(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.