DAY FORTY NINE

Margie was at the coffee machine when two cops went past.  One of them mentioned they were getting ready for a lineup.  She came back to her desk laughing.  “Why don’t we have a lineup and have the evening guy from the garage here.”

“It would help if we had some suspects for him to see.”  Barb quipped.  “You know that is an essential part of the lineup, suspects to show off.”

“No, I mean the guy at the parking lot said the guy walked funny.  What if we had some people with leg problems walk past and let him see which one limps like the guy?”

“This is crazy.”  Barb responded.  “Where are we going to get people with leg problems to walk in a lineup?”

“Well, they could use us.”

“That would cover female RAK’s with a peg leg or on crutches.  I’m sure the shooter doesn’t fit that description.  What about other problems?”

Margie thought for a few minutes, “We’re scheduled for an appointment for fitting our legs day after tomorrow, let’s ask the guy at the shop.”

Helen Sadler sat by her husband’s bed.  She looked at her watch.  It was four PM.  He had not been awake since just before he was taken to surgery.  This tough and rugged man she had come to rely upon was sick, very sick.  She realized that she must be strong.  Somehow she had no idea how.   He had always filled that role.  She prayed and somehow she felt she could handle anything.

Cliff Masters was the chief technician and owner of what the gals had come to call “the leg shop”.  Only after the casting for their new legs had they learned that he was a DBK amputee himself and the female technician Jackie Stoner who helped him was an LAK.  They also learned hat there was a three-letter acronym for everyone in the shop.  They remembered the girl at the front desk wore a tag that said, “I’m usually a TAB.”  The girls were unable at first to determine what a TAB was till Cliff laughed and answered them, “TAB means Temporarily Able Bodied.  The TAB’s here joke that they were only hired to meet the quota, if they were not there, the EEO would be able to claim job discrimination.”  Cliff had a rule, for a TAB to work there, they must spend four weeks with some “Cliff-assigned infirmity” every year unless they broke or injured something on their own that met the qualifications.  A real broken leg with a Short or Long leg cast would only count if the person had not worn such a cast in the previous year.  Cliff would allow them to defer in some situations, for example if a female employee was pregnant or if someone had a serious home situation they could defer.  The requirement was clearly stated in the employee manual.  Accepting the job was accepting the requirement.  For the gimps as he called the others, they were committed to two weeks of some form of sensitivity training.  For the leg amputees this meant some time with an arm or back brace.  For an arm amputee it meant the reverse.  Right now Sylvia Wasser, the recently hired TAB receptionist was in her “training month”.  She was sporting a very heavy white plaster LLC on her left leg and using a pair of crutches.  With some jobs Cliff allowed them to wear a split cast, one that could be taken off at the shop in the morning and put on before leaving everyday.  He had devised a short arm cast that could have a hook like an arm amputee would use, and the shoulder strap to make the hook function exactly like a BE amputee.  He had also devised an arrangement that very closely imitated an AE amputation, it attached to the arm above the elbow, the real hand was in a cast and attached to a belt on the chest.  You worked the hand and elbow exactly like the amputee.  Everyone who worked directly with arm amputees had to wear it off the job for two weeks every year.  He devised two leg amputee devices, one was a socket that fit the lower leg like a BK prosthesis but had two struts that went down past the foot and ended in a crutch tip.  With it laced on it made your leg 3 inches longer.  The person was fitted with a matching platform shoe for the other foot.  Walking on it was just about like using a BK peg leg.  Wearing this the person was actually more disadvantaged than a single BK amputee.  Another device was a lace-on leather socket that fit the upper leg.  It approximated an AK socket with two struts that extended to just below the knee.  The knee or pylon was fitted there as needed.  The real leg was pulled up at about fifteen degrees by a bent strut behind the leg.  It was almost like walking with an AK prosthesis, actually, the AK would have had it easier.