We called a couple companies for jobs, nobody was hiring but several of them wanted someone to do a couple surveys as independent consultants.  We did them and the phone started ringing to do more. We found most companies didn’t have anyone who liked to do the surveys and most didn’t have someone who really knew how to do them well and they started betting on us. I think at first it was simply, if that is all they do they must be good at it syndrome.  They hired us to do the surveys and let the regular engineers do the installs. We made money.  The engineers were happy to let us do them.  After a few months we opened a business, incorporated, and then decided to make it a family business.”

Denise stared, “You married a geek?”

“Yes. But I got ahead of him. He got a geek too, with one eye. My bedtime reading includes manuals on antennas, transmitters and receivers some evenings instead of novels. I play soccer in a guy’s pickup. I guess that is weirder than having one eye.”

Carol chimed in. “I don’t understand microwaves except they cook food. By the way, are they the same thing?”

“Really, yes they are the same. The high power ones are created by the same tubes, a cavity magnetron the Brits invented during World War Two. They are just put to different use. There is an antenna in that microwave oven that aims the RF at the food.  They let it bounc around in the oven.  In my job I aim them at an antenna a couple miles away in a tight beam like a spotlight and we put data on the stream. Either way if something gets between, it doesn’t work. It is really very simple. I tell them with one eye I see more like an antenna. They only have one aperture.”

Carol continued. “Wow. I am not sure I understand this but I understand one thing I have seen here with Diane. She has taken a place in life and built from that point. That is what everyone must do, amputee, blind, partially blind, paralyzed or TAB.”

Patti asked it. “What is a TAB?”

Denise answered it. “You are a TAB. I was one a year ago. It means Temporarily Able Bodied. Then one bad step, one thing that went wrong. One day I was a TAB. Sure, I was on crutches from a fall but I had a leg inside that cast and if it got better I was fine. The next day I was a RAK. One day Carol was walking on two legs, the next day she was an RAK. One moment Diane had two eyes. The next second she had only one eye. One moment Karen was driving down the road with two hands, the next moment her one arm was destroyed. One morning Jan and Judd had two arms. A week later they had no arms. We are where we are by the grace of God and that can change in a second. Patti, you or anyone here could walk out of here today and come back like one of us, any of us. That is what they call a TAB.”

Patti looked at her. This tentative speaker who seemed to have to think of every word when subjects got deep had just blown her and the audience away. She reached over and took Denise’s hand. “Thank you so much. I have had the idea I was pretty much the heavy on this program. I just got taken down a couple of notches. And Denise, I know you didn’t do it on purpose, you just said what you saw. Let’s take a break and come back.”

When the camera went off Patti hugged the younger woman. “Thank you so much.”

Denise at first was confused then Carol brought it into focus, “You just laid it out for the audience in a way they will understand.”

“But I just said what I was thinking. It wasn’t anything smart. I’m not that smart.”

Carol seemed stern. “Denise. You are smarter than you think when you stay to things you know. Build on your strong areas.”

Karen: Chapter One – The Attack

Karen Chapter 32 – the Part Diane Dreaded

Karen Chapter 34 – Diane’s Confession