Thank you for your support. Also Please check out my Amazon page for my book list if you want to show appreciation and support my work. (Those books aren't KTAW or this story mostly, wide variety of titles but mostly Lit RPG Harem stories). Both this story and KTAW are getting massive attention this month and next. I'm re-editing KTAW, and adding new chapters. I'm also getting a lot of work done for this story. I wanted to say that so readers can feel like they are getting attention. :)

  Chapter 8

  It’s been two more days since I got home from the hospital. And naturally I'm still healing up but no longer at death's door. My datapad voice mail is full of angry customer calls that I have to take time to sort out. I dealt with the easier calls first, to get through as much of what I could quickly. Plus the hard cases wouldn’t be cleared up right away anyway, so why ruin my day right at the beginning? Only two of my customers have to be dealt with right away. The others can be pushed back or the work sent to someone else instead; I don't like it but hey I'll still be healing for months.

  It’s the same two troublesome customers that had their car at my shop this whole time, but the cops have already returned their vehicles to them. I called them first to clear things up and expin what happened, that it wasn't our fault we couldn't help them. Naturally they didn’t care what happened and screamed about keeping their car so long.

  Why doesn’t talking to them get anywhere? It seems like in the end it’s up to the wyers and who knows where that will go since they always feed themselves first. My money still isn’t resolved and a lot of it was stolen.

  Jeez…

  The problem with a highly technological society is how void of affection people are because they are always talking or communicating via distance or a machine. And it just so happens that it’s easy to say no or be wishy washy when talking to a machine with excuses.

  Officers Diaz and Smith didn’t even come out to meet me. Does that mean they even are giving proper attention to my case? Everyone was done talking to them via video feeds regarding my case, in regards to any potential bank contacts, the hospital staff, etc. I didn’t really like talking through video feeds much because people would act a bit different in them than if you were next to them. So sometimes they’d be ruder than normal because you weren’t right there to want to hit them. Or people could sometimes also be triggered to be kinder in person also.

  Diaz and Smith are mostly unavaible for comment I found out three calls ter, only getting a message video feed message system. They did leave me a message saying the case was already closed via their secretary who was probably doing it because she had a better face and looked more pleasing than they did but it was kind of a half effort I think. The mortgage and some credits for my utilities will be covered by the violent crime fund for three months. I’m also given temporary help for groceries by the state for three months but that’s through food stamps and some other things. I feel bad because I haven’t ever had to use or apply for food stamps and have until now worked for a living. Having to apply for food stamps and government aid feels like walking around naked on the street in some ways.

  That gives a very short time frame to get into shape and work hard or lose my pce to live soon. Even if I have already paid a lot and put a lot of equity into this house, that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t take it. They could reinvent all kinds of fees and surcharges in all this too by processing it. In fact, they’d be more likely to want to take it because they could try to cache in on that equity I’d built up for a while and the equity that I’d inherited from my parents possessing it before me.

  It’s hell to not know if I’ll have a future. That makes you think really hard. I’d always grown up under the idea that I had a future. But now not knowing that and having such huge uncertainty is scary. What do I have to look forward to next year or five years from now?

  I hope I’ll be able to walk like normal then.

  I have to rest, but I also have a very short list of exercises I can do. I try to work really hard and push myself with the exercises on the first day.

  I’ve got the shop closed but now I can’t even get to the second floor and nor should I try to, since the more I do something stupid before I’m ready the easier I can have an injury.

  Wow.

  I’ve gotten full motor control back in my arms, but the muscles are all weakened still. I feel the movement but my arms are heavy and it feels like I’m lifting fifty pounds when I try to lift up a six pack of sodas. My back is still broke, and it’s taking time to get my legs back. I feel like there’s vague feeling there and I can sometimes move my toes but its hel’ hard to get any feeling back.

  Oh there it is again. Yeah, definitely some feeling coming back, of which I’m hoping it will continue to grow wards my full foot and then I can worry about the rest.

  They say that’s a good sign. They told me I’d walk again before I left the hospital but who knows if they are just blowing smoke up my…

  Not to mention the therapy... It hurts like a bitch to get in the wheel chair. I had no idea it would be this painful. It was that painful at the hospital but it’s like I thought it would go away. It hasn’t yet. How do I get through this?

  There’s supposed to be someone that comes to my house for physical therapy treatments. But being a government worker they are sary and they’ve cancelled for two out of the tree visits. What is it with these people?

  Too much economic security is too good for some people’s work habits I guess. That person is undependable but when I call the hospital about trying to schedule someone else I’m only getting someone named Sarah’s datapad recording to leave a message.

  This is complicated.

  My mind is racing and I’m not good at standing still this much.

  If I live off the government they may have rules about me being able to stay in my own house. They won’t have an obligation for my mortgage either, even though it’s pretty small compared to a renters. And I don’t have anyone trustworthy I can rent it too. I swear I could feel the stress coming out of me like sweat.

  I also am having terrible nightmares. When they started to treat me for paralysis I’d been so tight and disciplined that I hadn’t thought about listing nightmares as part of my symptoms. I had a lot of fear of the dark now.

  I’m not reliving the accident or anything, but it’s like I keep getting worried something is sneaking up on me. It’s hard to turn the lights off in the house because every time I do, I keep wondering if something will pop out of one of the dark corners of the yard or come into the house. Or Matt, come back to haunt me.

  I don’t know why but I just feel,… something is wrong. I feel like there’s something out to get me some of the time. Or get anyone really. Its almost like you can feel that anything could happen now.

  A hidden danger.

  Then one night I received a video feed call.

  “Hello?” I answered it. It was probably a client. But I was wrong.

  “Hello, Jack is that you?” It’s a sweet feminine voice that sounded very young like maybe early twenties, and soothing. Normally I could see the visual image of the person’s face with it, but in this case it’s a cultural protocol that a lot of people switch the video feed to audio only after 8 PM, because people don’t always look their best then or may be getting ready for bed.

  “Huh? Is this Emma or Edna? You sound so alike I can’t tell which of you it is,” I said.

  “Right on! Since our voice modutors are the same, it’s like you have guessed the right person in a way,” she said in monotone. She does sound just like a real person. It’s very shocking. But she doesn’t always say things the way a normal person would.

  “So is this about my physical therapy? I was trying to get some things worked out with hospital management,” I asked.

  “Sort of...” She paused a second. “You know Jack. I think you would benefit from a domestic partner android. I was calcuting successful recovery probabilities about your situation and became worried about you. Of course it was after my normal shift was done. I did not lose any work efficiency,” she started to say.

  Small silence on my part…

  “Jack, are you there?” she asked.

  “Uh, yeah…but I don’t need help at home. I like living alone and being independent,” I protested.

  “You need to accept help Jack. You have stubbornness in your character core that needs to be deleted, is what I would say if you an android. I don’t fully understand what makes a human acquire such random possibilities in their mass individualism,” she said.

  It was true. I was having a hard time with it. I was raised to be independent and work hard. I loved the feeling of working towards something. “Yo-you’re right. It’s just I don’t know where to start. It’s hard to accept charity from others. I don’t want to owe anyone or be indebted also. Or taken advantage of. I feel guilty because I don’t want to live off others. Plus, most people aren’t very trustworthy.”

  “That’s one of your good points Jack! Keep it up! You have to think about how to be proactive to reach your goal,” she said it very positively. I can even feel the almost motherly like affection on the other end. It’s amazing that androids can simute a motherly personality since you’d think it would require a lot of emotion.

  “You know you are still very young Jack. I think you can turn this to your advantage,” she said.

  “Even if I want to, I don’t clearly see an open door I can go through to get to a workable future. Trying to fix mag cars is what I do. I’m good at it and it’s all I know. I used to be able to fix hover cars before they pulled those off the market from too many idiots who were driving them into buildings for Arab heaven ascending simutions. But I need to be able to work. Having a domestic android won’t do me any good if I can’t pay for it,” I said.

  “True. I can see why that would stress you out, noted that I haven’t been in the same situation. I do want to help though. Also noted of things like that will get worked out if you make good choices. Good choice X, opens up Y coordinate for future, just like math. X and Y coordinates also correspond with an unexpected future Z third dimensional coordinate. It’s simple like math. Bad choice equals going in the negative pne, and you don’t want to do that. The negative pne is bad. Jack, I’m going to send someone to see you. She’s very good at helping people like you. Let her talk to you listen to what she has to say with an open mind,” she said.

  Uh oh, that wasn’t what I’d expected. I kept thinking there was some small hope of something else but that was naive and I knew it.

  “She’s not going to try to sell anything?” I grumbled unhappily.

  “Just hear her out Jack. Attempt to see if it is a successful probability decision tree. It’s not going to hurt. You are already in pain anyway and she doesn’t want to aggravate it. But she may be able to help you with a few pointers and be able to educate you on a few things to make your life better, as people say.”

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this. When is she coming by?” I asked.

  “Is tomorrow good? You won’t be too busy, I hope,” she replied.

  “That’ll work I guess. But if this is a scam I’ll know it,” I warned her.

  “It’s not a scam Jack, bye. Take care! You were a pleasant patient too.”

  The phone call ended.

  But the stress was keeping me awake.

  And the next day more rioting was taking pce again in our area. This time it hit an apartment complex on the other side of town. It was supposed to be infmmable but it burned anyway.

  So the appointment was rescheduled.

  I spent the day working out in the shop. I’m trying to be careful about moving. I haven’t even tried to go up the stairs yet because I’m worried about what stairs will do to me. I did hire a temp service to do my grocery shopping. They of course used an android, which is partly why some of the rioting still takes pce. They say the jobs are going to humans, but some of the older android models aren’t good at blending in very well and this is one of them. They hold still too much, and look like they are zoned out, just like now.

  But I can’t ignore that this male android did follow the grocery list exactly. Every item was on there and despite looking like he was zoned out, he did it better than a human would. And he had a receipt which he produced without having to be asked too. Nor did he hassle me for a tip when he didn’t know I already had talked about the managing agency about it. Its two weeks’ worth of groceries just like I’d requested. This type of request wasn’t unusual though. A lot of people would hire a temp service to send an errand runner for groceries or what not, though they were usually old people.

  I could pay my other bills, such as utilities online. That would take care of those, but watering the grass and doing a garden in the backyard were probably not going to happen this year. I didn’t like that. I got a lot of my fresh vegetables from my garden. I did stuff like tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, celery, and white corn.

  I would be lucky if I didn’t lose this pce and I’m worried about the garden? I feel like an idiot.

  I should have had the android put the perishable groceries in my fridge. I was lucky that I had the French door style fridge that opened with a partition in middle, which made reaching into the fridge easier for me without having to bend over since the design permitted me to have better up top efficiency. I also didn’t pack a lot of stuff in it, so it wasn’t overcrowded or hard to find things.

  But it’s not easy putting things into the fridge from a wheelchair.

  Today, my feet and legs have had tremors and small movement beyond just the toes. I’ve gotten feeling back slowly in the area below my knees but it feels like my leg is asleep a lot and a lot of weakness without being able to support my weight yet. The chances of a recovery are good if I can just manage to work out the economic problems of the time between now and when I’m fully on my feet. But they say nerve reted problems have the most down time of any other health problem in recovery time.