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Suspicions of meeting other wannabes/pretenders
Written by jim on Thursday, March 29, 2007
About 25 years ago, when I was young, single, employed with a great job, a midwestern boy in The Valley of the Sun, Phoenix, I think I may have met a female wannabe/pretender. But, I’ll never know. I thought (wished) it may have happened again these past two weeks.
Anyway, to my Phoenix story. I lived right by Arizona State University. Lots of wheelchair users there, but, I wasn’t pretending. One night at the grocery store by the campus where I shopped this girl in a wheelchair came in. She was in an old hospital type clunker, didn’t even have moveable arm rests, and she wasn’t wearing shoes, just socks. Things weren’t so ADA then and she looked very perplexed. I showed her the gate she needed to come through to get in (they had those turnstyle type things for the able bodied). And I asked her if she needed any help. She was real nice and said no, she’d seen enough. So, I walked out with her, out the entrance no one ever comes in by this little, dark and hidden parking lot. Thats where she parked. A girl in a wheelchair by herself shouldn’t park there. Anyway, I told her I’d spent some time in a chair before and some things aren’t fair. Then she wheeled up to her car, and said this will shock you, and stood up and put the heavy clunker in her trunk. She said I’m just doing this for a class. I said, oh at ASU and she said a very unconvincing yes. Like she was lying (I always kept that in the back of my mind too, if I got caught in my chair by someone I knew, I’m doing it for a class).
I never saw her around again, but for a couple of weeks I couldn’t get her off my mind. There was no internet then, I did think that there had to be people like me though. And, she seemed more my age (I think I was 26 then), too old for a student. And why didn’t she do it with her class, at class time, and hide so she wouldn’t be detected (like me)? If I’d have only run in to her again.
This story goes to show you I’ve been like this a long time. maybe I should by a lottery ticket tonight and spend my money on a trip to Thailand for an operation, then all this confusion in my head will go away.
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1 On 29 March, 2007, jen said:
Many years ago, I rented a clunky hospital chair, in theory to do research on a story I was writing. (Ho, ho.) Surprisingly, my pals were all very gung-ho about it and we spent the weekend wheeling around my college town. I nearly got thrown into the street a couple of times, but a good time was had by all.