I was leaning on the wall of the bus depot, waiting for the next Number 16 bus. Thinking about hooks, wondering why armless or handless women are so rare. In the course of a typical day of commuting and shopping, I'll spot a couple of women with a brace or an artificial leg, and several in wheelchairs. (In fact, I was standing right next to a rather pretty paraplegic as I was thinking about hooks!) But it's been at least ten years since my last hook sighting. That's a long drought.

And I've never seen hooks in action at all; I've been yearning for a good look at the tricks needed to orient the elbow and hand properly.

Suddenly my wish was fulfilled, at least partly.

A teenage girl walked lightly and quickly across my field of vision, heading for the Number 9 bus. I caught her face first; bad burns, badly repaired, with that tight glazed appearance. Then I saw her right arm, which ended abruptly with a bandage. Then her left, with a hook. (Perhaps the right arm was burned too badly to heal properly, and couldn't bear a prosthesis?)

She had her bus-pass card gripped in the hook already, but as she stood in line she seemed to realize that it was facing the wrong way; the card needs to be vertical in order to pass through the magnetic slot, and her hook was holding the card horizontally. It took her about fifteen frustrating seconds to make the change; the hook was the newer kind without a "thumb" to serve as a lever, and her bandaged right arm just couldn't get traction on the slippery metal. Finally she placed the back of the hook against the bus, which somehow gave her enough leverage to push the hook downward.

Sobering, isn't it? That little twist is something that a real hand would do on its own, with no preparation, no need to invent special tricks, no conscious thought at all.

I also wonder about the competence of her prosthetist; this problem could have been alleviated by a well-designed lever!