"No."
"Your arms`ll get sore; I`ve been helping you do it for three months now."
"I wheeled myself for twelve years before you came along ?nbsp;I doubt that my arms have forgotten how."
"But I don`t like having to walk beside you while you push yourself!"
"Do you think I`ve liked having to sit helpless in your boat every weekend for the past two months?"
For a moment he was stunned into silence by this new learning. Finally he said quietly, "I never realized that,Amy. You`re in a wheelchair all the time — I never thought you`d mind sitting in the boat. It`s the same thing."
"It is not the same thing. In this chair, I can move by myself; I can go anywhere I need to go. That boat traps me so I can`t do anything ?nbsp;I couldn`t even save myself if something happened and I fell out."
"But I`m there. Don`t you think I could save you or help you move or whatever it is you want?"
"Yes, but Charles ?nbsp;the point is I`ve spent twelve years learning to manage by myself. I even live in a city that`s miles from my family so I`ll have to be independent and do things for myself. Being placed in the boat takes all that I`ve wonaway from me.23 Can`t you see why I object to it? I can`t let myself be at anyone`s mercy — not even yours."
They continued down the path in silence as his feelings boiled within him and finally ran over the edge of his control: "Amy, I need to have you dependent upon me. I need your dependence upon me." And, as if to punctuate24 his desire, he took the familiar white bars in hand and pushed her rapidly along so that her own hands came off the wheels and rested in her lap. The wave at the back of her hair did not show the anger in her eyes, and it was just as well for it was an anger he would not have unde