From my writing journal on 7 July:

What should Chuck use as a cane? It should be multipurpose, but able to function well and reliably as a cane. A larger rifle or shotgun wouldn’t do it. It could be a regular cane or crutch, if they stumbled upon the ruins of a hospital. Will need to research the locations of hospitals in Gary.

Other options? A branch. That could be turned against him by the Left Hand.

Nikki suggests that I use a dream to let us know that the item is important, and have him pull it out of the dream or stumble upon it in a trance state. As Nikki’s ideas tend to do, it got me thinking. I already have Chuck dreaming about something that might work – his father’s sword from his dress uniform. He’s instinctively reached for it several times. But I’m pretty sure it would make a terrible cane. I need to let this one percolate a bit.