The One Who Got Away - CH 3

Chapter 3

Part One: Six years earlier

"I slept with Seth."

"You WHAT?" Kay's friend Micah almost dropped the ice cream cone she was holding, and her jaw practically fell to the ground. 

They were sitting on the grass in a public park; around them were families, groups of students and smooching couples, all enjoying the sunny spring afternoon. 

Micah looked unsure of whether to be shocked or excited. "When? How? Why? And what the fuck, Kay?" 

Kay smirked sheepishly at her own ice cream. "Last night." She shrugged. "It just… happened."

"Uh huh", Micah said with a scoff. "Right."

"Really! I didn't mean to do it." Seeing the alarmed look on her friend's face, she quickly clarified: "I mean, I wanted to, we both did. It simply wasn't planned."

Micah gave her a lazy smirk. "You just accidentally fell on top of him?"

With a laugh, Kay rolled her eyes. "We were at Glow and then his car conked out. So I invited him to crash at my place."

Now Micah rolled her eyes as well.

Kay gave her a look. "What?"

"So much for 'It wasn’t planned'."

"But it really wasn't!" Kay protested. "I don't know what happened, Micah, we suddenly… wanted each other."

Her friend lent her a telling look. "You didn't ‘suddenly’ want each other. He's always had the hots for you."

Kay averted her eyes, trying not to smile. "Oh please."

"What I really want to know is: Why? Why would you sleep with Pretty Boy? Doesn't he have a girlfriend?"

Kay scowled at her. She hated when Micah called him that. Sure, Seth was good looking – he even was what one would have called 'a beautiful man'. But obviously naming him 'Pretty Boy' was not a compliment on Micah's side. She didn't know Seth well and somehow had never really warmed up to him. Not that she had ever directly said so, but Kay suspected she didn't get what Kay saw in him as a person. From the moment Kay had introduced him to her at a party, Micah had immediately categorized Seth. Guys who looked like that couldn't be cool and multi-layered – Micah’s theory. The fact that Kay knew him much better and could attest for the theory not applying here hadn't been able to sway Micah in her preconception. That was Micah for you – quick to judge and hard to bring around.

"No, he doesn't have a girlfriend." Kay told her, not able to withhold the annoyance from her tone. "And will you stop calling him that? It's offending me." 

At that, Micah laughed out loud. "It's offending you?"

Kay rolled her eyes, snorting. "And unfair to him, obviously. But you're implying I'm not a good judge of character. Do you seriously still think I would be such close friends with Seth if he was some shallow bore?"

"Girl, come on." Micah put her hand on Kay's knee. "I never said that. He's obviously a nice guy. Him and I just don't vibe well, that's all."

"You are the one not vibing", Kay corrected her, holding up a finger. "Seth's got nothing to do with it."

Micah sighed. "Look Dude, can we not argue about this? 'Cause I really, desperately want to fucking hear all the details already."

Kay huffed. Normally, she wouldn't have let this go. But right now, the part of her that needed to process last night was stronger. She took a deliberate, long lick of her yogurt ice cream, then intensely looked at her friend. "It was the best sex of my life."

The One Who Got Away – CH 4

Chapter 4

Part One: Disability Etiquette 

The van had parked several minutes ago already, but so far, it didn't look like anyone was getting out. Kay blew out some air. If she hadn’t known who was in there, it would have felt like a scene in some gangster movie. 

Still, she wondered what was going on. The windows were tinted, so she couldn't see inside – they probably could see her, though. Was Seth having second thoughts or something? 

But then the automatic door on the side suddenly started to open, bringing him into view. And an  unexpected wave of nausea swept over Kay.

She knew it was stupid, but seeing Seth in that big wheelchair he now steered onto a platform lift was almost as much of a blow as it had been the first time. Back in his parents' living room, it had all seemed surreal. But here he was, in the parking lot of Lakeside Park, still just as paralyzed as he had been a few days ago. And his disability suddenly appeared more blatant to Kay, magnified – it felt… real. She swallowed as she uncrossed her feet, straightening in her posture.

In the meantime, a blond guy with a beard and a man-bun had jumped out of the van. He was about their age and looked like one of those super laid back hipsters and not at all what Kay had imagined Seth's care assistant to be like – which, if she thought about it, was pretty ridiculous on her end, because she didn't actually know what else she had expected. 

During the process of the lift descending, Seth tried to look anywhere but at her, repeatedly rolling his neck. He's nervous. Kay knew his body language inside out – well, that of his former body. He would have scratched the back of his neck right now, or run a hand through his hair. But those days were over, so rolling his neck it was.

Once he was on the ground and propelling the chair forward, Kay slowly started to walk toward him. It felt like an impossible distance. But then Seth finally met her gaze, and the eye contact immediately made her feel calmer. Like it always had. She smiled. 

"Hey", he said, and his shoulders twitched as if they failed to respond to an instinctive brain command.

"Hi." Bending down, Kay gave him a peck on the cheek, her hand on his shoulder. That he wasn't able to touch her back still felt strange.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting", he said. "Sometimes it takes a while to get out." He turned his head to look behind him. "This is Brian, my PCA."

"Hi Brian", Kay extended her hand to the guy. "I‘m Kay."

He shook it, a curiously bemused smirk playing his lips. "Nice to meet you, Kay." He flashed his employer a look, and Seth stifled a chuckle.

Kay looked back and forth between the two men, raising a curious eyebrow. "What."

Seth gave her one of those disarming smiles of his, dimples showing. "Brian just lost a bet", he explained. "We have this game where we speculate how people are going to react to us."

"Not to us as a pair." Brian interjected to clarify. "But to him as a quad and to me as his carer."

"Right", Kay drawled. "And I did what?"

"You shook his hand and introduced yourself." Seth stated with a content smile. "Which I told him you would.“

Boys. With a lopsided smirk, Kay crossed her arms. "As opposed to what?"

"Barely saying hello", Brian replied with a shrug. "Some people think they're supposed to pretend I'm not there. Like a butler."

Now Kay couldn't help but laugh. "That's what you predicted I would do?"

Sheepishly, Brian scratched his beard. "Well, no."

"He said you would say Hi with a wave", Seth smirked.

Kay tsk-ed in mock disapproval, then she gave Seth a fond smile. "I'm glad you knew better."

He smiled back, then shifted his shoulders and pointed his chin towards the park. "Shall we?"

"Let's." 

The One Who Got Away – CH 5

Chapter 5

Part One: Cold Grip

It all went so fast that Kay didn't even have time to grasp what was happening. One minute Seth was perfectly fine, the next he inhaled sharply and his face scrunched up in a grimace.

"Are you ok?" she asked uneasily, but she didn't get an answer. In a matter of seconds, he was profusely breaking out in a sweat on head and neck, and his skin color turned to bright red. 

Kay's heart skipped a beat, something icy closing its grip around her insides. "Seth?"

"Get Brian", he grunted through clenched teeth, and Kay jumped up from her chair.  

Hearing her shout his name was all it took for the PCA to practically drop his coffee onto the bench in a heartbeat and hurry over to them. Either the guy had very fine instincts, or she had just sounded as alarmed as she was. 

Standing before Seth and taking one look at him, Brian seemed to have an idea what was going on. He grabbed and ripped open a backpack that was hanging on the back of the wheelchair, and a second later, he had slipped a blood pressure device around the other man's floppy wrist. Then he put a hand on his shoulder "Seth." 

Seth didn't answer – he was too busy squeezing his eyes shut and pressing his head back against the headrest with a groan. 

"Can you look at me?" Brian addressed him again, this time touching his face. "Come on dude." 

Now those dark eyes squinted open, but he was barely even seeing him, obviously in some kind of agony. Kay bit down on her bottom lip, her trembling hands clenching until they hurt. She had never seen Seth in pain.

The blood pressure monitor beeped, in a particularly high-pitched tone. Brian cursed softly upon reading the number on the display. He crouched down and started pushing up the jeans on Seth's right leg, revealing a bag halfway filled with urine, strapped to a pale calf. Kay swallowed, averting her eyes, because she knew Seth wouldn't have wanted her to look. 

For a short moment, her peripheral vision registered their surroundings. The other guests in the café, along with Server Guy, were staring at them like it was a blockbuster movie, and people who were walking by slowed their pace to see what was going on. Kay wanted to murder them all. 

Blinking, she looked back at Brian, who was shaking his head to himself now, a frown on his face. From his crouching position, he looked up at her. "Did something happen just now? Anything that could have hurt him in some way?"

Utterly confused, she shook her head. "What do you mean? We were just talking."

Brian didn't answer. He started undoing the straps across Seth's feet, then took off his sneakers and socks.

Meanwhile, Seth was still moaning and sweating, jaw clenched, eyes squeezed shut again. Kay went to stand at his side, tentatively laying a hand on his shoulder. 

And that was when she saw it. 

It was clinging to the back of his right upper arm, half concealed by the short sleeve of his navy blue shirt, and it had stung at least twice. That damn wasp. With a soft curse, Kay instinctively ripped the insect off. "Seth", she uttered. "Are you allergic to wasps?"

The slightest confusion crossed the grimace that currently was his face. "What?" he asked, his voice strained.

"No, he's not", Brian threw in, looking up sharply. "Why, is there a bite?"

New Book!

 Hi everyone, Devo Girl here with news that I have published another novel about a blind guy. 

It's about a real person, Vasily Eroshenko, a blind man from the Ukrainian/Russian border, who traveled to Tokyo in 1915 and got involved with anarcho-feminist activists. It's told from the point of view of Kamichika Ichiko, also a real person with her own wild history, who was one of his closest friends. 

This book is a little different from my previous novels in that it's not a romance and it doesn't have a happily ever after ending. As we know from history, the leftist activists in Japan did not succeed in preventing the fascist militarism that led to WWII. But when I learned the real story of Eroshenko, I just had to share it with you. I think you'll agree that the things he achieved were amazing, and his writing on ableism is still relevant today. Also Lovis says it's devvy. Thank you, Lovis!! 

If you liked my previous historical novel set in Japan, Flowers by Night, you will love this one too. 

Eroshenko is available now for pre-order on Amazon, to be released on Feb. 10. If you don't want to support that corrupt company, I totally get it. The book will also be available in wide release, including Bookshop.org. I will update those links later.

Please do pre-order and leave reviews. It makes a huge difference in the visibility and availability of the book. Thank you!

Eroshenko

by Lucy May Lennox

Tokyo, 1915

While WWI rages, half a world away, Tokyo is a hotbed of radical ideas, as cosmopolitan intellectuals and activists from around the world cross paths in a rapidly modernizing city. Socialists and anarchists, musicians and artists from Japan, China, Korea, India, and Russia all passionately advocate for a more just and equal world.

Blind Ukrainian Vasily Eroshenko is drawn to Tokyo in search of greater opportunities and respect for blind people. At a salon for radicals on the second floor of a bakery, he meets the anarcho-feminists of Bluestocking magazine, fearless women fighting for bodily autonomy and free love. 

Kamichika Ichiko is a contributor to Bluestocking and the first woman reporter at the Tokyo Daily News. She is most at home among the Bluestockings who dress like men and engage in “sister” relationships. Yet she is drawn to Eroshenko and helps him publish his political fables.

As Eroshenko becomes a celebrated writer and public speaker, he becomes more outspoken in advocating for socialism, feminism, and disability rights, but the authorities will not long tolerate this disruptive foreigner. 

Based on extraordinary, heartbreaking true events, Eroshenko is a wild fever dream of utopianism, polyamory, artistic creation, jealousy, and persecution, unfurling against the backdrop of Japan’s belle époque, called Taishō Romanticism. When high and low, East and West, old and new intermingled, these activists dreamed of a better world, trying to stem the tide of growing fascism.