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18 views50 pages

Magento 2 Theme Design 2nd Edition Fernando J Miguel

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Magento 2 Theme Design - Second Edition
Table of Contents
Magento 2 Theme Design - Second Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Why subscribe?
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Downloading the example code
Errata
Piracy
Questions
1. Introduction to Magento 2
What is Magento?
Magento 2's features
Differences between Magento 1 and Magento 2
Showcase of Magento themes
Venroy
Alcatel Onetouch
Cultcha Kids
Challenges of Magento 2 theme design
Why create a custom Magento 2 theme?
Installing Magento 2
XAMPP PHP development environment
XAMPP installation
XAMPP for Windows installation
XAMPP for Linux installation
XAMPP for OS X installation
Downloading Magento 2
Summary
2. Exploring Magento Themes
Magento terminology
Magento vendors and themes
Magento websites and Magento stores
What makes a Magento theme?
Unique aspects of a Magento theme
Default Magento 2 themes
Magento Luma theme
Magento Blank theme
Blocks and pages in Magento
Magento theme inheritance
Custom Variables
Good practices in Magento theming
Summary
3. Magento 2 Theme Layout
Magento 2 and Model-View-Controller architecture
Magento 2 Command-Line Interface
Magento 2 theme files
Magento 2 cache system
Magento 2 layout system
Creating your first Magento 2 theme
Magento Modes
Disabling Magento's cache
Theme development
Creating the static files directories
Creating a theme logo
Applying the theme
Magento 2 theme debug
Summary
4. Magento UI Library
Magento 2 UI
LESS and CSS preprocessing
Custom variables
Functions
Mixins
Operators
Nestings
LESS compilation in Magento 2
The Magento UI library
Testing the Magento UI library
Summary
5. Creating a Responsive Magento 2 Theme
The BookStore theme project
Managing dependencies with Composer
Installing Composer on Unix-like operating systems
Installing Composer on Windows
Building the BookStore theme
Applying new CSS to the BookStore theme
Creating the BookStore logo
Changing your store's design
Adding content with Magento CMS
Displaying featured categories on the home page
Developing Magento 2 templates
Summary
6. Magento 2 Styles Debugging
Increasing productivity by creating flow test styles
Debugging styles in Magento
Client-side debugging mode
Server-side debugging mode
Using the Grunt task runner to debug
Installing Node.js on Linux
Installing Node.js on Windows
Installing Node.js on OSX
Installing Grunt
Testing Grunt
grunt watch
Applying changes to Bookstore with Grunt
Summary
7. Magento UI Components
The Magento UI components
UI listing/grid component
UI listing/grid secondary components
Filter
Pagination
TreeMass action
Column
UI-select
Multiselect
Inline edit
Bookmark
Resize
Sticky header
Export button
File uploader
Form component
UI components control definition file
Magento sample module form
Summary
8. Magento Layout Development
The Magento page layout
Layout instructions and types
Extend and override a layout
Layout customizations
Set the page layout
Managing static resources
Working with static blocks
Working with dynamic blocks
Customizing templates
Customizing templates with a new language
Summary
9. Magento 2 JavaScript
Magento 2 JavaScript structure
Initializing and locating JavaScript component
Initializing JavaScript
Mapping the JavaScript resources
Magento jQuery widgets
Creating a Tabs widget
Creating a jCarousel component for Promo module
Summary
10. Social Media in Magento 2
Magento components
Development workflow
Understanding the composer.json
Developing the Sweet Tweet module
The Twitter REST API
The Twitter OAuth library
The Module directory structure
Coding the composer.json file
Declaring the XML configuration files and registration.php
Programming the controllers
Programming the blocks
Programming the Observer
Programming the View layer
Enabling the module
Summary
11. Theme Development Best Practices
Why I should worry about it?
Best practices in Magento 2 development
Always use the Magento architecture
The Magento technology stack
PHP standard recommendations
PSR-1 – basic coding standards
PSR-2 – coding style guide
PSR-4 – autoloader
Strategies for customizing your themes
Seeking external resources to improve
Community Magento
The Magento 2 official repository
The Magento blog
Magento Stack Exchange
Blogs about Magento development
Inchoo
Mukesh Chapagain
Alan Storm
Summary
12. Magento Theme Distribution
The packaging process
Packaging your theme
Magento component validation
Hosting your theme
Hosting your project on GitHub and Packagist
Hosting your project in a private repository
Magento Marketplace
Submitting your theme
Summary
Magento 2 Theme Design - Second Edition
Magento 2 Theme Design - Second Edition
Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except
in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information
presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express
or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held
liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and
products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot
guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: July 2009

Second edition: October 2016

Production reference: 1241016

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham

B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78588-822-9

www.packtpub.com
Credits
Authors
Project Coordinator
Fernando J Miguel
Ritika Manoj
Richard Carter

Commissioning Editor Proofreader

Wilson D'souza Safis Editing

Acquisition Editor Indexer

Smeet Thakkar Tejal Daruwale Soni

Content Development Editor Graphics

Parshva Sheth Kirk D'Penha

Technical Editor Production Coordinator

Rutuja Vaze Shraddha Falebhai

Copy Editor

Safis Editing
About the Author
Fernando J Miguel has been working with software development since 2003 and has continued
researching methods to improve his skills through hard work and commitment. He has worked with
CMS since 2004 and Magento, specifically, since 2009.

A Certified Professional Scrum Master by the Scrum Alliance, he loves to apply agile as a way of
life and improves himself to achieve excellence in work and customers and team satisfaction. He has
a background on different technologies and is always seeking the best solution for the current project.

As a University professor, he motivates students to find their own paths and seek excellence in their
professional IT careers.

Fernando has a bachelor's degree in Information Systems (Módulo University – Caraguatatuba/SP –


Brazil). He has post graduated in Project Management/PMI-PMBOK (Cruzeiro do Sul University –
São Paulo/SP – Brazil).

He worked as a Technical Reviewer for Magento 1.4 Theming cookbook, Mastering Magento,
Mastering Magento [Video], Mastering Magento Theme Design.

He was the Author of Magento 2 Development Essentials (2016).

I dedicate all my work to my brother Wagner for all the support. Without family support, I
never could be here. Thank you to all my family.
About the Reviewer
Richard Carter is a seasoned front-end web developer who has worked with Magento since 2008.
He lives in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England.

He is the founder of the e-commerce agency Peacock Carter, an e-commerce and web design agency
based in the North East of England, and has worked for clients including the Scottish Government,
City & Guilds, NHS, and the University of Edinburgh.

Richard is the author of four books on Magento, including Magento Responsive Theme Design, and
has written three further books on e-commerce and content management systems.

Thanks to Gillian, who is forever at my side.


www.PacktPub.com
For support files and downloads related to your book, please visit www.PacktPub.com.

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available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book
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On demand and accessible via a web browser

To my grandmother Mildes and my mother Edneia, wherever they are, I'm sure they are very
happy with my work. To my beloved wife Elizabete for the countless hours of patience with my
work. Love you.
Preface
Digital buyers are increasing the economy around the world, and Information Technology (IT) is
providing the necessary subsidies to allow the customers to buy services and products over the
Internet. According to the research conducted by Statista (http://goo.gl/BSCiuO), in 2016, 1.12
billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online.

Since the launch of Amazon.com, the first commercial-free 24-hour e-commerce website, the universe
of software development’s techniques have evolved and new approaches are emerging, such as cloud
computing: previously, an embryonic idea, today a concrete application.

The Magento Commerce company, recognized as the leading e-commerce platform in the 2015
Internet Retailer Top 1000, B2B 300, and Hot 100 lists, is in constant evolution since the first
Magento Community Edition (CE) system version in 2008. Launched recently, Magento CE 2.0 has
great features and takes advantage of the newest client-server techniques, providing a mature e-
commerce system and a promising professional area to explore.

Magento CE 2.0 works with a modern theming and layout framework, extensive and efficient APIs,
stable interfaces with the business logic layer and, mainly, a reliable system to allow the
implementation of custom functionalities.

Magento 2 Theme Development covers the newest concepts in Magento theme development. The
mission of this book is to give to the readers the necessary information to start mastering the Magento
Theme Development concepts.

Enjoy the read.


Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The
Disembodied Man
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The Disembodied Man

Author: Jack Owen Jardine

Release date: September 13, 2021 [eBook #66283]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Greenleaf Publishing Company

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed


Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE


DISEMBODIED MAN ***
The Disembodied Man
By Larry Maddock

George remembered riding on the El with


the sad girl across from him. Then there was
nothing—nothing but blackness, and a voice....

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from


Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
April 1954
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
This, he thought, is a crazy way to die.
"You're not dying, George. You're just beginning to live."
He started, tried to see her. I didn't say anything!
"Yes you did," she insisted, in that same low voice. "You said, 'This is
a crazy way to die.'"
George tried to prop himself up on his elbows—but suddenly he
realized that he had no elbows!
"Don't worry, George. Just rest. You'll be all right."
How—where am I?
"Just rest," she repeated, and then she was gone. George thought
about her for a long time, before dropping off to sleep.

It was a cold night, and lonely, for George Jameson. He paced the
floor of his apartment, back and forth, into the kitchen, into the hall,
through the bedroom, back and forth.
"God!" he said, although there was no one there to hear him. "Two
years! And where am I?"
Angrily, he reached for his coat. Maybe some fresh air would do him
good. He buttoned the coat, fumbled for his overcoat.
Then he walked outdoors.
It was snowing. The clean, white, slippery kind of snow that stays for
a while, then quickly turns into Chicago slush. Instinctively, he turned
his collar up against the cold, and headed for the El, a sentimental
relic of the 20th century just past.
The snow was coming down in big, lazy flakes that caught
themselves in the wind and buffeted against his overcoat. Streetlights
cast weird shadows across the white. George could hear the faint
crunch-crunch his shoes made. Half-turning he looked at his tracks
behind him.
"Damn white stuff!" He hunched his shoulders more, pulled his neck
down into the folds of his collar. "Puts a pure clean blanket over the
whole world—but all you have to do is walk on it and you can see the
dirt underneath!"
George climbed the steps to the elevated, bought a ticket to
anywhere. Then he sat down and waited for a train.
There was a girl waiting with him. She was pretty. George watched
her until the train pulled in, wondering what she was doing
wandering around Chicago at this time of night.
She got on the train with him, sat down in the seat across from him.
The train whined into motion.
"Hello," she said after a while.
"Hello," he replied, startled by her voice. People on elevated trains
don't go around saying "hello" to each other!
"Do you mind awfully much if I talk to you?"
"Go ahead." Nor, he thought, do they ask such questions of strange
men.
"Do you ever get lonely here in Chicago?"
George smiled. "Sometimes," he said. "You lonely, kid?"
"Awfully. I like to talk to strangers. Then I don't feel quite so lonely."
"Oh."
She was quiet for a minute, her eyes friendly, but her trim body stiff
against the city.
"Don't let the town get you down, kid." He was giving her advice!
She looked at him wistfully. "Maybe it's not so bad. Only the people
who are fitted to live in a world like this keep on living. There are a
lot of people who don't see it the way we do."
"Could be." She was a strange girl, he thought, to be talking this way.
Young, pretty, and fed up already. "Why do you ride the El at night?"
he asked.
She smiled. "I can meet people—other lonely people—who don't
know me and don't want to pry. I can talk to people, and learn
things. And then I never see them again. I can't talk to people in a
crowd."
Through the windows he could see the lights of a sleeping city flash
by like speeding fireflies. "Never thought of it that way," he said.
Suddenly, without warning, the hurtling elevated car leaped under
him. He was thrown to the floor as the car jumped the tracks and
twisted upon itself. George saw the lights go off and heard the girl
scream—and then her scream was cut off, sharply, by the grinding,
tearing crunch of impact.
Blackness.

"Good morning, George. Did sleep well?"


There she was again—that soft, quiet voice! Sleep? I don't know if I
did or not. Is it morning?
"Yes—a beautiful morning." Her voice was like lilacs, George thought.
Sweet, soft lilacs.
"Lilacs? Thank you, George."
Go away! I don't want you to hear my thinking.
"Then don't sub-vocalize. Don't worry, you'll soon get the hang of it.
Just think without trying to move your tongue and your lips, and I
can't hear you."
Where am I?
"You're in a hospital." Her voice was gentle, soft.
And you?
"I'm Karen—your nurse, George."
How bad am I? I mean—I remember being on an elevated train when
it crashed.
"You're going to be all right. The doctors will have you all put back
together again. You just need some new parts."
It was that bad, huh?
"You almost died. But you're alive now. Please get well, George."
What kind of shape am I in?
She didn't answer immediately. "How do you feel?"
I—I don't feel! What's the matter—! I can't feel my body! I—Where is
my body!
"George, please try to understand. You're safe, you're alive. You're
not crazy, and this isn't a nightmare...."
Where is my body? He tried to scream it, but no sound came.
"Please, listen to me. You're in a hospital. You're being kept alive by
the best doctors we have, and by machines made by those doctors.
Physically, there isn't much left of you, but we're going to give you a
new body. Please be patient. And please co-operate."
The thought was staggering. New body! Then all that's left of me is—
She finished it for him. "A brain in a jar, kept alive by pumps and
blood-conditioners and electronic impulses. I'm here to try to keep
you sane."
George was silent, thinking now in visual images instead of words. A
brain in a glass jar, surrounded by fantastic machinery to perform the
functions of the human body. And a woman's voice being piped in to
him, to keep him from going mad. He'd read about it somewhere—
that it had been tried, and was successful up to a point. But the
patient had died. He didn't want to die.
I'll try, he thought loudly. I'll try like hell!

George Jameson, or the part of him that was in the jar, learned
quickly. It was two days before he had thoroughly mastered the
knack of thinking to himself, and sub-vocalizing only to others. On the
third day he asked Karen for a description of his surroundings.
"You're in a glass jar, about the size and shape of a normal human
skull case. Leading in through the sides of the glass are several
plastic tubes, a jumble of wires, and a thermometer. Attached to all
of this is about a hundred pounds of machinery, gauges, and such."
I must be quite a handsome cuss.
"Oh, yes," she laughed. "Quite colorful, in fact. With those chrome-
plated fixtures, you cut quite a figure."
You're talking to me, Karen, and you can't hear me. Tell me, is this
being broadcast all over the place, or is it strictly a personal
conversation?
"George," she said, "you're somewhat of a novelty. The electrodes
that pick up your tiny nerve impulses—the sub-vocalization—feed the
signal into a computer-translator sort of thing that changes it into
words. Your voice is purely mechanical. It comes through earphones
from the translator. Of course, everything we say is automatically
recorded."
Is what I think—to myself, that is—is that recorded, too?
"No." Her voice had that same gentle, understanding quality. "We
respect your privacy."
Thanks. I don't guess there would be much I could do about it if you
didn't, though.
"I'm proud of you, George. You're taking all this quite calmly."
What have I got to gain by getting excited?
He could almost hear her smile. "Nothing."
Karen.
"What?"
You said something the other day that made me wonder. You said,
"Please get well." What did you mean by that?
She hesitated for perhaps a fraction of a second. "Professional pride,
I guess. And maybe it was just the thing to say."
Oh. He was silent for a while. Then these experiments haven't
worked out too well in the past. It was more of a statement than a
question.
He thought he detected a tightness in her voice. "George, you might
as well know. You're the first man to have ever progressed this far
without going hopelessly insane."
It's nice to know I'm not hopeless.
Silence.
I'm sorry, Karen. Maybe I talk too much.
"Would you like to hear some music?" Her voice was normal again,
soothing.
That would be nice. As long as it's relaxing. Something by Debussy,
or Beethoven, maybe. And please, Karen, accept my apologies for
mouthing off like that.
She laughed, softly. "We seem to be forgetting. You're supposed to
be the patient. Will you settle for Gershwin while I go hunt up some
classical stuff?"
Gladly, sweetheart. Play it softly, huh?

Karen.
"Yes, George."
You know more than I do what it's best for a patient to learn. Can
you tell me all about the setup here?
"Just what is it you want to know?"
My body—I mean my new body. How do they build a human body?
She laughed softly. "They don't," she said. "Medical science can do
many things, George, but they can't really build a body."
But you said—
"They can grow one to order, almost. You know what cancer is, don't
you?"
Yes.
"Well, the doctors here use what they sometimes call 'controlled
cancer'—to grow the human body. That way, they can do in months
what it takes Nature years to accomplish."
George puzzled over this for a moment. If he had had eyebrows,
there would have been a frown on his face. If he had a face.
You mean—some other human being gives up his brain to make room
for me?
"No, George. It doesn't have a brain. It's just a body, with a small
lump at the top of the spinal cord that controls the muscles." Her
voice was patient, yet urgent. He had to understand. "You see," she
continued, "because of the enormous rate of growth of the rest of
the body, the brain—or the mind—doesn't have a chance to develop.
The body has no personality—no being of its own. It's your body,
George. Yours alone."
He was silent for a long time, thinking. Considering the possibilities of
a new body. It'll be mine, he told himself, all mine. To taste and hear
and feel and smell. To get cold, or warm—to sweat! To walk, to swim,
to touch her hand—to see her—to see Karen! To see Karen, who is
just a voice; to take her dancing! How soon can I be in this body?
"It'll be six months, anyway, George." Her voice seemed to be saying,
"Please be patient," just by the tone of it.
Six months! Cooped up in this—this fishbowl!—for six months more?
"I'm sorry, George. You won't be alone, though—I'll stay with you.
That is, if you want me."
He began to laugh. He laughed uproariously. He didn't care that the
translator made his laugh into a horrible thing that grated in her ears.
Part of the time his laugh was a sob, but it was all the same to the
translator.
Do you mind if I call you Mom? There was a catch in his voice. When
I was a kid I used to rely on my mother like this! I've never been so
dependent upon another woman in all my life! If I want you! I need
you, Karen. Don't leave me!
"I won't leave you, George—" He had the feeling there was
something else she wanted to say, but she didn't.

He could hear her voice faintly now. She wasn't talking to him, and
he had to strain to catch her words.
"He's all right, doctor. For the past few days all he's wanted to talk
about is his body. I've been telling him anything he wants to know."
George could barely make out a mumbled answer. It was too far
away to hear the words.
"Play the tape, doctor. You'll see what I mean."
He mustn't let her know he had overheard. He had forgotten all
about this being put on tape. He'd have to watch his words from now
on. She must have thought she had turned the microphone off when
the doctor came in. Mentally, George smiled.

Karen.
No answer.
Karen!
Silence.
Karen, can you hear me?
Where in the name of heaven did that woman go? Has she left me?
Maybe they gave me up for dead.
Karen. I've been sleeping—or day-dreaming. Or maybe it's the middle
of the night. Maybe she's asleep. Maybe she's gone.
Karen! She must be asleep. Or maybe she's dead. Or maybe there's a
loose connection in the wiring.
Karen! No answer. Nothing but that deep, dead silence. Karen!
Testing. Testing. One, two, three—Testing. Karen. Where are you?
Can you hear me, Karen? Karen!
It seemed like several eternities before she answered.
"George?"
He would have breathed a sigh of relief, if he could.
I thought you'd deserted me. Were you asleep?
She laughed that soft, vibrant laugh. "I'm sorry. I just—stepped out."
That's okay, sweetheart. I'm all right. Forget it. But tell me about
these things next time, huh? I worry about you when you're gone.
"You shouldn't. I'm a big girl now."
Hey! Is this being recorded?
"Of course."
Who listens to it?
"Oh, a bunch of doctors and medical students."
Any prudes in the audience?
"Not me," she laughed. "But there's bound to be at least one,
anyway."
Okay, he said. He spent the next two hours telling bawdy stories.
A month later George knew he had grown to rely on Karen more and
more.
In fact, he knew he was falling in love with her.
"Hi," she announced. Her voice sounded excited. "George, I just had
a look at your body. It's coming along fine—in fact, it's bee-ootiful! I'll
be with you in about ten minutes. Enjoy some music while I'm gone.
Bye!"
Then the music lanced into his brain at a tremendous volume. George
quivered in real pain as each note blared forth. It was the loudest
version of the Warsaw Concerto he ever hoped to hear. As the music
progressed, blatting its way through painful crescendos and
screaming treble notes, he tried to shut out the sound of it. It was
impossible. It was a tearing, screeching nightmare of sound, that put
him back on a hurtling elevated train with the sound of a young girl's
scream in his ears, and the pain of a body crushed beyond
recognition. With a convulsive shudder, George was unconscious.

"Headache gone yet?" She was concerned.


Yeah, sweetheart. I'd like to wring your lovely neck, though.
"I'm sorry about the music, George. I didn't have the volume
adjusted. I won't leave you alone again." There was a note in her
voice that George hoped was more than just professional concern.
Karen! You don't have to do that! You'll be tying yourself down. And I
don't want that.
"I don't mind, George. I just don't want anything to happen to you.
You're something—someone special."
Maybe I don't want it that way. Although I will admit I enjoy your
company—but this around the clock business isn't necessary.
"I want to do it. Okay?"
Okay. I guess I can't stop you. Only don't you ever get tired?
"Sometimes."
Maybe you should let me worry about your welfare for a change. I
think you need some sleep. Lie down a little while.
"Sure, boss. Is that an order?"
It's an order.
"I guess I am a little sleepy. Want some music?"
George shuddered. No! No more records for a long, long time! But
leave your microphone on—I like to know that you're there.
While she slept, he carefully kept his thoughts to himself. She's
sleeping the sleep of the exhausted. The little nut, she probably
didn't go to bed at all while I was—out. She deserves all the rest she
can get.
He listened a long time to her quiet breathing. I wonder what she
looks like? Is the rest of her as beautiful as her voice? I can't help it—
I'm in love with her. I wish I was more than a brain in a bottle. I wish
I could touch her—hold her hand. Silly thought. Like a kid on his first
date.
He pictured her in his mind—lovely, vibrant, beautiful. How, he
thought savagely, could she ever fall in love with me? Simple—she
couldn't. No woman could love a freak. And I wouldn't want it that
way. She'd be throwing her happiness away.
But damn it!—I can't help it if I want her.

I'm neck deep—if I may be permitted to use such an expression—in


world affairs. The good doctor read six newspapers to me while you
were gone.
Karen laughed. "I thought he sounded a bit hoarse."
Well—out with it, woman! Did you enjoy your first day off in almost
three weeks?
Her voice was happier than he had heard it in days. "I went
shopping, George, for the first time in months, and really splurged.
Got a new outfit. You should see me."
I wish I could.
"You will soon enough."
What do you mean by that?
"Your body's ready. You move in tomorrow."
Thank God! Tomorrow! It is—rather hard to believe, after all this
time! I'm going to have a body. He could almost feel a lump form in
his throat, only of course he didn't have a throat—yet. I don't know if
I'm going to like having to put up with the pains of the flesh again.
She laughed. Then her voice turned wistful, or maybe it was just his
imagination. "Not only the pains, George, but the pleasures, too."
Yeah. He was silent for a moment. Then he forced his voice to be
light. I can't wait for those eyes, Karen. Tell me about the outfit.
What color is it—how does the cloth feel? Tell me all about it, Karen.

The next day, Karen warned him just before Dr. Chase released the
sedative into his blood supply. George peacefully went into a deep,
dreamless sleep. In his mind, he could still hear Karen's voice
speaking gently to him, assuringly.
Almost instantly, it seemed, he was awake, though it took hours. The
first thing he was conscious of was a dull throbbing pain in his head—
and then he realized—it was in his head!
Vaguely at first, then sharply, as nerves clicked into action, he could
sense his arms and legs.
He tried moving them, experimentally. It was a painful process.
There was sound, he realized suddenly—a low, subdued noise level.
But there was no light!
Karen! Karen! he thought sharply.
Still just that low noise level. An electric fan going somewhere.
Karen! This time he felt the muscles of his throat contract. His breath
came out in a sigh of satisfaction. He had been sub-vocalizing
through long habit!
"Karen." He said it; he heard his voice.
"George! You made it!" Karen was there.
"Karen," he said again. A little quavering, but it was a voice. "Karen!"
he sobbed. "I can't see!"
"Silly!" she laughed. "Of course not—there's a bandage over your
eyes. The optic nerve is very delicate. The doctors have to give the
nerve-endings—the nerve-graft—more time to heal. Another three
days and you'll be able to see."
A low moan from his throat. "Then," he said, haltingly, "you're still
only a voice."
"Not quite," she said. She touched his cheek. Cool, soft fingers. "That
better? Now you're the one who needs some sleep."
"Karen," he said.
Silently, she took his hand in hers.

At noon of the fourth day, they removed the bandages from his eyes.
The blinds were drawn on the windows, but still the light was
staggering. George squinted until his eyes became accustomed to the
brightness. Then he focused them on various items in the room.
He had just flipped the sheets back from his body and was
commenting proudly to himself, "I'm more of a man than I thought,"
when the door opened.
George looked up, startled.
The most beautiful woman he had ever seen was in the doorway.
"Hi," she said, her voice as soft and vibrant as ever.
"Karen!"
She was staring, unashamed, at the body George had just fully
uncovered. "Wow!" she said.
George scrabbled for the sheets, pulled them over him.
"You should knock," he said, starting to laugh.
She came over to the foot of the bed, and slowly turned around for
him. "Well, how about me? Are you disappointed?" Her voice had an
intimate, challenging quality.
"Sweetheart," he said slowly, looking at her for what it seemed to
George was the first time, "you are lovely. You're more than I ever
dreamed. And I don't care what you say or think of me for saying
this, but I love you. I've loved you since I first heard your voice. I
know it's impossible—no woman could ever knowingly fall in love with
me—a freak, a brain in a bottle—but that can't stop me from loving
you. Maybe it's just that I'm so happy to have a body again after so
long that makes me say this...."
She had come around the corner of the bed, and was sitting on the
edge of it now. There were tears in her eyes and her hands were
clasped over his. "I know, George," she said slowly, when he had
stopped. "I felt the same way as you—when I got my new body—but
I didn't have anyone to say it to."
His eyes widened in disbelief. His mouth worked for several seconds
before the words would come. "You...."
She nodded slowly. "George, don't you remember many months ago
—the night of your accident on the El ... there was a girl on the train
with you...."
He stared at her, sudden amazement in his eyes. "Of course I
remember—but—you—you mean you are...."
"Yes, George. I'm the same girl—different body, of course. My case
wasn't as tough as yours. Your brain was close to death for quite
awhile before you regained conscious thought."
He looked at her incredulously. "But you said I was the first to ever
go this far...."
Her face was close to his, her lips smiling. "I said you were the first
man to pull through. I was praying for you George. I needed you—as
much as you thought you needed me...."
As his arms closed about her, there wasn't much else for either to
say....
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISEMBODIED
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