Prologue

Fifteen-year-old Peter Shipley first remembered waking up in the hospital after the A&W celebration party for winning the BB division football district title. He was the starting quarterback and enjoyed praise for his role in the win. He was athletic, cunning, and sly to the defending team (Kent HS). He ran the ball three times across the goal line, emerging unscathed to the applause and cheers of his team, school, and parents, who braved the cold for the final away game. It was Friday, October 27th, 1989, and Halloween was approaching.

As the youngest Junior at Southern Auburn High School, Pete was an unprecedented overachiever who enjoyed the holiday parties and recognized he’d soon be one of the youngest freshmen at UW. He maintained the highest marks in his overloaded curriculum and worked as hard as everyone else on the field and during practice. His only regret was attending a B-rated school where athletes were less likely to attract the attention of talent scouts.

Then—in the blink of an eye, it was all gone. One moment, he was jogging along the dark road towards home, less than a mile from the popular restaurant—and the next, tragedy. He opened one eye to the harsh brightness of the surgical lights. Voices were loud and disjointed. His entire body hurt, and he tried to cry out, gagging and coughing harshly, causing incredible pain to spasm through his neck and head. The voices faded away as his vision blurred and then darkened.

Days later, he was awake enough to learn what happened. While jogging home from the celebration, a drunk driver hit him with a Johnson Controls company car. The news spread widely, and lawyers lined up to sue the company for a large settlement on his behalf. Only his mom, Janet, and sister, Veronica, visited regularly. His dad was too busy or drunk, showing how the once proud father couldn’t be bothered with his now burdensome son. Even classmates and friends avoided him after the first week in the hospital. The flowers, balloons, stuffed animals, and cards in his room barely masked the solitude.

Peter knew right away he’d lost the use of his legs. Even if he wasn’t paraplegic from the spinal injury, his legs were too damaged even remotely to rehabilitate. An infection took his right lower leg, and the ‘pressor’ agents that kept him alive initially cost him his left toes and eventually his entire foot. When his girlfriend Brittney visited during his second week, he sensed her trepidation. Her friends whispered in the hallway, offering moral support. She picked a terrible time to visit—he’d just had both feet amputated and was heavily medicated, in denial about the loss. Her fear and hesitation only angered him, and he lashed out. He didn’t want pity while he wallowed in his own. She fled in tears, his harsh words following her into the hallway.

Nearly two months passed before he was transferred to a skilled nursing facility for rehab, and three more months before he returned to a broken home. Only his mother, Janet, awaited him, and not happily. His father, Robert, had left months earlier, and Veronica moved to Pullman for her studies at WSU. His room was on the second floor, but due to his condition, he had to sleep in the living room. Knowing the burden on his mom, he focused on rehab and eventually was able to care for himself under certain conditions. With his wheelchair, he could cook using the microwave. A ramp at the kitchen sink let him do dishes, and they used part of the settlement money for a front-loading washer, making laundry possible.

Initially, his mother thought they could live on the nearly half-million-dollar cash settlement for ages, so she balked at returning to work. Peter coaxed her into sitting down to explain their expenses and the depletion of their projected savings. This resulted in a double-edged sword effect: she returned to work as an office assistant for their family dentist but became miserly about spending money.

Completing high school from home became his priority, and the district worked with him. Due to the nature of his disability, he was absolved of all athletic requirements and could focus on his academic studies. Even though he missed two semesters, he was able to catch up and surpass the academic calendar—finishing his senior curriculum in under four months after the school year started.

Despite his efforts, he couldn’t convince his mother to let him buy a new personal computer. He tried logic, assuring her it would soon be as common as television—and valuable for his college studies. When she refused, he trekked to the city Library, spending hours using the new desktop units and the expanded ARPANET email and intranet communications protocols. He reviewed MAC World and PC Magazines, watched the cyber world blossom, and taught himself original coding in BASIC, DOS, and Turbo C.

Without the athletic scholarship he anticipated, his university dreams vanished. The few scholarships he applied for offered little toward the tuition fees. She refused to budge when he pleaded with his mom about his future, insisting they’d manage on the settlement and her meager income. When she learned of a night course to become a certified dental assistant, she felt no qualms about funding and completing the program. Eventually, she commanded a higher wage and enjoyed a sense of accomplishment.

Her celebrated achievement led to her undoing when she caught a deadly hemorrhagic fever from a patient from South Korea. Her symptoms were missed until it was too late. Her death made the medical community more vigilant but was tragic for Peter, 17, who became a ward of the state. His sister refused to be his guardian, and the house was auctioned to cover his care. Peter moved to a group home until he sued for autonomy at 21.

He lived alone without friends or family in a dilapidated studio apartment paid for by his settlement with Johnson Controls. He worked as a clerical assistant for Puget Sound Power & Light Co., utilizing his computer skills. In three months, he saved enough for his own IBM 486 DX personal computer. He saved up for a CD-ROM and upgraded to Windows 95.

He stayed after his company merged with Washington Energy Co. to become Puget Sound Energy, and he advanced to IT Project Manager.

At 25, he started dating a coworker and later married her. Originally from Taiwan, Margaret Yu moved to Washington State as a student and extended her visa with a work permit from PSE. She needed to become a citizen or marry an American to stay permanently. Seeing him as an easy target, she used her charms to win over the introverted supervisor. She asked him to teach her the company’s programming language, and he agreed to after-hours meetings. They met at her place, and sometimes, he met her in the local public library, where they could use the public computers to access the company’s mainframe. Never once did he invite her to his studio apartment, which was set up for his disability.