Monday

A woman came into the hospital room just after lunch. “I’m Lou. I need to see Carol.”

“That’s me.”

She reached out to shake hands. Her right was a hook. She was a RBE. There was a small pause then Carol took it as she would have a hand.  Lou continued.

“I brought the RV. It is in the lot near as I could park it. Here are the keys. Fritz said to give you eight sets of door keys and make six ignition keys. I am to give one of the ignition keys to you, Debbie and Susan. I am to keep the others, one is for me. I will be giving the others out as I check out the other drivers. He told me to make sure they knew how to drive. I did an oil change this morning, it’s good for 3000 miles but you ought to check it once a week. I checked the wiper blades, the tires, hoses, and the batteries. They are all good. I serviced the AC gen set, it’s good for two weeks, check the oil every twenty hours you run it or once every two weeks. It has an oil shutoff so it will not run if there isn’t oil but I don’t like to take a chance.. The propane tank is full except what I used for breakfast. The grey and black tanks are empty except two flushes I did on the way and the fresh water tank is full and pressurized except for the little I used. I washed all the sheets, towels, checked all the supplies and filled everything.  It is the way I would want it if someone handed it to me.  The shop did some nice work on the modifications. Want to go down and see it?”

“We have to check out of the hospital first.”

Carol walked to the hall. She was wearing a peg leg. Although there would always be some awkwardness to walking with one, the control of it was fantastic with the connection. With only a few days her gait with the peg was more sure than she had with any appliance. If she could just get the muscles in her stump built to where she could handle the hinged knee with her own muscles. She saw Denise at Sandra’s room door.

“Time to get ready to go. Our chariot is here. Tell Susan and the others.”