Then There Were None ver2

Chap 1

She had never known sound had colour. Well not colour like the five primary colours (were there five?). This was rather like a dynamic colour coming from movement, almost a shimmer changing shape and making a colour as it did so. Like so many things in life, you didn't know what you had until it was taken away - she really missed that now.

Almost ten years had passed, and she now accepted the flat, monotonic, colourless sound she had to endure that was delivered by the two little pink shells that nestled behind her ears. At least she could hear most things reasonably well, with the usual long list of exceptions that every manufacturer gave with any product - "The wearer may have a slight difficulty distinguishing and interpreting the source and content of softly spoken dialogue in a crowd situation". Well for shit sake isn't that when it was most critical for the frigging aids to give her some sense of normal hearing?

The other hilarious one was the bloody telephone - "These behind the ear hearing aids, will give remarkably clear amplification to the user of the other party's voice enabling near-normal telephonic use through the latest revolutionary technology." "Remarkable" - sure, as Webster's put it "highly unusual, different from the norm ...." Quite frankly she could just make out what the other person was saying if the line was really good, but there was no way she could distinguish any inflection or innuendo whatsoever - it was like listening to one of those bad text to voice translators. And what the f... was "near-normal" anyway? Fortunately she usually had access to a specialised unit which made up for her own deficiency.

She sighed and shook herself out of her reverie. "Fact" she said to herself," You shouldn't bitch, at least you can still hear to an extent, and you have your eyesight". She remembered meeting one of the other survivors, who was both blind and a tetraplegic, at one of those painfully orchestrated remembrance get-togethers where everyone was supposed to forgive and forget. There was no way she would have had the guts to carry on in that condition. And then she laughed as she realised that she probably would not have been able to do much about it anyway! Joanne mentally made a note to look up the woman and ask her if she had actually ever wanted to off herself at any stage.

She quickly applied the last of the eyeliner, with practiced moves of her head, and then called to Mary that she had to leave now or would be late. "Please put the remote tuner for my aids in the outer pocket of my bag after putting in a new battery, as I have a meeting today, and need to fart around with the settings to give myself half a chance to follow everything."

She quickly checked that she had all the other necessities for the day in the fairly large bag, watched Mary drop in the controller, carefully grasped the car "key" - which was in fact a card - and limped out to the car, which was right outside the front door and slotted the card in the door receptacle. With a click the door unlocked and opened slightly. Opening the door, she got in, and let Mary help her locate the seatbelt. Although she now drove with confidence in any situation, that damned seatbelt always had her worried - would she be able to release it in a panic situation?

She dwelt briefly on the irony of how the one safety feature might save her in an impact and could then kill her if there was a fire! Although she hated it, she needed the restraint it offered while she was driving, especially when she had to brake hard and needed to keep the same distance from the steering wheel, or it could cause her to swerve either way. God she was feeling dark today - hope it got better!

Slipping the card into the ignition slot, the car started, she clipped the right arm onto the wheel accessory, and dropped the car into gear. She moved smoothly into the traffic using only the right foot to operate the throttle and brake, resting the left shoe in the specially adapted foot rest. Glancing ahead to the intersection, she checked to see if her "secret" admirer was there, and as per usual felt a not unwelcome little tingle between her legs as she spotted him next to the kerb. This was always encouraged by the pretty obvious erection she spotted as soon as she gave him a little smile.

One day she was going to stop and invite him into the car, and then take him back to the house and demand that he ravish her. She laughed inwardly - would there be some disapproving looks from several folk if that should happen! He must be more than twenty years her junior - in fact he may not even be of legal age! Now there was a thought - God she felt the tingle spread rapidly, given that she never wore panties, and forced her thoughts away from the fairly good looking teenager she was passing, onto the presentation she was going to listen to this morning.

Some twenty minutes later, having done her civic duty of playing in the snarled up traffic for the relatively short ride to work, she pulled into her reserved space in the basement of the building, housing the company she worked for. She had progressed far in the company she was with, especially as a women in the role of director strategic planning, which was normally a man's bastion. She was also aware, that some questioned whether she even was still a woman given that there were several bits no longer present or fully functional.

Reaching awkwardly across her body with the right arm she managed to jab the release button first time, and the seatbelt unclipped and was pulled back to the column by the spring. Using the left arm after rotating it at the elbow with a practised knock against the centre console, she hooked the belt and pulled it forward so she could extricate her right arm.

Removing the keycard, she hit the door release button and pushed it open. Getting out was not difficult - just needed to negotiate the door sill with the slightly cumbersome left shoe. Then it was hook the bag over the left arm, push the door closed with her knee, insert the keycard, and listen for the locking sound, extract it, and drop the keycard in the outer compartment of the bag. Her business day had just begun!

Chap 2

She was a good thirty minutes early, which was her habit, as it gave her the extra time she needed to do a few things before the day's business got underway, in the normal mad rush. She took the lift up to the 3^rd floor by pushing the touch sensitive keypad which had replaced the normal electrostatically activated one, which she found she could not operate given the neoprene covers she favoured.

She carefully rummaged in one of the compartments in her bag and grasped the ID tag with its contactless chip and waved it in front of the office door which swung open to admit her. Chas the doorman/security guard greeted her with his usual warm smile "Hello Miz Joanne" he boomed "how are we today?"

"I am good Chas, how is the missus and little blighters?" This was probably the same conversation they had had, since Chas joined some 6 years ago! Anyway, they both went through the motions as she passed into the executive wing and her office.

Once there, a normal morning pattern clicked into place - Joanne checked her email first, then opened the door out onto the little outside balcony she had, and had her first cigarette of the day. This process took her a while, as the simple act of lighting a cigarette was not an easy one for someone who had lost both arms above the elbow. Being a hook user, even one who had two settings for the grasping power, she needed to use a holder to prevent the cigarette from being compressed by the hooks. So she had to load this first, and then use a table lighter which was a permanent fixture on the balcony to light it. On a bad day she would destroy as many as she actually smoked! The thought gave her cause to smile.

A few (unwise) non-smoking or ex-smoker fellow executives had once tried to take her to task about her smoking on a day too damn close to her period, and she had scathingly shut them up, in a way that left no doubt that the subject was not ever open for discussion. She felt that her injuries had resulted in her having to give up voluntarily, or not, quite a few pleasurable activities (and sex was in the collateral damage category) so she would hold onto one semi-pleasurable vice and fuck anyone who felt differently about it.

Having finished smoking, she carefully removed the butt, and put away the holder in its compartment, and returned indoors. Settling down behind her desk she swiftly dealt with the few emails that did not require in depth answers, typing quickly and fluently with the two neoprene encased hooks angled downwards, and then scheduled the free time to deal with the new issues that had arisen.

Beth, her secretary came in a few minutes early, as per usual and asked if Joanne wanted a cup of coffee, which she accepted. Joanne knew that Beth had more than a passing liking of her boss, but also knew that she could never let anything happen, as it would definitely compromise both of their positions in the company. Joanne was also not bi in any way, although there were times when she craved any attention in that area, as she got so horny and felt so neglected and frustrated at not being able to do anything about it herself - apart from the rather unsatisfactory semi-relief offered by her manmade helper at home.

Beth was a good secretary though, going the extra mile and always there when needed and even prepared to help on some occasions, where Joanne needed assistance with some of the more intimate functions that she could not quite handle. Joanne had found out quite rapidly, that there was a considerable gap between the practically achievable day to day activities that someone in her position could achieve, versus the marketing hype and glossy brochures that were bandied about.

If she had the full use of her feet, things may well have been different. Several of the bilateral above elbow amputees that she had met during her recuperation and training, complimented the abilities of the arm prosthesis with their feet to achieve tasks. Joanne had only tiny stubs of the two smallest toes on her right foot remaining and the left foot was partially paralysed. She also had to wear a none too elegant lace up oxford on the left leg, in order to accommodate the ankle - knee brace needed to stabilise the ankle and knee, and support the rather badly damaged leg. A leg which was now some 2 inches shorter than its companion which resulted in a fairly obvious build-up of the oxford, to compensate, and a matching shoe on the other foot - with an insert in to replace the lost toes. And to top it all she was also moderately deaf - all as a result of some stupid religious nutcase.

Her main meeting was scheduled for 10 o' clock, so as soon as she had ploughed through the day to day stuff in her inbox, she moved over to the meeting room assigned, and carried on briefing Beth on the balance of the day's activities that she wanted her to get on with, while she was in the meeting. Just before the scheduled start time, two of the fellow executives had to pull out which left Joanne as the only member representing the company at the meeting. This did not concern her, as the other two actually only had an indirect interest in the product. The presentation was on some advanced strategic planning models, and so it was squarely in Joanne's area anyway, and she had dealt with the team doing the presentation before on some of their other related products.

Chap 3

Josh was pretty pissed off, which for Josh was quite serious. The normally affable, urbane and unflappable senior marketing executive, did not normally run around doing presentations to clients, but had anyone of a half dozen senior sales executives to do this job. Well at least, so he thought!

Everything was on track, and then two things happened - one was the snow in the North, which had basically trapped two of his teams there for a few days, and the other was Mother Nature, who decided to call on Brent's wife to go into labour a full 2 weeks early. So here he was battling through the traffic to do a presentation to a client he had never met, apart from telephonically in the past at some point. He was a bit rusty on his presentation skills, but reckoned it was like riding a bicycle, however he was a little bit more worried by the cryptic comment dropped by Brent, as he rushed off to be his wife, "Joanne runs that side of the company - she is very bright but suffers no fools and is known as the "Iron Maiden" for more than just one reason! Don't try to shake her hand when you meet her!"

Josh thought that maybe she was a health freak, and didn't want to pick up any germs from contact, but mentally engraved the warning in his mind. What further annoyed Josh was that normally it would be a 3 person team doing the presentation, but that now with the short staff situation, it was him alone!

Every time Joanne had to meet a new team from a supplier, or a new supplier, she felt like a teenager on her prom night. She realised that she presented quite a visual challenge to new people, and her deafness did not make the situation any less tense. She therefore had previously always arranged when meeting new people, to have several representatives from the company present, to lessen the initial impact, and allow the focus to be diffused over the initial period. This worked well and the supplier's representatives soon got used to her, and became quite "normal" when meeting with her.

So Joanne was somewhat shocked when the receptionist brought in Josh, and introduced him to her as Josh Gifford. Joanne had been poring over her laptop when he came in, and although she immediately, if a touch awkwardly swivelled them up, then back to let the hooks clear the table edge, as there was no time to alter the angle of the elbows, and then back and so dropped her arms onto her lap below the edge of the table. He had however caught a glimpse of what he perceived to be definitely not hands, vanishing under the table, as he had actually been focussing on her quite beautiful face. He also realised that she had not been expecting him, but Brent and she was obviously uncomfortable with him as a stranger.

He apologised that Brent had not let her know of the change in plans, but explained that he had probably more immediate concerns on his mind, and went on to briefly sketch Brent's situation. He noticed that she seemed to be straining a bit to pick up what he was saying and then noticed the little remote on the table next to the laptop. Having had a mother who was hard of hearing, he realised the problem, and moved around the table, saying casually that if there were only going to be the two of them, maybe he should sit next to her and make his presentation slightly more informally, straight via the laptop, instead of rigging up the overhead projector and all the rest of the paraphernalia.

Chap 4

When he walked in Joanne was almost panic struck. It wasn't only that he was a stranger, it was the presence he brought into the room with him. He oozed sexuality out of every pore, and she found herself imagining him stark naked in front of her! She had never performed the "take hooks off table and onto lap" manoeuvre so fast, ever before in her life, but she was sure he had spotted her least attractive parts. She hardly heard a word the receptionist said, and then also only heard every second word he spoke - some due to his soft spoken way, some because her mind was definitely not on the work side of things, and the rest because she had turned down the volume of her aids, and now didn't want to use her hooks to turn it up.

All this was further compounded by an intense feeling she suddenly had in her groin, which nearly took her breath away and she was sure, left a very wet patch in a most embarrassing area! God - this was a near forgotten feeling!

Then he suggested they sit next to each other, while he made the presentation and she mumbled "Good idea" thinking that he then wouldn't be watching her face all the time, which she was sure had lust written all over it! She realised the downside was that she would be unable to augment her hearing by also doing a bit of surreptitious lip reading - which she was rather good at.

She really needed to turn up her aids a couple of clicks! How to do this without him seeing her at her worst - the awkward marionette gyrations of getting her hook to point down and then to get the elbow angle right and then to tap the bloody up buttons for left and right - and to make sure she didn't knock the bloody remote off the table! Oh shit! She so wanted him to think of her as a sexy vibrant desirable woman! Not a clumsy crippled deaf freak!

Just then Josh casually reached across the table to pick up the remote - "Oh God no!" She thought,

He mustn't start playing with it! He looked at it and turning to her casually said "My mom had one just like this - it controls the volume and spatial programming of your hearing aids doesn't it?"

She was stunned, and embarrassed and confused. "Yes" she stammered feeling herself blushing and then she thought what the f... "Not only is there only half of me left, I am also pretty deaf".

"I did notice the hands" he said half apologetically, "and I wondered if you maybe needed to adjust the levels slightly given that we are not going to have a rousing presentation with surround sound and all? It would be my pleasure to help you with that."

She was not quite sure what to say - it was almost as intimate an action as wiping her bum in some ways. But he appeared dead sincere, and what the hell - there was nothing to lose really was there? "OK, I need the my left one which is closer to you up 2 clicks and the right 3 on the main volume buttons which are marked with a plus sign, and are both near the top of the controller. The spatial adjustment can stay where it is as there is no other noise around."

He dutifully increased the volume and turning slightly towards her said, "Ok better we test to make sure you are comfortable, before I launch into my sales pitch. How is this?"

He had a fabulous voice which she could now hear quite clearly, and guiltily she felt the intensely pleasurable feeling in her loins spread again and she had to control a minor tremor that shot through her body like lightning. "That is perfect" she said half hearing a slight tremor in her voice as she spoke. God if she had had hands, she would have squeezed his thigh as a thank you, and waited to see what happened. But she didn't, so she couldn't, so nothing happened. The bloody story of her life she thought.

"OK", he said "Let's get on with my little dog and pony show". Josh realised that there a little bit of an intense moment back there, but was not too sure if it was just a simple case of extreme embarrassment, or whether there had been some other underlying thread. So he decided to keep it light for a while, to gauge this remarkable woman who he found strangely attractive, despite her pretty extensive and obvious physical restrictions.

He put everything into an intense presentation, and was pleased to see her become as involved in the product as he was. At one stage she lifted up her left hook and pointing at a part of the screen, where a particularly clever part of the programme popped a window which explained a particular set of optional actions to come, obviously forgetting he was a stranger, she started asking "When this...... Oh fuck!" She hurriedly dropped the arm below the table again and looked away obviously acutely distressed and embarrassed. "I am so sorry," she said, "It must be difficult dealing with a cripple like me, carrying around more artificial bits than your normal household robot". She could not quite suppress the hint of bitterness in her voice.