Inktober 2026 - 25 - Fracture

A sturdy man was sitting on an examination table, looking around him and dangling his legs like a little kid, unbothered by his surroundings that would make most people at least uneasy. A woman in a lab coat then came to him, going through the privacy curtain to reach him.

“Good morning, Mister… Argyle?”

“That’s right. Like the socks,” he confirmed.

“My name is Doctor Durant, I’m an orthopaedist,” the woman introduced herself.

He could not help but notice how pretty she was. He usually dealt with older male Doctors, so that was nice.

“No offense, but aren’t health checks a bit above your pay grade?” he asked mischievously.

“Well, I’m a physician first and foremost, regardless of the specialty I chose to pursue. Also, in this instance, my colleague insisted I be the one to take a look at you today.”

Her patient nodded, and then took a deep breath that he let out in a sigh.

“Look, Doc, I know my own chart. I was there for all of it. Granted, my first broken bone I was an infant, so I don’t remember it, and the first one I do remember, as a toddler, apparently wasn’t my second one, but other than those early days, I do have a vivid memory of every fracture I ever suffered.”

“Do you? Do you really?” the Doctor insisted.

When she had been shown the x-rays, she had thought it was a joke. They looked more like a bunch jigsaw puzzles of the human skeleton than genuine radiographs. This man had broken almost every single bone in his body, safe maybe the ones in his internal ear. Some of them, he had even fractured multiple times. There were so many metal plates in his body that he could possibly have a claim to the term cyborg.

“Want me to list them?” he offered defiantly.

The strange thing was, he did not seem bothered by all of this. He had not lost his smile.

“That will not be necessary. But I do worry about the continued risk of injury.”

“Listen, I was beaten as a child. If it makes you feel any better, the last time my father-in-law broke something of mine, I broke something of his. After that, obviously, I became somewhat of a feisty teenager. When I came of age, I enlisted and saw combat. And now I’m a Park ranger who specialises in search and rescue. This is just who I am.”

“Mister Argyle, are you aware that if you break any of your limbs one more time, you could lose it?”

“Of course. The previous Doc told me. I came close with this leg, actually. I’m prepared for it.”

She just stood there blinking, unable to find the words to respond to that level of selflessness.

“My body has proven that it can endure a lot. What kind of man does that make me if I chose not to use that for good, huh?”