Reabled

"What you've just told me sheds a new light on things," said Tom, "but I still don't understand why Maggie wanted to celebrate the end of our relationship."

"You weren't listening to what she was trying to say," said Anne. "She adores Katie and Katie adores her. More importantly, she's in love with you. She wanted to celebrate the end of the affair and the beginning of a new future together. She's looking for you to take the next steps in your relationship, not end it. She's waiting for you to ask her to be your girlfriend, but she's worried you don't want her because she's too old for you."

"I've been a complete idiot, haven't I?" he asked.

"Well, you said it," Anne replied, "but how about we go over to my house? Katie's there already and I think she and I will go shopping while you and Maggie decide what you want to do."

*

The wedding took place the following summer, after Katie had been fitted with her new hand and the three of them returned from their trip to Texas. In Scotland you can get married almost anywhere, not just in a registry office or church, so the venue Maggie and Tom chose was the cafe where they first met. Only close friends and family were invited to attend and the cafe was more than big enough.

Maggie's sons came over from Texas a week before wedding, complete with cowboy boots and stetsons. Tom and Katie had already met them and the rest of Maggie's family in Texas, including Brooks and old man Rogers. It had been a little awkward at first, but the ice was broken by their shared amusement when Katie jokingly pointed out she would be getting a hand from the HIP people.

Tom's stag night with a couple of his old friends and the Rogers brothers was a trip to the local Indian restaurant for a curry dinner, followed by pints of beer in the rugby club bar, where they told tall tales and compared the relative merits of rugby union and American football. Don and Doug were proud of their Scottish heritage, but they preferred ball games without too much mud and blood.

Maggie's hen night with her mother and her daughter-to-be was a pre-theatre dinner at the best Italian restaurant in Aberdeen, followed by the latest romcom at a 3D cinema.

Brooks was too busy to make it to the wedding. He sent his apologies, his best wishes and a sizeable cheque that would more than cover the cost of the honeymoon.

All eyes were on the bride and groom during the brief wedding ceremony and afterwards during the lunch and speeches. Everyone agreed the red-haired bride and her red-haired flower girl looked fabulous and the happy couple positively glowed with love for one another. Once the tables and chairs had been cleared away, a ceildh band would provide music for Scottish country dancing, but before that could begin it would be the flower girl's moment in the spotlight.

As the waiters and waitresses topped up the guests' drinks, the caterers set up a small table in the middle of the room. To get everyone's attention, Katie held a glass in her real hand and tapped it lightly with a spoon she held in her ANDI hand. With her real hand, she picked an egg carefully out of a small bowl, showed it to everyone and returned it just as carefully to the bowl. Next, she picked the egg out of the bowl using her ANDI hand, holding it up to show everyone and then she returned it to the bowl, quite clearly completely intact. Her audience burst into spontaneous applause.

"Thank you," said Katie, as the applause died down. "I never thought I'd have two hands to touch and feel things. I need to say a very special thank you to my new mum for getting me my new hand and I'd also like to thank my new grandma for helping me learn how to use it."

As a further round of applause broke out she shouted to try and make herself heard above the hubbub. "Wait, I'm not finished yet!" Turning to the items on the little table, she picked up an empty soft drink can with her ANDI hand, holding it carefully. Then, in the blink of an eye, she tightened her grip and crushed it flat. As the audience once again applauded, Maggie smiled at her new husband and then whispered, "Whoever our daughter ends up with is going to have to behave themselves!"

THE END

Author's Note:

This story has its origins in an outline kindly provided by a reader in Southeast Texas. Additional inspiration arrived in the form of an invitation from Randi to submit a story for 'The End of the Affair' storytelling event. My thanks go to both of them. No doubt many affairs end unhappily, with much agonising about guilt, disloyalty, disrespect and distrust. Nevertheless, there must be exceptions and it made a nice change to write a happy ending.

The concept of 'reabling' people is used primarily in the context of health and social care. It's an approach that helps people learn or re-learn the skills necessary for daily living, focusing on regaining physical ability. It's described as a 'doing with' model, in contrast to traditional social care, which tends to be on a 'doing for' basis.

Amniotic band syndrome can occur if the inner layer of the placenta, the amnion, is damaged during pregnancy. Thin strands of tissue (amniotic bands) can get tangled around the limb of the fetus, cutting off blood flow to the extent that the limb is amputated.

The end of this story is set in the not too distant future. The ANDI hand, like Houston International Prosthetics and The Southeast Texas Strangers, is a product of my imagination. However, several 'next generation' projects are currently developing artificial limbs controlled by signals between nerves and brain. There are plenty of press articles describing both the technical aspects of new types of prosthetics and the immense joy of disabled children who benefit from them.