Victor Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

We tried every way we could think of to make my arms and legs comfortable, but none of them worked. I had never realised before how much springing there is in our hands and feet, I couldn’t wait for the prosthesis maker to come and work something out. It only took a few days since I was paying him generously for his time, but I was like a child waiting for Christmas. I wanted to get out of the wheelchair and be independent, even if it meant walking like a dog.

He turned up in due course, and I prepared for his coming by getting Colin to help me dress. Just shorts and a T shirt, but it felt as if I was wearing a business suit.

“You know the problem I have, I’m sick of being a cripple stuck in a wheelchair and I want to be mobile again under my own steam. The only way I can think of since I can’t stand up and use the legs you made for me is to go on all fours and make the best of what I have left. Can you help me?”

He looked surprised. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. Are you sure this is what you want. Can’t the doctors cure the vertigo so you can go upright?”

“They tried, but the medication they gave me didn’t work. The side effects are worse than the condition. I can think of no other way to have even limited independence. Can you make it work?”

He told me to go down on all fours so he could work out what might be needed, and was obviously puzzled as to how to do it.

Labby came to the rescue again. He bounded in and danced around us, and I noticed Harry watching him with great interest.

“His feet are the kind that would work, designed for precisely what you are thinking of. How would something like that appeal? Only problem I can see is that in order to work properly and be stable and firm enough to carry your weight, they will have to be very firmly fixed and it won’t be easy to take the front feet off so you can put on your hands”

“But”, Harry continued, “Are you really sure about this. It will mean enormous changes in your life-style and in many ways will be very restrictive. Let me go away and think about it and make some drawings, and meanwhile think very hard about what you are taking on. It will be expensive since anything I do will have to be custom-made. Does that matter?”

“It will get me out of the wheelchair and give me independence, and around the house and garden I can be free. We’ll sort out other problems as they arise.”

We arranged that Harry would return the next weekend, and I warned him that the shorts were just for his benefit and not to expect them again.