“I’m Leo. I heard you screaming,” the boy said. “Does it hurt when you try to move your legs?”
Dominic let out a humorless laugh, bitter as ashes. “Hurt? No. Pain is a luxury. I don’t feel anything. I am broken. Nothing will ever fix me.”
The boy tilted his head, unbothered by the anger or the grandeur of the man before him. “My mother says that no one is truly broken if God wills it.”
Dominic’s brow furrowed, anger sparking at the naive optimism. “God? That is nonsense. I have spent millions, consulted the greatest doctors across the globe, and nothing has changed. No miracle exists for me, little boy.”
The boy’s gaze did not waver. Dominic’s own voice softened, almost without realizing it. “Tell me, kid,” he said, leaning forward slightly. “If, somehow, you could make me walk again, I would give you everything. This house, the cars, my entire fortune. Signed, sealed, no questions. But if you fail, you leave me to my misery, and I will not stop you.”
The boy blinked, absorbing the weight of the offer, but he did not flinch. Without asking permission, he knelt on the grass, reaching up to place his small, grimy hand atop Dominic’s knee, right over the fine Italian trousers.
“Can I pray for you, Mister Dominic?” the boy asked softly.
Dominic opened his mouth to shoo him away, to rebuke him, but he found himself rooted in place. There was an innocence in those dark eyes, a sincerity that demanded trust.
“Do as you wish,” he whispered, exhaling through the cracks of disbelief.
The boy closed his eyes and whispered, not a memorized prayer, but words from his heart.
“God, please watch over Mr. Dominic. He is very sad. He has everything, yet he cannot walk. Doctors say it is impossible, but you made them too. Please give him strength, let him move, let him feel grass under his feet again. Amen.”
It lasted barely ten seconds, yet the courtyard seemed to vibrate with an unseen energy. Dominic waited for the familiar disappointment, the crushing reality of paralysis, but instead, something extraordinary happened.
A searing heat blossomed at the point where the boy’s hand rested on his knee. He gasped. It was followed by an electric tingling that raced up his spine, stronger than any sensation he had ever experienced.
“AHHH!” he screamed, arching in his wheelchair as his legs convulsed involuntarily.