved end of the stump was so heavily scarred that it looked like a head of cauliflower. He held it so that it stuck straight out to the side. When Jeff shook hands with him, he shied away from him and said: "Don’t bump the stump. It’s very sensitive."

"I notice you hold it out to the side. Does it hurt? Do you or your friends massage it to help desensitize it?"

"I usually massage it. I have never let anyone touch it except for my doctor. The phantom sensations are so strong I can barely keep my hands off it: massaging it helps a lot. If I try to lower it, the phantom sensations become extremely strong and unpleasant, so I hold it out to the side.

"We’ve got an odd number of people here, so someone will have to ride alone at the front or rear. Who’d like to do it?"

Jimmy volunteered. "I’ll do it. I’ll ride at the rear. Tommy, you and Jeff can ride together."

Tommy seemed disappointed. "Well, Jeff and I both have left legs, so we’ll ride just in front of you to give you a thrill." There were several snickers. Jeff laughed.

"Are you OK?"

"That’s just my laugh. I have a pretty bad stutter and that’s what my laugh sounds like."

"How long have you stuttered?"

"All my life."

"You are speaking pretty well for a guy with a bad stutter."

"It depends on how loudly I try to talk. When I speak quietly, like now, I can do pretty well. What happened to your leg?"

"There was something wrong with my leg when I was born. They took the leg off half way up the thigh, but the stump didn’t grow very much between then and now. That’s why it’s so short and thin."

They got on their bikes and headed off campus. The LAKinator seemed to know where he was going, so they all just followed him. Jeff rode on Tommy’s right side so that he could look at his stump from time to time. He had a small amount of very fine reddish-blond hair on his leg and stump. He wondered if he used a prosthetic leg or crutches or whether, like Jimmy, he rejected both.

They rode for about an hour and then stopped at a park for water. They sat on the grass and rested for a few minutes. Tommy sat next to Jeff. He saw he was staring at his stump, so he pushed his shorts up higher and started playing with his stump.

"See, here’s the scar across the bottom where they cut my leg off. You can touch it if you want."

Jeff rubbed his finger along the scar. "Does that hurt?"

"No, but it tickles. Stroke it for me, would you?"

Jeff stroked it and Tommy smiled and sighed. It was so thin, Jeff could cup his hand completely around it near the tip.

"You have no idea how good that feels. I had a friend in high school who was like you. He stroked it for me whenever I wanted."

"What happened to him?"

"He met an amputee woman and married her. They are very happy."

"Do you use a prosthetic leg or crutches?"

"I use a prosthetic leg most of the time and crutches whenever I can’t use the leg. The leg is sort of a hybrid. It has a saddle that I sit in, but it has a hole for my stump to hang through. The stump is too small to work the leg properly, so mostly I just swing the leg back and forth to walk, but I can use the stump to help a little when necessary. It’s pretty sweet."

At that point, Jimmy joined them. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Tommy’s telling me about his prosthetic leg."

"He let you stroke his stump yet?"

"Yep."

"Good for you. That means you’re his friend. Why don’t both of you stop off in my room when we get back? Tommy’s a dancer. Maybe he’ll dance for you."

"OK." Jeff thought Jimmy was pulling his leg – his left leg – when he said Tommy was a dancer.

Tommy just nodded.

The LAKinator suggested they stop for some frozen custard at a stand near the park. They walked their bikes over to the stand to get the custard. The customers stared at the group, especially the kids. One little boy was especially curious and asked rather loudly, "Mommy, look! What happened to them?"

"Hush."

Even louder, he continued: "But why do they have just one leg? What happened to their other leg? Were they bad?"

"I said to hush!"

At this point the kid got hustled away by his mom. As she pulled him away, he kept looking over his shoulder at them. Jeff smiled and waved.

As they got back on their bikes for the return trip, Tommy turned to Jeff and said leeringly, "I don’t know about most of our group, but Jimmy and I have been very bad." Then, he winked and laughed.

The ride back was uneventful. When they got back to campus, Jeff turned his bike and helmet back in and stopped off at Jimmy’s room. When he got there, Tommy was standing, talking to Jimmy who was lying on his bed. Jeff stood behind Tommy and reached down and tickled the hair on the back of his stump. His stump moved a bit. Jeff tickled it some more and Tommy flipped his stump up and slapped it with his hand.

"Stupid fly."

Jimmy laughed. "It’s not a fly. Jeff was tickling your stump."

Tommy turned around and grabbed Jeff by the shoulders. "You were, were you?"

"Yep. I’ve been very bad." Jeff laughed and winked.

"Well, what punishment do you deserve?"

"Stroke it for you?"

"Sounds like a good punishment for guys who tickle stumps that are not theirs."

"The stump is so short, you should take off your biking shorts so I can stroke all of it."

"Well...." Tommy ran his thumbs around the top of his shorts.

Jimmy sat up. "Yeah. Take your shorts off. Show the whole stump."

"Well ... OK."

Tommy took his clothes off and Jeff discovered he had a nice body, too. Tommy held out his stump and Jeff stroked it while he cupped Jeff’s right glute in his hand and massaged it. He got rock hard and rubbed himself against Jeff’s right leg. He was cut.

After a while, Jimmy got bored and asked Tommy to dance. Jeff still thought he was kidding.

Tommy hopped over to Jimmy’s boom box and started a piece of music. Slowly he started to dance, swaying to the music, holding his arms up and imitating a tree swaying in the wind. As the music changed, so did his motions. The music changed to sound like a storm and Tommy moved his arms rapidly as if the tree was being blown around in a storm. Suddenly, the tree was uprooted and Tommy did a handstand. As Tommy swayed and hopped and did handstands and various gymnastic moves, Jeff realized he was enjoying the dance. It was incredibly beautiful.

Jeff had seen many beautiful things in his life but Tommy’s gymnastic dance was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. For the first time in his life, he knew what Beauty was.

When Jeff left Jimmy’s room, both Tommy and Jimmy hugged Jeff and asked him to hang out with them whenever he could.

Jeff promised he would.

------------------------------

The very next Wednesday, Jimmy called Jeff up. "How about coming over tonight?"

Jeff usually hated to try to speak on the phone, but as long as he spoke quietly, he could make himself understood pretty well. Jeff was speaking better all the time.

Jeff told him he’d come over.

He headed over after dinner with his books. They enjoyed each other again and then Jimmy told him that he had called around town and found a place to make him a shoe to cover the end of his stub. He asked Jeff if he would accompany him to the place. He agreed to go with him on Saturday afternoon. They wouldn’t be going on a bike ride with the others.

Jeff had some math questions and Jimmy helped him out by showing him where certain information was located in the textbook. Jimmy was a good tutor.

------------------------------

Later that same evening, when Billy, Olney and Jeff were sitting around in their lounge, Billy asked about orgasms again. Olney turned bright red, but Billy didn’t seem to notice.

"You guys have orgasms, right? What do you have to do to have an orgasm by yourself?"

Jeff was stuttering badly, but managed to explain that you rubbed yourself until you were hard and then kept going. Olney didn’t say anything to help him out. He just stared at Jeff.

"Can you hurt yourself doing that?"

Jeff replied that the worst you could get would be an abrasion but there were lubricants that helped.

"Would you help me buy lubricant?"

Jeff told him he would. Suddenly, Olney got up and hopped into his bedroom.

When Jeff looked back at Billy, he noticed a hunger – a longing in his blind eyes that he had not seen before.

---------------------------------

Jimmy’s leather place was across town and Jeff thought they would either have to walk or take a bus but Jimmy had another idea. He asked Jeff to rent a bike and helmet from the repair shop so they could ride together over to the leather store. When they got there, the leather maker spent a lot of time measuring Jimmy’s stub and asking him what he wanted. Jimmy made a sketch explained how it should be padded inside and lace up like a military boot and have a reversed heel for the sole and be reinforced near the tip so that he could use his stub to go up the climbing wall. Jeff also made some suggestions.

The guy was intrigued and promised to do his best to design a boot for Jimmy. He flexed the tip of the stub and found out that Jimmy didn’t have even vestigial toes to help him use the grips on the wall. The tip of the stub would have to be enough.

On the way back to campus, Jimmy showed Jeff where to buy lubricant. He bought some for himself and some for Billy. When they got back to SU, Jeff returned the bike and helmet to the repair shop and went to Jimmy’s room.

"Do you think this boot is really going to work for me?"

"I don’t know, but we’ll never know until we try."

"Do you think I will need a sock for the stub?"

"Yep. A tube sock would be best."

"I’ll bet you think about my stub more than I do!"

"I’ll bet you think about my long left leg more than I do!"

They enjoyed each other again. Jeff was beginning to like Jimmy a lot. Because his "relationship" with Olney had waned, he wondered about being with Jimmy. Jeff knew that he enjoyed sex with Jimmy. Jimmy was a kind and thoughtful lover but Jeff felt guilty about Olney.

When they were finished, Jeff told him about Billy’s questions.

"My roommate keeps asking me about sex with women. I don’t know anything about it. Would you answer his questions? You know a lot more than me."

"OK. Give me plenty of lead time so I can talk to him as long as he wants." They kissed each other goodbye. It was Jeff’s first mouth-on-mouth kiss.

That night, Jeff gave Billy the tube of lubricant. For once, he didn’t have any questions.

----------------------------

A week later, Jeff took Billy to Jimmy’s room so that they could talk about girls. Jeff was really nervous, so he didn’t wait around but went over to the AC to study. When he saw Billy later that night, he seemed happy with what he had learned.

----------------------------

Two weeks after he ordered the boot, Jimmy got a call from the leather maker. His boot was done. Again, they rode over to the leather shop on bicycles. Jimmy brought a small tube sock with him.

The guy showed them the boot. It was a shiny black and it was padded. He put it on Jimmy’s stub and showed them how to lace it up. He asked Jimmy about how it fit and adjusted the lacing until it fit as well as he could make it fit.

"The longer you wear it, the more it will conform to the shape of your residual limb and the better it will fit."

The tip was tapered with a beveled heel at a slight angle rather than being perpendicular as Jeff expected. When Jimmy squatted down, Jeff noticed the boot made it look as if Jimmy was walking on his toes. It gave him some extra reach. Jimmy smiled at that.

Jimmy paid for his boot and wore it home. When Jeff turned in his bike and helmet at the repair shop, Jimmy asked him to go over with him to the AC and check out the climbing wall.

When they got to the climbing wall they found there was an opening in the reservations for the easy side so Jimmy was able to try out his boot right away. Jimmy used his stub well and he managed to climb about a third of the way up the wall before he made a mistake and had to be lowered back down on the safety ropes.

Jimmy still had time left on his reservation and so he tried the wall again. This time he made it all the way up. When he came back down, Jeff gave him a hug.

"Wow! Now we know another thing your stub is good for!"

Jimmy’s smile was always great but this time he outdid himself. He was smiling from ear to ear.

"I may run out of things I can’t do with my stub!" Jeff wanted to give him a kiss, but he just patted him on the back instead.

A number of guys had been watching Jimmy climb the wall. They gathered around him and all started telling him what a great job he did. They asked to see his boot.

Jimmy held out his stub and showed off his boot, explaining how the tip was set so that his stub could be used to support his weight using the grips on the wall. The guys told him he made good use of his right foot, too. Some of them asked how many times he tried it before he succeeded. Jimmy told them he made it up on his second try with his boot but that he had tried several times without it and never made it all the way up those times.

It was clear that all of them were impressed.

Jimmy turned in the safety helmet and (one) climbing shoe and they went back to his place. As they walked back, Jeff noticed Jimmy swaggering as he walked using his bike.

When they got back to Jimmy’s room, Jeff asked him to hold his stub out so he could admire the boot. He ran his fingers along it. "The guy did a great job. I like your boot a lot. May I help you take it off?"

They took the boot and sock off his stub and Jeff examined the stub carefully. His bruise was almost completely healed and the stub looked OK except for some red creases from the boot. He stroked it.

"How’s your stub leg?"

"It’s fine. I had a short peg leg as a baby. I don’t remember much about it, but pictures show that it laced up like this boot."

"Did you like the peg leg?"

"My parents told me that I really liked it and that I learned to walk using it. It was later when they tried to make me use a prosthetic leg that I rebelled."

"Do you like the way your boot looks?"

"Yeah. I really like the shiny black color and the way it laces up. I might decide to get a matching military boot for my right foot."

"I really like the way it looks, too. Did you see the way the guys at the wall looked at it?"

"Yeah. It’s nice, but I’m only going to wear it when I need it. I prefer to show off my stub leg without concealment."

"Can I put it back on you?"

"Sure."

They spent the next half an hour putting the boot on his stub and taking it off, tightening the laces and loosening them, learning to adjust it.

Before Jeff left, they enjoyed each other twice: once with the boot and once without it. Jeff really enjoyed that and found he was turned on not only by the stub but also by the boot. He decided that he liked Jimmy a lot and they kissed and hugged each other before he left.