Part 10

“Hey Cappy! how have you been?” Colby said over the phone. The summer sun was beaming into his bedroom window and was baking his arm. The brown carpet seemed to have a platinum-plated shine to it.

“I’ve been well. You know me. So how are the legs treating you?”
“Funniest thing, actually. I might not have to play the U.S. Amateur in the wheelchair!”

“You can’t play golf in a wheelchair. Plus, usually, it’s me that needs the wheelchair by the end of the round. Wait – won’t be playing in a wheelchair? I thought yer legs were all broke and shit?”

“Well, they are. But they are healing really well, the doctor even said so. I want to know that if there was a chance that I could play in the amateur, would you be my caddie?” Colby asked. Cappy laughed in the phone so loud Colby had to hold the phone away from his ear and wince.

“Of course I would, but don’t get your hopes up, now. Those damn doctors never get their shit right. I’ll tell you what. You get out of that cast, you give me a call and we will work on your swing, ok?”

“Sounds good. Hey it was good hearing from you.” Colby hit the end button on the phone and set it in the armrest of the wheelchair. I will get out of this chair. I will get out of the casts, he thought.

The June sun warmed the outside air as Colby wheeled his way onto the deck and down the new ramp that his uncle built. The ramp was crooked now, the snow and the cold dwarfed his uncle’s ability to build the ramp to the quality he wanted and when the frost left, the posts sunk into the ground. Now, the ramp was tilted more towards the side than down and Colby had to watch out or the chair would roll off the side and send him flat on his ass in the driveway.

“Are the keys in the ignition, Colby?” Bruce asked. He was home for the next few days and wanted to give Avery a break from trucking Colby around the town.
“Yep.” Colby said as he hit the remote button for the side door. The contraption flung itself out and he wheeled himself up on.
When they got to Amanda’s therapy place, Bruce shut the van off. “Hey, kiddo. You behave in there.” Bruce smiled and his large hands rubbed against Colby’s hair, messing it all up.

“Yea, I know. Hey dad, do you think I can get better by the end of summer?”
Bruce looked at his boy. “Kid, you got the potential to do whatever you want. I have seen you do it. Remember that tournament in New Hampshire a few years back? I watched you play a shot on the 16th hole from the woods and on the green. By all rights, you should have lost, even Cappy said that afterwards, but you decided to take the shot through the trees and cut it around the bunker. When it landed on the green, nobody believed it. That birdie turned the tournament around, then you won the next two holes to win. It takes more than some cuts and bruises and even broken bones to stop drive like that.” Bruce didn’t answer the question, but he knew that Colby needed to hear that anything was possible.

“Ok. Come August, I will be in Washington County, swinging my clubs, listening to my caddie.”

Colby opened the door again and listened to the motors whizzing as the metal under him sent him back into the 80 degree weather and the beaming sun hitting the blacktop driveway with enough force to make it feel like the wheels were going to melt off the chair.

“Hey Amanda! How is my sweetheart?” Colby asked, smiling as the air conditioning hit him in the face while he rolled into the building.

“Same old things. Helping people with life, are you ready for today? I thought we might try something new.” Amanda said as she walked around the counter. Her baby-blue tank-top paired with her white shorts made each curve on her body the perfect accent, and they were in all the right places.

“Always ready to try new things,” Colby said with a smile. Today they were going to start working on his torso and moving his toes constantly. Colby placed himself under a bar and lifted himself off the chair. The exercises from there were strenuous, and very tough for Colby, but Amanda was beside him, coaching him all along the way. Soon, they stopped for their first break.

“So how did the doctor’s visit go yesterday?” Amanda asked.

“Well, I didn’t get any dates, but he did say that my leg re-alligned itself and was making more bone, or something.” Colby said as if he were trying to translate some foreign language.

“Oh? The bones must be aligned to where they should be then. That is very good, and they said they have already started connecting back together, huh? That’s way ahead of schedule!” Excitedly, Amanda raised her hand up and gave Colby the sign for a high-five.

“We gotta work hard now, though. I can’t be giving up on this one, not yet!” Colby said.