Marco’s Half Tale

You meet some strange people at Harborview know my brief encounter with Marcos  in the rehab floor one room was one of the strangest encounters I have had in this place. Marcos was a grizzled Oriental, possibly Filipino who was sitting in lunch room holding a walker which he pretty obviously did not need. He explained that he had been in rehab but had been out for a while and was now back to complete an errand. He then explained that he had been in a wheelchair and while in the wheelchair had suffered a hard time in some unspecified manner. Now he said "it's payback time". I must say I was startled and somewhat appalled at a man who had recently been in a wheelchair wanting to attack his tormentors, whoever they might be.

He then explained that he had been a Blackwell pilot in Iraq and that he had modified his helicopter to allow it to carry more wounded soldiers. I asked how many and he said that the helicopter could carry seventeen wounded. I then asked if his injury had to do with a helicopter crash. He said no, he had the and in a bunker and the bunker a few rows down had been hit with a SCUD missile and during the attack he had inhaled cyanide gas. I found this story fairly fantastical and gave it relatively little credence.

His mission in rehab was to turn in the walker in exchange for a cane. The therapist explained that wants a piece of equipment was issued to a patient it could not be returned. When he asked what will I do with it she suggested that he donated to Goodwill. He then wondered whether Goodwill would be willing to trade a walker for a cane. I expressed grave doubts but suggested that canes had Goodwill were very cheap.

Marco’s response was to say "where will I get money? Will I have to jack a car?".

At some point of I asked why the Veterans Administration was not taking care of his case since he was clearly an Iraq veteran with a service related injury. He shook his head and said "the VA doesn't want anything to do with me"

I have no idea what the real story is in the end of this tale is that after he left the lunchroom I talked to one of the aides who had been dealing with them and said "I’ll bet that is a very interesting story that you are not allowed to tell me"