Gravity

Copyright © 2022, 2023 by OmegaPet-58

Revised Edition, Feb. 2023

Chapter 1: New Domesticity.

Sam Hartman was getting ready for bed. It was his first night in his new bedroom, in his new home. With difficulty, he pushed down on the arms of his wheelchair for clearance and tugged down his sweatpants and underwear and pulled his feet free. Then he pulled off his socks one by one, pulled off his t-shirt, and tossed the whole mess towards the open-topped hamper in the corner. (He missed, of course.)

"Lila wouldn't like that." He thought, wincing. Not just the laundry on the floor, but the clothing itself. She always preferred him in quality clothing: dress shirts, slacks, a fine leather belt and the best leather shoes, even on weekends. He had been agreeable, as her appreciation made the effort worthwhile. Because she was so worth it!

But now, she was gone. And he could not help but think back on when they were together.

In the years they were married, Sam never fully stopped worrying that Lila was out of his league.

In Sam's eyes, she was a goddess. For others who knew her, Lila was a moderately attractive woman, average height, average build, brown hair, blue eyes.

To most everyone who knew her, she stood out for the warmth of her personality, her fierce intelligence, and her total focus on her work. She had risen through the corporate ranks to the executive leadership council, with responsibility for legal affairs and human resources.

When he picked her up at each weekday's end, her smile was a balm on his spirit.

Sam's part of their family life was much less pressure-packed and less lucrative. He was an associate professor at Stilten College in their Department of Business, Accounting, and Economics. In this position, his priority was teaching. Which suited him just fine. Stilten's reputation and highly selective admissions guaranteed he was teaching exceptional young people in manageable classroom settings, that is, small interactive groups, seminar-style.

As an undergraduate student in a large state university, he had loathed the huge classes held in lecture halls. The more intimate style of teaching at the small college suited him.

Half (or more) of his students at the college were young women, some amazingly beautiful. Yet Sam could honestly say he felt not the slightest temptation. Occasionally, a comely student would visit his college office to "discuss" her grade. Invariably, they left disappointed.

For Sam, there was only Lila.

The only regrets in their happy life together was they didn't, and couldn't, have children.

Sam had completed his doctorate studies at that same large public university. (At the graduate level, he need not attend any more of the large lectures.)

With his Ph.D., hard work, and no small amount of luck, he obtained his first permanent appointment (at Stilten).

Concurrently, Lila's determined focus on her career reaped rewards in both promotions and salary increases.

And so, in their fifth year of marriage, the couple had the resources to buy their first hillside home in a town near to both of their employers. After the movers had left, Sam picked his bride up bodily and carried her over the threshold, growling softly.

Inside, they left a trail of discarded clothing from the foyer up the stairs into the master bedroom. Lila received so much oral sex that she was begging Sam, "Stop! Get your tongue out of my pussy and fuck me, you filthy animal!"

Three hours and four positions later, they collapsed into an exhausted sleep.

When they finally got out of bed the next day, Lila looked Sam straight in the eye. "Honey, if that's the kind of fucking I can get from you, I want to buy a new house every god damned year."

Chapter 2: Competition.

As a faculty member, Sam (and his wife) could use the campus athletic facilities. They took full advantage of this perk and participated with the students in all kinds of intramural sports. A particular favorite was their standing weekly tennis challenge to the students to play two full matches of mixed doubles.

After the match, win or lose, the student players were treated to a full dinner at a nice restaurant. This way, there were always opponents waiting for Lila and Sam, who enjoyed hanging out with the young people. And of course, the four students got to scarf down a high-quality alternative to the college's on-campus institutional fare.

After their fun on the tennis court, and the pleasant meal, the students were sent back to their dorms on campus. At home came the third phase of their athletic challenge day: the bedroom tournament!

The first event was (naturally) disrobing, with speed the only criteria. Although one time Sam cheated by ripping his shirt open and popping off the buttons.

As always, he was rock hard by the time Lila's body was fully revealed.

Next was 69, where the goal was not to come first, but to end at the same time.

An interval was taken for cool drinks and toothbrushing. He loved watching her at the sink as her brushing motions wobbled her tits delightfully.

The bed was turned down for the main, and final, event: bareback riding.

Sam was on his back, a pillow under his head. Erect and lustful, he watched her dab a little lube on her pussy before climbing on. While hovering, Lila grabbed his cock for a few quick slippery strokes, then aimed and sank down until he was fully buried inside her. She leaned forward and dangled a nipple to his lips, and began humping, grinding her clit on the flesh and bone just above his cock's base.

It wasn't long before Lila gasped out her first orgasm. With a roar, Sam flipped her on to her back and began pounding her pussy. Her legs came up and folded around his ass as he thrust faster and faster. With an ecstatic groan, his come spurted into her pussy, and he collapsed in her arms.

Lila just held him, waiting for his heartbeat and breathing to subside. He was heavy on her body, but it was a comfortable burden. She loved this closeness and togetherness after they made love.

But she knew he was close to going directly to sleep, and she couldn't be his mattress. "OK, honey, let's get to sleep." She pushed up and he rolled off to the side.

Drowsily, "Oh, Lila, thank you, I love you."

They were both asleep in minutes.

Chapter 3: Summer Break.

It was the last class meeting of the spring semester. Sam asked his students to come forward one at a time to receive their graded final paper and final marks for the course. There was tension among the students, but he was smiling; this group had been very attentive, and he had only a few low grades among the pile of papers on his desk.

As each student came up, he greeted them warmly and offered words of congratulation or encouragement. Afterwards, he packed up his things and walked to his office. Inside, he took off his regular teaching clothes and put on his best suit, then headed for the parking lot. It was time to pick up Lila at corporate headquarters, and he had reservations for their traditional end-of-semester dinner.

"Hi, sweetie, how was work?"

"It was typical, another day, another catastrophe avoided by my enlightened management. You're looking spiffy, by the way. We have dinner plans, right?"

"Yes, we do. Today I told those young minds I have trained for future business leadership to get the fuck out of my sight and don't come back."

"Yeah, sure you did, Sam. I know your style, you're more Teddy Bear than Drill Sergeant. So where are you taking us?"

These were Lila's last words.

Sam woke up two weeks later immobilized in a hospital bed. In terrible pain. His left leg was in a cast and elevated with a traction cable. He had no view of his back and pelvis, but he assumed injuries there were causing most of his other pains.

"Help! Help!" He cried out. Eventually a nurse appeared, looking peeved. "Why are you screaming? Use your call button if you need something."

"I don't know where that button is. I'm in TERRIBLE PAIN! I just woke up in this hospital and I don't know what happened to me! Where is my WIFE? I need a doctor, not a fucking BUTTON!"

"I have to check your orders," she grumbled, and left.

A different nurse came in a few minutes later, pushing a cart. "Mr. Hartman, I have some pain medication here for you."

"Thank God, I'm dying here!"

"We've paged the doctor; she should be here shortly. I need to ask you, this is powerful stuff, it may knock you out before she gets here. I can give you a half-dose so you can stay awake and then give the rest afterwards. Your choice."

Sam gritted his teeth. "OK, give me half."

She injected his IV line, and Sam began coming down the pain scale from excruciating to just awful.

Ten minutes later, that same nurse returned with a doctor. They were both women in their 50's, and they had serious expressions on their faces.

"I'm Dr. Segretti, it's good to see you awake. I'll tell you what I can from reviewing your chart. Two weeks ago, you were in a severe car accident. You've been unconscious ever since. Your left leg, pelvis, and lower back were badly fractured, and those bones have been surgically repaired. Literally, with metal pins and screws. However, there may well be nerve damage which could impair your walking in the future."

"Wait. Car Accident? Lila, my wife! Is she OK?"

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Hartman. Your wife was killed in the accident."

Sam couldn't make a sound. His face was a rictus of pure agony. Already crying from the pain, tears flowed non-stop down his face. Dr. Segretti turned to the nurse. Seeing she was affected and focused on the patient, she touched her arm to get her attention.

"Please give him the other half of his meds now."

They waited and watched him close his eyes and drift off. As they left the room, the doctor said, "That's just awful, the poor guy. Now, because of all the bone surgery he's had, I want him on alternating doses of hydromorphone and morphine, that means he gets morphine at 8, hydromorphone at 12, and morphine at 4, and so on.

"After 24 hours we will review for going forward. It's important, I want this medication order followed precisely and exactly! Make sure the next shift understands that, clearly and completely.

"I've never seen so much skeletal damage in someone still alive; he is going to need every drop of those opiates.

"Come to think of it, I'm going call and confirm we have enough on hand for him down in our pharmacy. "

"Doctor, I hear what you're saying, but I think having lost his wife will hurt him more."

Chapter 4: Rehabilitation.

The first few days were extremely difficult for Sam. He needed to spend more and more time awake each day, doing things like eating solid food and moving the undamaged parts of his body. But as they diminished his dosages, the skeletal pain became harder and harder to tolerate. To eat safely, they would tilt up the bed, which meant his body weight was pushing down into his damaged lower spine and pelvis.

He was in the least pain lying flat, but studying the ceiling tile above his bed was not interesting. Mostly, he had long long days of being physically miserable, and emotionally distraught.

Those first days, they would wake him for their routines, taking his vital signs, making him eat, and so on. He would rouse from his exhausted sleep, woozy from the drugs, and struggle to understand, to remember, where he was, why everything hurt, and . . . Lila was dead! He cried so long, and so hard, that his eyes hurt.

The nurses were sympathetic, and did what they could to ease his pain. But he was so obviously suffering, in every way. Busy as they were, a couple of the nurses spent extra time at his bedside, even to just hold Sam's hand.

After fifteen days, the hospital discharged Sam to stay in a skilled nursing facility. He was still on the opioids, and would be for some time to come. It would be a slow process to wean him off those powerful drugs.

After they cut the plaster cast from his hip and leg, it became clear that he would have impaired mobility going forward, owing to damage to his pelvis and hip areas, including key nerves for his left leg.

In the fourth week following the accident, the CEO of Lila's company, Edmund Wallace, came to visit Sam.

"Thanks for visiting me, Mr. Wallace, but it's not really necessary."

"Please, Sam, call me 'Bud,' and I'm so sorry for your loss. But we have a few things to discuss, if you're feeling up for it."

"Trust me, Bud, my days here are long and boring."

"I want you to know how fond of Lila we all were. I'm here because we have important next steps going forward.

"First, I'm sure you already know that Lila's health insurance is covering your medical bills, in coordination with the insurance you also have from Stilten College. We are paying to continue your coverage for one year, using a law called COBRA. After that, you have the option to pay for up to 24 more months of that plan."

"The important thing is you can concentrate on healing and not be concerned about finances. Lila's retirement accumulations are already transferred to you, of course."

"I've learned a lot in the past weeks. It was Lila Hartman who documented all this information for us in our HR policy guides a few years ago. Our attorneys have verified everything she prepared." Sam could see that Bud was getting upset. He took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. "She was amazing."

"Moving on. The second thing I wanted to cover is that top executives in corporations like ours are covered by something called 'key person insurance.' It's a policy which we pay for, and which pays out to us in losses like this—to cover the expense of replacing that person. To help with your immediate needs, the board of directors has required me to distribute 1/4 of that payout directly to you, which is $100,000. We can use the same account that was her payroll direct deposit?"

Sam nodded.

"Third, we have learned that the truck that hit your car was owned by a global corporation called ZKI. The truck's driver was the nephew of a senior manager, and he used his influence to keep his nephew driving for them, despite his having documented addictions to drugs and alcohol. The driver had a pending DUI case and his blood tested positive for drugs."

"With these facts, ZKI is facing serious liability for the accident. We are planning to sue them for millions of dollars, that's direct and punitive damages. We want you to join us in that lawsuit, your participation will help us win the case and make sure they are appropriately punished for the tremendous loss of Lila to us all.

You must have your own lawyers, but you don't pay them unless you win. If you do win, they get a percentage of what you collect, usually 30 to 40%.

"For right now, all you need to do is heal. Sometime in the next three months we would like to hear from you, though. Please don't feel obligated to participate. You can also simply file your own separate suit against ZKI, if you prefer. The idea is that combining our claims gets a better, faster result and puts less stress on you personally. But please lay out the whole thing to your own lawyer first."

"One last thing before I go, Sam. I pushed for Lila's last promotion. I thought she was an exceptional executive, and a great person. And when I was told about the accident, I cried. Please, anything you need, just let me know."

"Bud, there is one thing. It looks like I won't be able to walk much after this. Our home was, is, all stairs. The only part at ground level is the garage, and I can't live in there, obviously. Can you hook me up with a good and trustworthy realtor so I can get another house with just one level?"

"I know just the guy! You will hear from him directly; his name is Vern."

"Thanks, Bud, I'm so glad you came to visit me, and that the corporation is looking after my needs, thanks to you, it seems."

Chapter 5: The Realtor's Deal.

Vern Harrison showed up at the facility two days later. After greetings and the expected "Sorry for your loss," Vern and Sam found a quiet spot in the cafeteria.

"Bud told me briefly about your situation, but I want to hear as much as I can directly from you."

"Vern, as you can see by this wheelchair, I'm not going to be walking anytime soon. If ever. That means no stairs. Our house is nothing but stairs, so I can't go back there, physically. Neither could I live there again, emotionally. Lila and I, we were deeply in love even in our tenth year of being married. I don't even want to keep our furniture, that was all her decorating choices."

Their friendly conversation went on for some time, talking about Sam's career. He did what he could to explain to Vern his current physical condition and expected future limitations.

Sam returned to the issue at hand, "So I'm looking for something a little smaller, and obviously all on one level. I do like the general area and it's convenient to Stilten College, where I work. There's no mortgage to pay off, so I can buy a new smaller place outright from the proceeds when I sell my current house. With me so far?"

"Absolutely, Sam. It so happens I have a cousin who is in a wheelchair, I'm going to have her advise me on things to look for and things to avoid. I'm going to review all the listings and preview some options. I'll come back to you a week from Saturday with three or four candidate properties, accessible homes, for you to review."

"Come to think of it, can I spring you from this joint for touring on that Saturday? I'm sure I can borrow Shari's ramp van for that day, and we can look in person. What do you think?"

"Vern, it's like that line from Casablanca. 'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.' And can you please ask your cousin Shari to come visit me some time? I might want to hire her for some consulting. If she's not too busy."

Chapter 6: Shari.

(Two days later.) The front desk called: "Sam, you have a visitor."

Sam greeted Shari with a warm smile and thanked her for coming. "Join me in our elegant dining lounge, please." They rolled off to the drab cafeteria, where Shari rolled her eyes.

"Elegant dining lounge, huh. So, Vern told me a little about you. I'm sorry for your loss, of course. But please, why am I here?"

"Let me answer you directly, then. Although I hope, later, we can have a more relaxed conversation. I need help and advice, from somebody who knows, how to best navigate my new life on wheels."

"Because although so much was taken from me, I do have plenty of money."

"For example, I want to get a van like yours with a ramp, so I can drive myself from place to place. I have reasonable use of my right leg so I can work the brake and gas pedals, and no deficits above the waist, so I can be confident behind the wheel."

"I want to hire an aide, who can come into my home and help keep things tidy and also help me with my physical therapy and exercise."

"And I need an advisor, who knows how the disability programs work and will help me deal with the bureaucrats and agencies without losing my mind."

"Finally, I would like someone to talk to, who can help me understand what it's really like to be disabled in a world of walkers. And to call the shrink for me when I'm overwhelmed."

Softly, "Some days I can't imagine living on without my Lila."

Sam fell silent, his eyes wet and directed towards a nearby wall, but not seeing. Then he shook his head as if to clear it and looked back at Shari.

"Sam, you want to hire a kind of 'disability consultant,' and you thought it could be ME? I don't know if I am annoyed, confused, interested, sympathetic, or all of the above. Do you know anything about me, other than I'm in this chair? No, you don't.