Page 5 of Untouchable

* * *

The pointof Parker stepping outside is so a client can get on the table and under the sheet without being exposed, but Parker’s found that often, clients get so stressed out that they’re hopeless at following instructions. Harp’s posture is almost defiant, his shoulder tense and his jaw set—he’s clearly intensely uncomfortable.

“Okay, Harp,” he says with a nod. He smiles. “I’ll have you hop on the table now, laying on your back under the sheet.”

Harp, he thinks. I like that. Much better than Morton.

Harp gets up on the table, noticeably stiff, though Parker can’t tell if it’s from nerves or from injury. The client is so tense he’s practically levitating off the table, but Parker is in his element now. He’s good at this—guiding patients through their discomfort, helping them relax, helping them learn to trust him, and he’s sure he can help Harp, too.

“So we’ll start with a couple basic mobility exercises,” Parker says, repeating what he’d said before, his voice going slightly hushed and lilted. It’s a subtle change in how he talks, but it usually goes a long way towards helping soothe them. “So basically all you need to do is relax and let me move your body for you. Tell me if you feel very strong pain, okay, Harp?”

He can already tell he’s going to need to be checking in on Harp quite a bit throughout this session.

When he starts, he gets into the zone quickly, and the stress and confusion that have led up to this moment vanishes. He quickly arranges the draping, pulled snug against Harp to prevent him feeling exposed, and smoothly begins to move Harp’s limbs, narrating his actions as he does so. Harp has gone absolutely boneless, letting Parker move him just like he asked. This is helpful for Parker, but it’s also immediately clear that the accident—and whatever physical therapy he did, or probably didn’t do—has left him with very little mobility and quite a lot of pain.

* * *

With the kid'sgentle demeanor, Harp expects tentative, unsure touches. Instead, strong hands begin to move him as he lays face up.

The pain kicks in immediately. His consciousness floats away from him, like his grasp on his own physical existence is suddenly tenuous now that another person is involved.

Parker talks steadily in a low, easy voice, explaining what he’s finding and what that means in terms of treatment.

The pain is nothing new and it's not unexpected. Harp isn’t concentrating on the pain. He's trying not to concentrate on anything.

As the searing sensations fade into the background, it’s difficult to reconcile the man touching him now with the one he met outside a few minutes ago. Parker seems to occupy more space somehow as he speaks soft and moves Harp's limbs around like a marionette's.

Everything Parker says has a practiced quality, and after a few minutes, it's easier for Harp to forget the sharp gravel sensation in each of his joints below the waist, easier to forget his anxieties surrounding the appointment and having a stranger in his home.

For just a second, Harp settles into the idea that he's nothing more than another random client for a random massage therapist.

The guy is licensed. Of course you're just another piece of meat.

The thought relaxes him. Feeling insignificant always does.

He can probably smell you though...

And then he's right back in it: wondering what sort of bizarre patterns of hair might be growing in places he can't reach, absolutely sure that he must stink and Parker is just being polite.

“Great job,” Parker says, gently lowering Harp’s leg back onto the table. “Now we’ll check out the other leg. How are you feeling so far?”

"Great," Harp says through a jaw he's trying desperately not to clench.

Parker pauses, looking down at Harp pointedly.

“You have to communicate with me,” he says gently. “If it hurts, tell me that. I’m not in your head. I’m not in your body. I need you to keep talking to me so I know.”

Harp knows he should just tell the truth and let them get on with this, but the words are out of his mouth before he has the sense to stop them.

"It's really fine. Not too bad."

* * *

Parker is frustrated,but not deterred. It’s obvious Harp is going to need a lot of coaxing. Parker has found that, ironically, it’s the clients who seem dead set on self-reliance who end up needing the most support from him. It seems like Harp is no different.

“I know that’s a lie,” Parker says with a kind smile. He reaches down, lightly palpating part of Harp’s hip through the cotton of the sheet, where he can feel how tense Harp’s muscles are.

Harp shrugs on the table. "The pain just doesn't bother me that much."

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