Orin aloft: "spare the Leg"

The prayer Orin whispers before each landing is the book's purest statement of athlete-as-equipment: not spare me but "spare the Leg" — the man reduced, in his own most private plea, to the one capitalized body-part that earns his living. Everything else about Orin can break; the Leg is the asset, the instrument the whole career depends on, and it is the Leg he prays for. The body monetized down to a single limb, mourned in advance.