I opened the door to my nice new BMW, the smell of leather filled the air, I set my brief cases down in the passenger seat, plugged in my blue tooth headset into my ear, and put on my black shades. I drove through the neighborhood with that “life is good” feeling. It was a perfect morning and I was ready for the best day of my career to begin. I am the inventor of snuggles. This morning I would be meeting with people magazine where we would be putting in an ad for our snuggles that would improve our sales 76%.

I never thought that something sp simple as a blanket with sleeves with socks connected to it would make me a millionaire. I am a single guy barely 5 foot, short gelled back hair; green eyes and I have no muscle whatsoever. From my point of view I am a pretty good looking guy. I am doing pretty good for myself so far, mother always told me I was special from the day I was born and I’ve believed her ever since. As I drove along, I decided to turn on the radio, I reached for it and pressed the ‘4’ button, then the ‘3’ button, and then I reached for the ‘2’ button and look up. Once I realized where I was on the road I was my heart began to race. A huge green semi was headed straight for me. I saw the flash of lights and a crash and everything went fuzzy. I closed my eyes as my body began to shift and move without my control. I remember the smell of gasoline and smoke. I remembered the sounds of sirens and people yelling. Then, there was silence.
I opened my eyes and I was in a white room, I was hooked up to some machine and I had a mask over my mouth. The room was quiet, it was dark outside, I turned to look for a clock and found one on the wall. It was 6:42; my meeting had been long over with. A woman dressed in pink scrubs walked into the room with a clip board. She smiled and said “Nice to see your awake, Norbert.” I wanted to ask what was going on but the words were lost inside of me somewhere. She took the mask off of my face and she told me she would be back in a little while. I laid there to a minute thinking to myself what happened. What did happen? Am I going to live? Or was I dying? The doctor walked in, he was short and was balding. He sighed, “Well Norbert, It looks like we have a problem.” He said quietly. My heart sank, that was not exactly what I was hoping to hear. “We did some tests and you have third degree burns on your legs and chest, which caused you body to go into some sort of shock...” He flipped the page on his clip board and said “You are paralyzed from the waste down.” My stomach dropped and my eyes widened. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out. I felt fine! I tried to speak again and I managed to get it out: “WHAT? I am too busy and way to important to be paralyzed! H-how am I supposed to run a business when I can’t even walk!” I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach. He looked at me and said “I’m sorry.” Then more dizziness filled my head and everything went fuzzy again, I lay down and closed my eyes to escape from the horrible truth that my life was ending.
I woke up in a wheel chair the next morning, nothing was making sense anymore. The hospital had somebody drive me home. Once I got home, there were 72 missed calls on my answering machine. Most of them were from my boss, and several from other people at work. I decided to call my boss first, he sponsored my inventions and was probably the one who was the most disappointed in me. I called and waited a few rings. Then his secretary answered:
“Hello, this is Mr. Finches office how can I help you?”
“I need to speak to Mr. Finch immediately, its important.”
“Please hold.” I waited a few minutes and Mr. Finches deep voice answered.
“Hello, it’s Finch.”
“Hi Mr. Finch, its Norbert-“
“NORBERT! Where were you yesterday? You totally ditched me at the meeting! Do you know how important that meeting was for us?!” The screaming continued a little longer and then I told him what happened, he listened to every word and once I finished he spoke. “Well Norbert, I’m sorry to hear that but if you are paralyzed that means you are unable to attend meetings that are in other states or countries, it would be a... Hassle to get you where you need to go and I don’t think this company can afford the extra expenses at this point in time. I’m sorry Norbert but we have to let you go.” My jaw dropped and the phone nearly fell out of my hand, I began to plead for my job but he had already hung up. I threw the phone at the wall in disgust. My life was over, everything I worked f or was gone. I might as well live under a rock. What made it even better? Well, I’m going to lose my home due to loss of income, my amazing car was totaled, and my blue tooth and phone were going to get shut off. I decided nothing here was good for me anymore, I wheeled my chair out the door and began to ride down the street, I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew that everything I was leaving behind was no good for me anymore.
The sun began to set and I got scared, I don’t think my skills from the office would help me in this neighborhood where you hear about people getting jumped and mugged all the time. I ignored those thoughts in my head and continued down the street. I was tired, the sun began to set and I needed somewhere to sleep. If I was going to live on the street I was going to have to get use to it. In the back of a diner there was a dumpster pushed up against a fence, it wasn’t as bad as ones that I’ve seen. It was the last place I wanted to sleep but at least it was dry. I wondered if there was some way to get into it without my wheel chair, I reached up and gripped the rim of the dumpster and tried to pull myself up but didn’t get too far (I wasn’t the strongest person in the world.) I began to slip out of my wheel chair and fell onto the ground; I thought I would be stuck there for ever considering I was paralyzed. I never actually tried to walk ever since I was told I was paralyzed, but I could feel my legs… I tried to stand up and I did, I was in shock that I was actually fine! That doctor must’ve been crazy because I am perfectly fine. I walked around then began to jump up and down like a crazy maniac.
Once I knew I wasn’t paralyzed, I turned back down the street and began walking home. I was finally at the beginning of where I was before this humungous mistake. I was planning on suing the doctor who lied to me and use that money to get my house back, car fixed and turn back on my cell phone and blue tooth! Everything was going right, and I hope it continues to go right so I can finally be proud of myself and give my mother a real reason to be proud of me.