The Galvanized Gimp (1)

   
   "The Galvanized Gimp (1)"
   
   Jude Rokavic, named such as his erudite mother had paged through Jude the Obscure by Hardy, which T. S. Eliot applauded vocally as being:  "The greatest work of literary sublimity."  Too bad people don't connect the dots about it today.  Too much zombie on the mind.  Not knowing, like having a credit card in the 70's and 80's was the only way you could pass through the allegorical gates, rent a video at the store, the whole bag of magically venomous beans.
   Anyway, Jude was a lovely boy, born without legs, and tooled around, though he wasn't a tool, in his wheelchair, powered by arm strength, using his mind to journey to wonderful places.
   His mother home-schooled him.  Taught the young adolescent about all the poets and sci-fi prophets, starting with Blake and Shelley, reminding him of today's computerized dangers, Blake having blasted the Industrial Revolution by way of verse, saying:  "Satanic slave mines that rob men of their imagination."  Next, another autodidact, as was Shelley and Blake, a more modern man, Philip K. Dick, showcasing how technology would transform into terror; thus, the corporeally manipulated wheelchair, which was powered by the arms, which were powered by the spirit.
   Jude's days were filled with reading and classical music; plus, opera, having a particular fancy for Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.  His Dad was absent, not being able to face a gimp of a child, blaming the mother, himself, the boy, pharmaceutical companies; plus, everything under and beyond the shimmering Sun.  But Jude's mother was loyal and would never let another man dominated by humping hubris invade her now inviolate life.  She was Jude's guardian and mirror of justice.