BILL CADY Word Count: 149,227 - At My Friend's Place

Bill Cady, The Early Years … by Bill Cady 220
Not only did I never want to take that trip again, I didn‟t think I‟d make it back a second
time.
The doctors at first told me I‟d never walk normally again, and might never even
be able to regain the strength in that leg to walk at all. Then they said it would be a year,
maybe two, before I‟d be off crutches. I‟d definitely be in a wheel chair for at least six
months. They were sure of that.
I made Mom get rid of the wheel chair after three weeks. I practiced on my
crutches each day, using them to make it to the bathroom, instead of using my urinal.
Even when the pain was nearly unbearable, I forced myself to use those damned crutches
and get out of the house. Sometimes I just went for a walk on the sidewalk out front. I
even used our driveway, which was harder, as it was dirt and had an upslope as it neared
the garage. I also tried going up the hill on Cross Street, but that was too much. I had to
scoot back down on my butt after a while.
One day, when Mom was due home from work, I was sitting on the front steps,
watching for her car. When I saw her heading toward me, I got up and limped the ten or
twelve feet to the tree at the end of our walk, by the sidewalk. Swinging it like a baseball
bat, I demolished one crutch, then the other, and watched her pull in the driveway with
her eyes agape. “Take me to Sears, Mom. I‟m gonna get a cane.”
We did, three months after I was home from the hospital. At least a year and half
ahead of what the doctors predicted. I was goddamned awfully tired of being a cripple
already. Supposedly, being a cripple and using a cane made me more vulnerable. I
didn‟t see it that way. Although I no longer had my previous agility, and wouldn‟t for a
while, I was openly walking around with a weapon. That‟s how I saw it.
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