Chapter 8 #2
“I told Mom at dinner that night that I fixed it, and she didn’t have to buy a new one.
I don’t think they believed me until the next morning and it worked better than when it was brand new.
That toaster still sat on the counter when I left for college at the age of eighteen.
Anyway, after the toaster, I started to tinker, or fix, whatever small appliance was on the fritz.
Word got out, and the neighbors started bringing their things to me to fix.
” She looked off to the side with a frown, then nodded.
“Between you and me, I think they did it to appease me, you know, throw me a bone. But when they got their stuff back and it worked better than fresh out of the box, they started paying me.”
“It was for my eleventh birthday that the entire neighborhood pitched in. My Christmas gift that year was a shed.” She laughed as she remembered.
“It wasn’t assembled. That’s when I got to know Johnny better.
He helped me put it together, then dad hired someone to make sure I did it correctly, and he, Dad put his foot down about having me wire it.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, the wires were in, so were the outlets, but before they turned on the power, he wanted a professional to inspect it. ”
“Did you do anything wrong?”
“Nope, it just gave Dad some peace of mind that I do it right. Anyway, Johnny was a special person.”
“How?” Tony didn’t realize he was actually jealous of this boy.
“He wore a prosthetic leg, the result of him being hit by a drunk driver when he was younger. It took months to find the driver, then they had his trial. From what I overheard and was told, it was a mess.” She shook her head sadly, then looked at Tony.
“Johnny was the fifth person he mowed down and his sixth DWI. Because of whom Johnny’s parents were, the book was thrown at the driver and he was sentenced to a long time in prison.
No one would tell me the exact sentence, just that he went away for a long time.
Anyway, once Johnny was released from the hospital, it took several months before he was fitted with a new prosthetic. ” She shook her head as she remembered.
“What?”
“One thing the doctors and parents didn’t take into consideration as they gave him the fake leg, was his growth. As he grew he started to develop a limp, because they didn’t replace the prosthetic.”
“Damn, what did you do?”
“Johhny’s sister and cousin were older than him, by about six or seven years, respectively.
They stayed at Johnny’s house because the college they wanted to go to was only fifteen minutes down the road.
As long as they helped out around the house, they could live there.
I got to know them quite well. During the time Johnny helped me build my shed, those two girls would help also.
It was Johnny’s sister, Paula, that was complaining about how Johnny would limp and then his hip would become sore, and the stump would rub raw.
“One day I asked Johnny if I could see his fake leg, and stump. He was embarrassed at first, but Paula convinced him to let me. Johnny was fifteen by then, I was only eleven.”
“Oh, wow.” When he learned of the age differences, he wasn’t as jealous as he was before when she talked about him. It was something he would have to look into once she went home for the night. He had never felt this way about a woman before.
“Yeah, well, I took pictures, made notes, and started ordering supplies on line. Because I wasn’t eighteen, Paula set up an account for me to order what I wanted.
It took a year, but I made a prosthetic for Johhny.
When he put it on and walked around, I thought I had overstepped, or did something wrong, because after only walking about thirty steps, he sat down and burst into tears. ”
“Oh my God, what happened?”
“It took about fifteen minutes to get Paula there, because I was freaking out, and by the time she got him calmed down and learned why he was crying, she looked at me and grinned.”
“Why?”
“After only those thirty steps, Johnny said that he didn’t feel any pain in his hip, nor did his stump feel like it had been rubbed raw.
He had reverted to using crutches even when he wore his prosthetic because it hurt so badly that he couldn’t do anything.
I’m not tooting my own horn, but within six months, Johnny was actually playing basketball with the other neighborhood kids, and then they would play hockey in the fall and winter months.
Not once did he complain of any pain in his hip or stump.
If he did, he immediately came to me and I would tweak his leg, and off he would go.
When he turned twenty, I made him another leg because he had grown again. ”
“What happened this time?” Tony asked quietly. “I feel like something happened.”
“It did, but during my time working in that shed, the college classes I took were what I considered the fluff classes. You know the classes that weren’t associated with the core degree.”
“I understand.”
“The only time I had to be at the actual college in person was when I took the final exam. The professors wanted a face to the name. It was all good. Once my fluff courses were done, which I aced, by the way, I started taking my core classes. One of them was Bio-Mechanics.”
“What’s that?”
“Studying the body’s cells, how they work, and how they can help you. I did this on my own when I watched Johnny and that’s how I made his prosthetic.”
“Based on his body movements.”
“Correct. What I forgot to tell you was that I made extensive notes, and I was able to get a patent for the leg I made. It was my patent. Paula and her cousin, along with Johnny’s parents helped me.
They were my lawyers. Well, long story short, my professor in the Bio-Mechanics class invited me to join his group of other professors that were trying to break into the field of making prosthetics.
Caleb joined that group a couple of years later, then when he pointed out that he overheard the men, all in their late forties to early fifties trying to get me to sign my patent over to them, then kick me out of the group, I left.
But not before they tried to sue me when I took all my information with me. ”
“Is that why you’re here now?”
“Yes. I know I skipped over a lot of information, but when I learned they only wanted me to work with them so they could use my ideas to make them look good, I went to Paula, and she helped me get out of there with my research. That’s when Caleb reached out to me and told me about this opportunity to come here and work. ”
“What will working here do for you?”
“Peace of mind to start with. I can work at my own pace, and I have a government grant to help twenty-five veterans receive a new prosthetic.”
“What if they aren’t a veteran?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if you want to work with Erin to give her a new hand? She’s not a veteran that I know of.”
“She’s not, but the grant says that as long as I can work with twenty-five veterans, then I can help five non-veterans, however, I have to work on at least seven veterans first.”
“Do you have someone you report to?”
“Yes and no. Someone will contact me periodically to check on my progress, but it takes time to make a custom prosthetic. They aren’t all made on an assembly line. I make custom pieces that are specifically for the patient.”
“Ah, and you need to study the recipient, take measurements, and work with them one-on-one.”
“Yes, I anticipate each new limb will take at a minimum of six months before I can even begin to build it.” She looked at him and sighed.
“I made a leg for a guy that lives around here, and it took eighteen months. I only had the initial assessment of him, and his wife would send me videos of how he walked, sat, stood, and I had to have her take measurements for me.” She shook her head and sighed heavily.
“That grant will come in handy because just a basic prosthetic will cost close to thirty grand. The fancier and more sophisticated ones can be closer to a hundred grand. That’s if they have all the bells and whistles. ”
“And there are people here that you would have daily access to in order to help them.”
“Yes, my biggest hurdle right now is going to be to introduce myself to them, and try to get to know them. I don’t want to come across as pushy, and have them reject my offer to help.”
“I don’t know when it will happen, but I was told that by this weekend, Erin is having a family BBQ to welcome both of us to the family.
Her words, not mine. I also got the impression from the woman I told you about earlier, Lois, that everyone will be there.
You can meet people then. It is also my understanding that several of them may need your services. ”
“I can only hope.” She glanced over at the microwave and gave a startled sound when she realized how late it was.
In a flurry of activity, she was ready to leave in under five minutes.
Tony grabbed his coat and stood out on the porch until her taillights disappeared into the night.
He smiled as he walked back in and got ready for bed.
For the first time in ages, he felt comfortable around the opposite sex and looked forward to hanging out with Staci more.