Chapter 30

Tuesday, February 1st, 2022
Colorado Springs, Colorado
This morning I got Carl to give me control of all parts of my body, but to keep most of them at one quarter strength or less. My legs were especially very weak. I could make them move, barely, but if I let one hang over the side of the bed, I didn’t have the strength to straighten it, or even to pull it back up and that is how Pam found me in the morning.

She said, “John! What the hell are you doing?”

I chuckled, “It looks worse than it is. I was just experimenting with moving everything. I found I don’t have the strength to do more than wave it around a bit in this position. Couldn’t even pull it back up. Can you give me a hand?”

She did and then lifted the side rail that I had lowered to perform the move in the first place.

“Dammit John, don’t scare me like that. You should have waited for your PT appointment to try something like that.”

I replied, “I’m sorry I scared you Pam, and I won’t do it again. Don’t worry.”

She forgave me and finished her morning checks. She was always so upbeat and happy, and I enjoyed spending time with her. However, after she left I had another discussion with Carl about the speed of recovery and he agreed that hanging out here in the hospital was getting old, even with happy people like Pam around. We decided to really up the pace on our mending.

Carla, my PT, had me squeezing against a foam ball, and was assisting me in moving my limbs as we determined range of motion. My increased control was impossible to miss. She gave me the name she had researched for a local agency that provided physical therapists to home environments.

She was very pleased at the level of recovery I had made this morning and passed the information on to my team. The doctors ordered another round of every test I had made so far and another batch of bloodwork to go with it.

John Sr. stopped by in the early afternoon and I mentioned the agency Carla had recommended. He got on the phone with them immediately and scheduled a consultation for tomorrow around this time, as he wanted to be here for it too. I was happy to let him help as it seemed important to him.

When he was finished with that, I talked with him about my general business plan. He asked, “So are you going to be doing what you did for me to these people?”

I replied, “Well, that might be a viable fallback task that would certainly have value to them, but I would prefer to actually find what best meets their needs and then fulfill it. Initially, I am going to approach potential customers. After I help them, I will want to have them introduce me to others who might be in a position to be customers.”

“Eventually though, I want my business to get potential customers by word of mouth because I am providing a valuable service. I want to be picking and choosing from customers who are asking for my help instead of my reaching out to them. I won’t ever be able to advertise my ability to do what I did for you, so that won’t be something people will ever be calling me for.”

He replied, “I see, so how are you planning on getting your first few customers?”

I smiled at him and said, “Actually, I planned on asking you to recommend a few. I am hoping you might know some people who wouldn’t flinch at paying a non-refundable $10K deposit plus something like $100K to get a dream fulfilled or have a big problem fixed. What are my chances?”

After giving it some thought, he said, “I can think of a small handful of people I know personally who would fit the bill. No doubt they will know many others. I don’t mind setting up a meeting for you. However, they will probably have some difficulty believing you are capable of providing the services you claim. Especially considering your physical situation.”

I said, “My physical situation is rapidly changing. I expect to be out of the hospital and operating a wheelchair before the week is out. I could easily operate an electric one now, perhaps even one of those mobility scooters. The hospital probably won’t like it, but I will be leaving soon and managing my own health care and recovery.”

He nodded and said, “Have you considered it might be worthwhile to spend some time recovering at my house in the beginning. I have much more room at my place, not to mention the much easier access versus your 5th floor apartment. You would also have less eyes on your comings and goings.”

“My pool alone might be a serious reason to consider it, for the PT benefits. You would be more than welcome to stay as long as you like, certainly until you have a believable degree of independent capability. Even if you don’t choose to do that, I would very much like to be a part of my son’s new life moving forward, at least peripherally.”

I said, “Those are all good reasons. My only real concerns are not wanting to impose, which from your words, I don’t believe would be an issue, and I would also want to be clear that I would occasionally be pretending to be resting while I was really going to be gone. Perhaps for days at a time. Will you mind acting as an alibi for me when I need to do that?”

He said, “No, I don’t see any problem with that. If we agree that you will be staying with me for a while, I’m going to get a contractor out to make the house a little more wheelchair friendly sooner rather than later.”

I replied, “Okay, go ahead. I think I’ll target my exodus for this Friday. Thursday afternoon I’ll give the powers that be around here notice of my intent to depart. My legs will take a while to make a full recovery I think, and that’s fine. As long as I am mobile in some way and able to communicate, I think I can be effective in the job.”

“I might be walking for short distances with a walker before I leave here, but probably using a wheelchair more often than not. I will probably need home care of some sort in the beginning. A month after I leave I’ll be walking with a cane and spending a lot of time sitting to rest, but be completely independent. By mid-summer I’ll be swimming and jogging for exercise. That’s the plan anyway. We can take our cohabitation by ear, and I’ll move out when it feels right to either of us.”

He replied, “Good. I’ll get started on getting the house prepared and see you tomorrow afternoon.”

We said goodbye and he left for the day.

Later in the afternoon the girls returned and I updated them on the change in plans. They decided to crash the scheduled PT visit tomorrow so they could meet John Sr. and get on his radar too. They agreed to meet with Charlie to discuss migrating to this new business and how we should work all the details, hopefully they could get most of it set up without me needing to be present.

After a few silly suggestions and more than a few less than stellar ideas, the three of us decided to go with ‘TriStar Consulting LLC.’ for the business name. Jan verified it was not already registered for use on the Secretary of State’s website. I made sure she had all of the pertinent details of John Walker Junior’s life to fill out any forms needed, and they would get them to me for a signature at some point. We socialized for about another hour before they left for the day too.

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Pam found me with my bed slightly elevated and with me stretching to reach my toes. I was barely reaching past my knees so far, but I was definitely engaging my core muscles. She shook her head and made “Tsk, Tsk” noises as she did her checks.

Sam and Doc Carter were doing rounds together this morning, or at least they came in at the same time today. Results from the MRI were gone over, and they found nothing unusual. They agreed to remove the feeding tube and schedule a swallow test for this morning. One more step closer to freedom.

Having a tube pulled out of your nose is every bit as odd a feeling as you would expect it to be. I had Carl disconnect my feelings when we put it in originally, as I didn’t expect to enjoy it, but I figured coming out would be fine, and really, it wasn’t that bad. There were no issues with the swallow test and the ‘more solid liquids’ were not exactly yummy. Still, progress was being made.

In the afternoon the girls and John Sr. arrived shortly before the representative from the physical therapy agency. A middle aged woman named Emily introduced herself to all of us and began reviewing my case and me personally.

Carl recruited her and we filled her in on our plans. She was quite willing to help and would propose a treatment plan and provide tracking of my recovery from regular visits from herself and perhaps a few co-workers on occasion as needed. I thanked her for the help and asked her to meet us at John Senior’s home on Friday afternoon to see if there was anything she felt we needed to do to back up the treatment plan. Things like handrails and equipment that might be desired.

After she left I filled John in on the role the girls would be playing in the business and that they would be a big part of my life moving forward. He was happy to meet them both, and said he was looking forward to getting to know them better. They each hugged him and told him they were looking forward to it as well.

Jan said, “I am so sorry about your son.”

John replied, “I haven’t completely given up hope, but I am also oddly looking forward to seeing what his new life will be like with you guys in it.”

Meghan said, “I’m looking forward to seeing it too. Thanks for giving us this opportunity.”

He said, “I think it’s going to be good for all of us.”

We were all just chatting a little later when I had another visitor. The man was wearing a doctor’s lab coat and carrying a chart in his hand on a clipboard.

He said, “Hi, I’m Doctor Steven Brown. It’s nice to meet you all. I was hoping to have a little chat with our patient here. Could I ask you guys to give us a few minutes?”

John Sr. said, “Actually I should go, I’m expecting some people at my home soon and I need to get moving anyway. John, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”

I said, “Okay, thanks Dad.”

He left with a tear in his eye.

Jan said, “We’ll get out of here too then, let the man take his time looking at that empty skull of yours. See you tomorrow too,” then gave me a kiss on the cheek.

Meghan gave me one too and said, “Later, Romeo,” and both girls waved as they left.

I smiled and waved too, then turned to the doc and said, “Have a seat, doc. How do you want to approach this?”

He sat down and replied, “Well, it’s probably pretty obvious, but I’m here to see how you are dealing with your situation. So why don’t we start with talking about what happened? Everything you tell me is completely confidential.”

I sent, [Carl, let’s not recruit him, as I don’t see a need for a shrink right now, but go ahead and do a ‘Helper’ jacking into him and I’ll take it from there.]

Carl flashed me a regular image of the doc being jacked.

I said, “I order you to believe everything I say. I am not suicidal any longer. At the time, I had a lot of stressors come together all at once, and I made a poor choice. However, I now deeply regret the decision and I am no longer a threat to myself or others. Do you have any more questions for me?”

He said, “I believe you, but I could use some details. Can you name some of the stressors that were involved?”

I thought for a few seconds then said, “Well, there is no point in sugar coating things now, is there? Big picture? I’m a deeply in the closet bisexual who was under a lot of parental pressue to succeed and also produce an heir. Coupled with that, I had an affair recently that fell to pieces. He has been talking about exposing me publicly. I was not ready for that, it was a ticking time bomb that I didn’t know how to difuse.”

“I regularly stress out about making any serious decisions at work, but am forced into a supervisory role due to my family owning the company that I frankly am not very suited for. I was being groomed to take over the company from my Dad someday and I’ve never wanted to do that. There was an upcoming meeting that I dreaded attending because I was not looking forward to having to come up with excuses for my shortcomings in that regard, yet again.”