The Sixteen Seconds
She wears an ankle-foot orthosis.
It is a carbon fiber brace inside her shoe and she has had six of them as she has grown and she picks the color.
She has had three further operations since.
She will probably have one or two more.
She walks.
She walks well, with a limp that people notice and do not ask about, and she swims competitively, and she cannot run distance and never will.
She was nine.
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