It was time to go. Russell was snoring loudly. Corbin’s head was resting on his shoulder; he’d definitely have a stiff neck in the morning. I took a long look around. There were a lot of memories stored in that van. I rolled down the ramp one final time. Then I sat there for a moment. “Thanks, Van,” I said, patting its side as Cher buttoned him up. “You’ve been great.” Then I turned Mighty Chair around.

Laura was waiting in front of the CVS. “They’re out cold,” I told her, then added with as much confidence as I could muster, “By the time they wake up, we’ll be eating maple syrup and saluting Mounties.”

We stood in the dim light of the twenty-four-hour just about everything store, waiting as calmly as possible. Two cars, one a local police cruiser, the other a white sedan with no markings, went racing past heading in opposite directions, their lights flashing, sirens whining.

Our ride was late. “It’ll be here soon,” I said, hoping I was right. Laura rested her left hand on my left shoulder and tapped nervously. I reached across with my right hand and took hold of it. A minute later she checked her watch again. She was dripping anxiety on me. But there wasn’t much we could do except wait.

Finally a black Ford F-150 pickup truck turned into the parking lot. “That’s it,” she said excitedly, pointing. “There it is.”

The pickup came to a stop almost directly in front of us. I looked inside. There was no one driving it. It had the aura of an alien spaceship; we just stood there, staring at it, not quite sure what to do. “You ever drive one of these?” I asked.

“Do they even call it driving?” she wondered.

Okay, I admit it, it spooked me. “How hard could it be, right? I mean, they definitely wouldn’t rent them if it was too complicated.”

“Right,” she agreed, bolstering her own confidence. “We’re two intelligent adults. We can figure this out.”

Let’s be honest, how many of you have not driven your own car? I had never been inside an autonomous vehicle. But the availability of self-driving SUVs and pickups had been big news within the disabled community. Arranging transportation has always been a major hassle for people with handicaps, and this was a vitally important step toward further independence. Among the many advantages offered by autonomous SUVs and small trucks is that they provide sufficient storage space for the necessary supportive equipment—in my case, Mighty Chair. We were lucky: Buffalo’s first It-Drives-U franchise had opened three months earlier and had an F-150 available. We’d used Corbin’s credit card, hoping Homeland Security hadn’t thought to put an alert on it. The pickup had been dispatched to the CVS to pick us up.

I was going to drive. Or whatever you call it. Law enforcement had to be looking for someone in a chair or riding as a passenger. Seeing me sitting behind the wheel of the pickup, my hands on the wheel, should provide cover for us. Laura opened the driver’s door for me and I muscled into the seat. I took a minute to look over the dashboard. I don’t know exactly what I expected to see, but this definitely wasn’t it. It looked pretty much like every other vehicle I’d ever driven. The dashboard was covered with quality faux leather and highly polished black plastic. The steering wheel was tightly wrapped with black leather, and all the necessary gauges and monitors were in front of me. The infotainment center, which controlled everything from performance to radio station, was in the middle. A gearshift was on the center console.