Chapter 3

The next 6 weeks flew by. I was an out-patient at the hospital. After the initial exam I was fitted for a temporary leg and a cast was made of my stump for the permanent one. Ralph (my Grandmother Amy’s husband, who was also a nurse) took me to all my appointments and waited patiently while the doctors examined me and I took the therapy to learn to walk with my new leg.

I was getting along pretty well, walking and driving and even riding a horse with the new leg. It was state of the art. With a lot of patience and practice I was able to walk without limping. Just like the Captain had said I would. I had graduated from wearing a tennis shoe on the new foot to wearing my cowboy boots.

I was living in the house with the Captain and my two grandmas and helping the Captain check the cattle and feed but not really feeling like I was needed. I went to town one night to get some ice cream for my grandmas. They seemed to love French vanilla for some reason. Before going to the store, I decided to stop off at the City Café and visit with a new friend of mine. He and his wife had bought it a few years back when Doris the lady who owned it for years had died. He is from South Africa and half black like my mother. He married Minnie, a black lady, who is from here in town and had been cooking for Doris when she died. He worked the register and waited tables while she did the cooking.

Let me tell you a little about him. Like I said he is half black. His father was a doctor from Ireland. He had come to Africa to work for the Doctors Without Borders organization. He met his mother in a small village outside of Durbin, they fell in love and married. He decided to stay in Africa and had opened a small clinic.