Part 7
Danny started there. He removed the trim around Marcus’s floor unit while Marcus watched from beyond the threshold. He described the fasteners, measured both edges of the base plate, and found that the rear edge had walked in its slot as the bolts took final torque. The plate had rotated around the front slot just enough to move the guide off-axis while leaving the receiver’s center mark aligned. Danny’s quick check had missed what the trim later concealed. He could correct it within the vehicle-side procedure, but he did not do so until Marcus read the relevant page and agreed.
They did not dock the chair. Danny completed the empty-gauge test and wrote the remaining joint test into a work plan for the supplier technician, Priya, and Marcus. Marcus signed only the inspection line and left without the old easy grin.
Three months later, the rent was current and the mobility program occupied two afternoons a month. Priya handled chair-side assessments, the authorized supplier sent a technician monthly, Red Wash coordinated transport, and Danny stayed on the vehicle side. Marlene’s board funded rides and approved parts rather than repair quotas.
Marcus’s van docked and released cleanly after the joint test, but he came to the garage only on Red Wash business; the old ease between them had not returned. Nora still canceled when her hip and back pain took the day, though the sharp post-docking pain had not returned.
On a warm Thursday in November, she arrived wearing a loose sweater and the careful expression Danny now recognized as a warning, not an invitation to ask for a number. She drove her chair up the ramp of her van and stopped before the dock.
“Bad pain day,” she said. “The dock has been fine. Both can be true.”
“Understood.”
Nora had come early for the clinic afternoon and to test a new audio field on the intake form. As she eased forward, a light click came from low on the passenger side before the receiver engaged.
Danny’s hand moved toward the flashlight in his pocket. He stopped it.
“What did you feel?” he asked.
Nora sat with her eyes half closed, replaying the approach through her body. “Nothing lateral. No lift. The click came when my right rear wheel crossed the floor cover, before the pin entered.”
“Do you want to back out and reproduce it, or leave it for Priya?”
“Reproduce once.”
She backed down. Danny watched from outside the van, hands visible. On the second approach the click came at the same point.
“May I inspect the vehicle-side floor cover?” he asked. “No chair contact.”
Nora looked at him. Danny kept both hands where she could see them and waited.
“Yes,” she said. “Floor cover only.”
Danny found one loose retaining clip beneath the edge of the ramp trim. Heat and months of wheel traffic had worked it upward. He showed Nora the raised clip.
“May I replace it?”
“Yes.”
He fitted a matching new clip from the vehicle cart, checked that no wiring ran against the cover, and put the flashlight back in his pocket.
“Your choice on another test.”
She shifted against her cushion. “One. Then I’m done for today.”
Nora backed out and approached again. Her right rear wheel crossed the cover without a click. She paused before the receiver, nudged the joystick slightly right, and moved forward.
The dock closed around the pin with one clean sound.