Chapter 42

Today, my cast comes off. Yippie!! Yup. Lucy Lou, Candy and Grace are taking me to Ludington to the Doctors and he is going to ... CUT OFF MY CAST? ... cut? Umh?

You sure you want to do this?

Can’t race the boat if you don’t.

If you don’t, then Grace will be Captain for the big End of Season Across and Back race.

She’s very good.

She’s a girl.

OK ... let’s do this.

Piper loaded up too.

Piper is my cat. I don’t think of her as a LYNX ... she’s my cat. I fetch sand for her litter box and burger from the Antler, I rub her back by her stub tail when she wants ... she loves that ... and her ears ... sometimes she pushes my book aside and runs her head under my hand and I scratch her ears.

My cat?

Her human.

Pussy whipped.

The road to Ludington: two choices. Old 31 or the bypass. The bypass is east of town ... not far but it’s far enough. If we were driving up to Grand Traverse from Grand Rapids, the five miles saved by bypassing Pentwater and the three or four miles bypassing Ludington would be worth it. But what we would miss.

There’s the Wishing Well at Bass Lake and their gas is always three cents cheaper ... and they make real buffalo jerky and it’s good ... after that, there’s the stop at Kings Canyon.

It was a huge cave cut under the bluff by an immense storm centuries ago, according to geologists, anyway. They say that November storms kept cutting away at the sandstone ceiling until it collapsed under the weight of the bluff. There’s huge boulders just offshore. Huge as in house size but from the edge of the cliff they look like dice. Square cut blocks of ice worn granite. Can’t take the old road and not stop to look at Kings.

The Bypass bypasses all the good stuff. Even in Ludington you don’t see the idle car ferries if you take the bypass. Those are the OLD boats. Outlived their usefulness and are even dangerous.

There’s usually a couple of laid up Dow Chemical boats on the east end mud. Tugs running in and out ... all the action of a going concern ... boats, boats and more boats. My other lives know that this all ends and Ludington becomes a sleepy little west Michigan town ... even the railroad abandons the town.

But coming down off the high bluff today there’s all the action a 14 year old boy could want. Late Summer on Lake Michigan ... lovely.

The doctor was in and ready for me. Piper came in with me and the doctor got a good sniffing and overall inspection. She extended a paw, they shook and the doctor commented on her interesting look. I just smiled. We got down to business.

First I got a good thumping chest and back. Then he looked at my poor head.

“Healing up nicely, but that’s going to be an interesting scar. I recommend you grow your hair out to cover it.” He pushed me around quite a bit and finally said, “Sit.” He laughed, “In the chair.

“I have this new saw, David, and you’re my guinea pig,” he said and laughed at the look on my face. He slid an interesting piece of something under the cast.

“Just a little something under development at Dow,” he said, as if that explained it all.

The ‘new saw’ was a Dremel.

“That’s not new,” I said.

“New to me ... hope it works,” WHIRR GRIND WHIRR

When the cast fell away there were shiny lines on the ‘little something from Dow’.

“How was that?” he asked.

“Didn’t feel a thing, whatever that stuff is it works.”

“Great! I’ll tell my supplier he has a winner.”

The little something under development from Dow turned out to be an insulator for V-2 rocket testing at White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico.

He had x-rays taken and wandered off to consult ... his words ... with another patient.

My arm looked a little thin and very dirty, Doc sent in a Nurse with some soap and warm water ... the water was grey/black when she left. When the doctor came back in I was busily scratching all the itchy places I couldn’t before ... God it felt good!!

“You’re healed, can’t even see the break ... in fact, I’m not sure where it was broken. Lord, I do good work.” He laughed, I laughed, Piper purred. The doc reached over and scratched her ears.

“She’s a Canadian Lynx-Bobcat cross, doc. She likes you.” I grinned and tossed a piece of paper in the air, “Get it!”

Confetti.

The girls weren’t to be found when I got out of the doctors office, so I went back in. The receptionist said, “Shopping.”

“Great.” I examined my wallet.

“We’ll send your insurance a bill,” she said.

“Oh ... I wasn’t looking for money, I was looking for my charge card ... they have it, Damn.” My face fell.

She said, “It’s a little town, how much could they spend?”

I ran for the door.