(Chapter 16)
"Painful Visit" (circa-1984)
It was late in the afternoon when he pulled his car to a halt outside Gary Fowler's bungalow. The wheelchair access ramp and handrail supports leading up to the front door a chilling reminder of a young man paralysed from the waist down, sitting alone on his birthday, his wheelchair his only companion, Stella Mason with aspirations stretching far beyond the care and wellbeing of a broken man, long gone.
He lit a cigarette and waited for the girls to arrive, the interlude giving him time to brush aside the insignificance of a toothache and think about his friend and the injuries he had sustained in the head-on car crash.
The therapy and convalescence that followed and the months of travelling to and from the hospital to assist in Gary's psychological recovery, the regular meetings with hospital consultants and the endless meetings with the local council, helping to arrange accessible accommodation, mobility aids and equipment that would improve his quality of life.
The information from the doctors and specialists were at best conflicting. The doctors saying that the human body has a natural healing process and will eventually make some recovery, but the damages to his spinal cord were so severe it had left him incapable of any significant movement below the waist. The specialists confirming that although spinal cord injuries affect erections, orgasm and ejaculation, medical research had identified that paralysed men still produce testosterone and have sensory functions, erogenous zones and feel sexually aroused in the conventional way. And because the human body will find other ways of functioning, some men who have lost all genital sensation might still be capable of orgasm through stimulation of other parts of the body.
After six months of therapeutic and physical exercise it was reassuring to see that Gary was showing some signs of improvement. Except for a slight numbness in his left arm his upper body was unaffected, and with a little assistance he quickly acquired the confidence to move around in a wheelchair.
It was also reassuring for everyone when he eventually announced that it was time to stop feeling sorry for himself and get on with the rest of his life.
A frantic waving of hands, long painted fingers and arms draped in gold bangles, skyscraper 'fuck-me-hard' heels stepping from the car, skirts little more than wide belts, tits bouncing beneath scraps of cloth no bigger than a handkerchief, swaying their hips and flashing smiles, the body language of confidence signalling that Janice Barton and Linda Graham were ready for their next client.
Both in their late-twenties the girls had spent most of their late teens working as 'strippers' in Working Men's Clubs, but the money wasn't that good and the competition was ruthless.
If you weren't prepared to give the booking agent a blow-job, you didn't get work.
They tried working the streets, but after too many rough fucks in smelly back alleys, too many blow-jobs in dirty secluded doorways and too many black eyes and no cash, for the sake of their health they decided to register with an escort agency.
With their virtue for rent Janice and Linda traded sex to strangers. 'Fucking-for-money in a safe and controlled environment was less of a risk and gave them potential earnings almost six times that of an average job. The girls were street-wise and astute business women. They were also aware that age brings with it the inevitable demands of gravity, so before things started to head south they had the forethought to put all their hard earned cash into useful and meaningful investments.
Working seven-days-a-week in their well-practiced profession, Janice and Linda had acquired about twenty regular clients who they entertained at least once a month, either in their home or in a hotel.
Married...Single...Working-Class...Professional...Lawyers...Policemen...Politicians...Men of the cloth, the occasional celebrity and those suffering from erectile dysfunction were all accepted without question.
Their terms and conditions of engagement were not exhaustive, but dirty unkempt men and those requesting bondage, severe pain, sadism and torture were immediately rejected.
No credit cards. No refunds. No deliveries taken in the back door.