The big day came and they were off. They checked into the hospital on Friday evening and on Saturday all three surgeries were done. Kathy was there when each of them woke up. She had work to do. She was still cleaning up the programming of the chips. By Monday evening all three of them were out of the frames and in a room with four regular beds. All of them were out of bed and had made one trip in a wheel chair. When Kathy came in that evening a nurse was behind her pushing a cart.

“Who wants to try first?”

“Me,” came three voices at once.

“I have Barb’s program on this computer. Let me show her how to get it going and then I’ll start the rest of you.”

Oh great, preferential treatment, her roomie gets first pick,” Gwen remarked.

“No, she’s going to have to do most of the work herself. I’ll have to help you some so I’ve started her first so she can work by herself. Once I get her started she is on her own. You two might as well watch so you know how to do this.”

She proceeded to show Barb how to run the films and do what was asked. “If you don’t do this right the programming isn’t any good. The more accurate each answer is, the less time it will take. If you give two answers that disagree for the same thing, it will ask again later. It keeps doing that till it gets something definitive.” The nurse pushed in three more computers and Kathy hooked them up to the other two girls and got them started. Then she went into the bathroom and put on a gown. She came back and slid into the bed near the wall. A few minutes later several people wheeled in a machine and parked it next to Kathy’s bed. They helped her hook wires to the machine and to her stumps. She turned on the computer and started to work. Barb had been so intent she had not seen the little procession. She looked over at Kathy and saw two legs sticking out of the box on the machine. She gasped at first but then realized Kathy was programming the new chips in her legs. The programming for Kathy would take till the next afternoon. Fred burned a pair of chips and installed them in the computers. They were turned on and Kathy could feel her legs. It was funny to see her toes wiggle. Just as she was performing this feat, Gwen’s father came in and saw it. He was too startled to talk for a few minutes. When he regained his composure he laughed, then went to Kathy and hugged her.