Striptease

Hiding

[Charlie]

Cross over, go over the loop and around, then go over the loop again….Shit!

How did I fuck this up again?

I sighed as I loosened up the two twisted flat pieces of material around my neck, how could I not manage to tie a fucking tie right?

This wasn't the first time I've messed this up, prom and highschool graduation were even worse.

Those times I didn't even have something like Google or Youtube to check out for guidance, those times I simply had to try my best and hoped it worked out.

Dear God, how can I honestly not get this right?

Is it really too late to teach an old dog new tricks?

Grumbling with annoyance as I yanked the tie off my neck and threw it down on the bed, I sighed as I leaned back in my wheelchair after having sat forward to see the problems and mistakes I was creating all from one stupid tie.

Sure, it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, I never had to wear a tie to work and large black-tie event gatherings only required a clip-on bowtie but I wanted to learn this for Everleigh.

I knew she probably wouldn't care any more or less then I did about the damn tie but I wanted to look presentable enough to her and her little sister.

When she saw me in the store, I was a damp mess from the rain and partially from the fact that I was mainly there to stock up on my whiskey and bourbon that had run dangerously low since I haven't been out to stock up on the supplies.

I hadn't expected it to start raining out of seemingly nowhere and by the time I had managed to wheel myself into the grocery store, my clothes were soaked through, my hair was a dripping dark mess and I'm pretty sure I frightened many of the elderly folks that did a double take when they saw my disheveled appearance.

I thought I could've made it into the store in time to not get too soaked but since I was test driving some of the new modifications that Ryan helped to program for increased maneuverability, I didn't exactly have a firm handle on the new modifications so I had been taking it slow instead of rushing to get out of the rain.

Supposedly, according to my friend who has stuck by my side for seemingly ever, this new modification was going to help in aiding quadriplegics with decreasing health to maneuvering around a bit easier, the control switch was only a small button on the handreat for the right arm and with the click of the button, the chair would be able to tilt forward, backwards and turn at unimaginable angles that wouldn't be achievable without the assistance of another human being.

This way, any automatic wheelchairs would be more user friendly and that was just the tip of the iceberg, I had many more ideas that could easily spiral into terrible contraptions or some of the greatest discoveries for the disabled community.

After the accident occured many years ago, I spiraled into a great depression, as Ryan likes to call it, and the only thing that kept me going was the slim possibility that I would someday make it out of the wheelchair.

I had a better chance of rolling myself off a cliff side while the zombie apocalypse has taken over the planet than that happening, some doctors have even told me so.

So what did I do after that diagnosis?

I drowned my miseries and sorrows in alcohol until Ryan pulled me out of the bleak abyss with the idea that I could help other disabled folks like myself, ones who thought they had no future beyond a strict, manual  operating wheelchair, and transform their lives.