Kathy was home with her leg propped up watching the video tape for the hundredth time when Jason came home that evening.  When she heard him she stopped the tape and took it out of the VCR.   He looked at the cast and nearly flipped out.  She assured him she was fine, she had a broken leg, it would be fine.  After he calmed down she asked how his day had gone. He explained that he had a full set of his pictures with him as well as a VHS tape of the interview and copies of the pool reporters’ stories.  They fed Kara and called for Chinese.  While they were eating she looked at him, “If you learned something about the president’s family and to reveal it would be damaging, could you keep it a secret if there was a good reason?”

“I could if there was a reason.”

“Could you keep it a secret if it were the story of the year?”

“If there was a really good reason I could.”

“I need you to promise that something I learned will be our secret for now.”

“Of course.  But what can be that earthshaking?”

“Let’s watch a tape I made today.”

She handed the tape to him and he put it in the VCR.  The lighting was bad, the focus was off, the heads were cut off some of the time, and part of the corner of the picture was blocked by the sheet.  The three women in the wheelchairs could easily be Judi, Jaci, and Mitzi but they could also be three other women.  He pulled out pictures to match the clothing they were wearing.  It looked the same.  He joked about the poor quality of the video.

She laughed, “So we are a critic.  I’m not a hot shot photographer.  I’m just a reporter.  Really look at the video content.”

The thing that had caught her eye was the crutch tips on the pylons as the women wheeled down the hall.  Together they took an inventory, if they tape was of the first family, Jaci, the younger was missing a right leg, Judi her left and Mitzi possibly both legs.  Careful shuttling of the tape revealed that at both of the daughters were above the knee amputees, with Mitzi the tape was not definitive.  They could see that her right knee was missing, but the draping of her robe left a little doubt about the left knee.  Neither Jason nor Kathy could be sure but no matter what, if this was what they thought, the president’s family were all amputees.  All had serious physical impairment.