Hand and Foot

The girl’s name was Hand and his name was Foot. They met one day when she was building a city out of sand on the beach. Towers surrounded by walls and rows of huts and houses with grainy yards and seaweed trees emerged from Hand who worked endlessly. Hand never got tired. She was forming two bridges over a moat that surrounded the tallest tower when she heard a sound like someone being punched over and over. It was a slap followed by a thump and the thump sounded like a heart beating or maybe breaking. It was getting louder because it was getting closer. Hand had slapped many things like other hands and dough when she made bread, but she had not heard a sound like this.

She heard Heart beating once when she was small and young. She lay on her mother’s chest and learned what Heart sounded like. Her mother was called Face. Face taught her the names of everything in the world she had ever seen because Hand always asked. Hand wanted to create things and build things and sometimes, when what she saw wasn’t good, she wanted to tear things down. Face taught her to be careful with her building, creating, and tearing because Eyes and Brains and Lips were always watching.

“Do you mean that you are watching, Face? You have eyes and brains and lips,” Hand asked her mother.

“No,” Face said. “Eyes are everywhere. Eyes will hold you accountable for what you build or tear down. Eyes will acknowledge what you create. Brains will explain your actions and Lips will tell everyone about the things you make. You are Hand and are responsible for moving things. Your movement is meaningless without Eyes and Brains and Lips. You’re a team that works together and answers to no one but Heart.”

Face put Hand on her chest and let her listen to Heart.
“That’s Heart? She’s inside you?” she asked her mother.

“Yes, Heart is in me. She’s also in you and almost everyone you’ll ever meet.”

Hand rested on Face and listened to the thump of Heart. It sounded good and she didn’t want it to stop.

Hand smoothed the sides of the bridge that stretched over the moat and listened to the thump approaching. There was a slap, then the thump like Heart, then the thump she did not know. She did not want to stop working on her city in the sand because it was going to be a great accomplishment, but she had to stop and see what was passing with such a sound. She looked up and saw Foot for the first time.

Foot was strong. He reminded Hand of herself--five appendages, tiny hairs on one side and smooth skin on the other, nails lying in their beds, soft veins resting--only Foot moved differently because he carried and supported so much. Foot flattened the sand beneath him and seemed never to tire of stepping on things.

As he got closer, Foot began to realize he was approaching a beautiful city made of sand. He thought for a moment about the many homes he had tried to make on this beach and how they were always just mounds of sand he had packed together with the bottom of himself. He watched as Hand trimmed away sand to reveal ledges and windows and tiny door knobs. How articulate she is, Foot thought. If only I had fingers to mold sand into castles, I could create such beauty as this creature does. Foot admired a small forest of sand trees Hand had formed on the outskirts of her city. She pretended not to notice Foot as he paced around the edge of the trees. Finally he asked her name.

“I’m Hand,” she said as she curled her fingers and bowed to Foot. He said he was Foot and curled his toes.

“I admire your work, Hand,” Foot said. “I’ve always wanted to live in a place like this.”

“Oh you can!” Hand said and blushed. She kept looking at his toes, her fingers reaching toward them slightly. She wanted so badly to touch his toes. “Well I mean,” she started, “once I can find a foundation firm enough to build on. I also need a sturdier material to work with. I’m able to smooth the sand into a flat surface, but it isn’t strong.”

“I know a way to make things harden,” Foot said.

“How is that?” asked Hand.

“It’s easy. You walk on them,” he said.

Hand remembered vaguely doing something like walking when she was only a baby. She worked with Knee to move along. She seemed to remember someone like Foot taking over the walk and that’s when she began to create things. She never tried walking again because she found that staring down at the ground was too depressing. She preferred to look ahead.

“I think I know how to walk on things, but I don’t like to,” she said to Foot. “Also, I’m not very good at it.” She blushed again, embarrassed at how quickly she gave personal information away.

“I could do it for you,” Foot said. He blushed too because he offered so eagerly. Hand accepted right away and Foot began to stomp around. She watched in awe as he pressed the sand together efficiently. The square of sand he pushed down on started to shine. It was as if the millions of grains were pressed together so well they began to form a rocklike surface. Hand couldn’t believe how talented Foot was. It was when Foot looked up and took notice of Hand’s admiration that he accidently stomped on a tree. Foot was not used to being appreciated.

As days passed and turned into weeks and months, Hand and Foot worked together. Foot would smash the ground and make a nice place for Hand to create sand statues and flowers and cars--all kinds of things to fill the city. It’s true that sometimes Foot accidentally stomped on the things Hand made, but she never got mad. She knew that one day, he would learn to build like her. She just smoothed her fingers over his toes and told him it was okay. It’s true that sometimes they stayed this way for days. It’s true that Hand eventually lost site of her city.

It had been almost a year since Foot stomped into Hand’s life and she still loved to watch him work. He still loved for her to watch him. He wanted to know what it was like to be Hand and to wave and touch and be seen. All he did was carry weight and stare at the ground all day. It felt good to change the sand into stone and for someone to make use of it, but Foot began to long for an extension of himself. he knew that he could never connect to hand in that way. He only thought of this for a moment and went back to working and basking in Hands admiration.

Hand began to wonder if Foot loved her the way she loved him. She decided he did and thought maybe Foot loved her because of how she made him feel about himself. She gave him a new purpose and made him feel beautiful. She told him he had the bluest veins and delicate bones. His dark hair made a lovely contrast against olive skin. His muscles were graceful. Hand never wished to extend beyond what she could see in front of her. Hand could only see Foot and she told him so.

Once when Hand was dusting sand away from the features of a riverbed in her city, she looked up to find Foot very close to her. He looked tired, but antsy. “I want to take a nap, but I can’t sleep,” he said.

“Why not?” Hand asked.

“My muscles are sore,” he said.

Hand blushed as she offered to massage Foot. He said she could try and when she pressed her fingers into his muscles, Foot melted. She never admired him more than when she was taking tension away. Foot fell right to sleep.

Hand massaged Foot every day until he fell asleep. Then Hand got back to work. It went this way until Hand began to fall asleep too. Eventually, Hand and Foot just put each other to sleep every day and only talked about their dreams when they were awake. Their city of castles and streets slowly became dirty hills and grainy fields of sand as they rolled around admiring each other and dozing.

One day Hand woke up to find that Foot was gone. He had left before, but never without telling her where he was going. Hand tried to keep herself busy so that she wouldn’t worry, but found she had trouble building things in the sand. It scratched her skin and made her muscles cramp because she had not been building anything for so long. Hand was out of practice. She settled on tracing floor plans in the sand all day because it didn’t work her too hard. All the while, she listened for that familiar thump. She didn’t hear it until the moon had almost reached the other side of the sky. She asked Foot where he had been.

“I met someone,” he said. “Her name is Leg.”

Hand curled into a fist and cried. Foot tried to console her by stepping on her fingers and kicking sand at her. He tried to tell her he still cared about her so much. He told her he never meant for her to fall in love with him. He thought they were just a hand and foot spending time on a beach in the sun. No matter what he said, Hand coiled tighter into a fist and cried louder. Eventually, Foot gave up and joined Leg to do what he did best. He walked away.

Hand stayed in a fist for many nights and days. Numerous creatures passed through the ruins of her city and said they wished they had a place to stay. “Would you build a city for us to live in?” they would ask and Hand would tighten her fist and begin to cry until they passed by.

It was not until Face came and presented Hand with a gift that she loosened her fingers to expose her palm again. She had to open her fist to receive the sticks her mother brought for her. “Hand, you have to begin building a new city. You can’t just lie in the sand and stare at the stars every night for the rest of your life. These sticks will make a stronger place to live than you have ever imagined. Face placed her cheek against Hand’s palm and then kissed her goodbye. Hand lifted a stick and began to construct a new foundation on the sand.

It was not until Hand’s new place was completely built and she had lived in it for months that she was visited by Eyes, Lips, and Brains. They came as a group and examined the work of Hand. “Your home is so impressive I may cry,” said Eyes as he inspected the handiwork before him closely. Hand extended a finger to catch the blob of moisture that dripped out of Eyes. Lips said she wanted to tell everyone of the structure Hand created. Brains thought about it and decided Lips should. They stayed and visited over tea for a while. Before Eyes, Lips, and Brains set off on their way, Hand said she had a question.

“Will I ever love again?” she asked shyly. Hand felt embarrassed to ask such a selfish question. Eyes said he had seen a creature called Arm once. Lips told her that she would have to look beyond the sea. Brains thought about it and decided Hand should try. Hand thanked all three of them and told them goodbye. When Face came to visit the next morning, Hand was already busy turning her sticks into a raft. Face helped Hand and together they made the raft into an entire ship by the time the sun had set. Face watched as Hand sailed toward the horizon in search of Arm and together they felt it when Heart swelled.