The Man In The Chair

Chapter 10

When we exited the elevator, I was almost blinded by the dramatic difference this part of the estate was. Because, instead of the wooden, cramped, and rustic style of the main house with a dark beauty, the facility underneath was bright, minimalistic, and spacious beyond belief. The floor was a black tile that reflected the ceiling lights off the ground. And in the distance, through the glass walls, I could see a gym with two guys sparring off against each other in a boxing ring. As we walked across the tile floor towards them, all I could say to Olivia was "Wow! This is definitely different than upstairs."

She quickly responded, "Yeah, it's quite the change."

When we got to the door to the gym, Olivia once again put her arm on my shoulder and said, "Be prepared."

Then, she opened the door to one of the twins with a big black eye patch named Teddy immediately looking over at us and yelling. "Wassup, Olivia! Looks like you brought us a new broken friend for us to fix. Isn't that right, Cam?"

Cam just nodded as he started to unbind his massive hands from his boxing gloves to end their sparring match.

"Don't worry about him, Dak. He's just upset that I beat him up pretty bad yesterday while we were doing yoga," Olivia remarked.

"What do you mean, Olivia? That yoga shit is harder than it looks, and you know it. But, anyways, who's this?"

"I'm Dak. Teddy, isn't it?" I said reaching my good hand out to give him a firm handshake.

"Yes, sir! I'm him, and that's my brother, Cam. He's a little quiet, but don't worry about him." He said while reaching over to shake my hand.

At this time, I finally got to notice that Teddy and his brother Cam were actually massive guys. Teddy looked to be about six feet three, and two-hundred-twenty pounds with his long black dreadlocks hanging all over him. While Cam, from a distance, looked significantly bigger than Teddy at roughly six feet four and two-hundred-sixty pounds with a high and tight military haircut. I was actually kind of shocked to find out that they were identical twins because they looked so much different than each other, except for the face.

Then, Teddy leaned over and asked "So Dak, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get in the wheelchair? And how will you be able to train with us if you're in that chair?"

"No, it's no problem, I actually got into an accident about twelve years ago that paralyzed me from the waist down. And as for training with you guys, I honestly don't know how I'm going to do it. But Dr. Hyde seems very optimistic that I'll be able to for some strange reason. So, I guess, we'll find out tomorrow or something."

Olivia went over to Teddy and punched him pretty hard in the shoulder saying, "Dick, you don't ask that. That's rude."

Teddy started laughing while holding his arm that she punched, pretending like it hurt.

"Oh, c'mon, I had to know. That's all. I'm sure he didn't have a problem with me asking. Did you, Dak?

"No, I'm surprised Olivia didn't ask me first, to be honest."

"See, Olivia? He didn't have a problem with it."

At that moment, Olivia swung around and headed back the way we came in a huff while putting a middle finger up to Teddy.

"Oops, I think I might have pissed her off. But she'll be alright." Teddy said before I went to catch up with Olivia.

Instead of the elevator bringing us back to the living room that we'd come from originally, the elevator brought us to the second level of the house. Once opened, it was a long hallway with all sorts of different doors like you would see in an X-men movie, which this house had started to remind me of.

Finally, after the longest silence I'd been around with Olivia, she said.

"And here is where you'll be staying" as she put her hand on the doorknob to the first door directly on the elevators right.

"I hope you like it for what it is tonight, because Dr. Hyde was telling me that after tomorrow, everywhere would feel totally different by the time you finish with the rehab session. I still don't know what he means by that, since it's supposed to be just a routine physical examination, but we'll see. In the meantime, let me just open this door for you and show you the room before I go hit the hay in my own room. I had a very tiring day, and I'm sure you're probably pooped too after being on a plane all day."

She then opened the door to reveal a room that was as big as my apartment in LA, with a style fitting hospital bed at the edge of the room with a full walk-in bathroom on the other side of the room. That also included a toilet, two sinks, and a walk-in shower. It was like having my own private presidential hotel suite.

I looked over at Olivia and said, "Yeah, this'll do. This room is bigger than my whole apartment back home in LA."

"Yeah, you got the big room all to yourself while the rest of us have to have roommates. Teddy and Cam share the room next door to you, while the new girl and I will be sharing the room at the end of the hall. Dr. Hyde suggested that, with your adjustments to the new equipment tomorrow, you'd probably want to be by yourself to deal with your new abilities."

"New abilities?" I said with a confused face.

"Hey, I don't know what he's talking about yet, either. But I swear he said abilities." She said with a shrug of her shoulder.

"Cool, I'm starting to like this place."

"You won't be liking it tonight when you hear Teddy and Cam snoring through the walls. Because, I swear, I can hear them at the end of the hall. It's quite annoying."

I laughed and said, "No wonder you hate them."

"I don't hate them. They're fun guys to be around... it's just that they're so loud at snoring, that's all. I can't get any sleep at night.

"I hear ya, but hopefully, you won't hear it tonight."

"I'm hoping, but I doubt it." She said as she began to walk out of the room.

"Well, Dak, I'm going to go to my room to hopefully get some nice beauty sleep. If you need help with something like getting into bed, there's a voice-activated system that will put you in contact with Mr. Crenshaw. He'll come help and will bring you breakfast in the morning. So I'll see you at rehab tomorrow."

"Alright, thanks. But before you go, I'd like to say that it was so nice meeting you, Olivia. You seem very nice, and I hope that this is the start of a very nice friendship between us."

With this, she stopped after halfway opening up the door to leave and turned around to give an air kiss with her hand.

"I hope so too, Dak. Have a good night, will ya." And then she left.