With a huff I sat down to eat a late lunch after finishing pouring the concrete for the houses basement. I have been working this construction job for the past 5 years trying to save up an get my life back on track. For a while, it felt like I was in a never-ending storm of problems but finally things seem to have settled down. Mostly because everyone I cared about is dead or far away but still it's getting better. For the first 14 years of my life everything was easy it consisted of going to school, playing video games, and sleeping. Then my father died. He was our families income so my mother had to start working. Then only problem was she didn't have any qualifications or work experience because she never had to work before. So she ended up working two minimum wage jobs to keep us afloat. It had for a while but once i reached high school and could legally work things got easier and my mother was even able to save some money for me to go to college. With that money and help from scholarships and grants, we were pretty much set. We were secure for the first time in what felt like years. Then the storm picked up again my mother was diagnosed with cancer. After the first six months she couldn't live by herself anymore and i had to go home to take care of her losing all the scholarships i had received. For the next two years I worked this construction job and took care of my mother while the medical bill continued to pile up and finally she past and I was alone. My friends from university were halfway across the country, I had no money to go back to school, and no more family so I decided I would just save my money until I could afford to go back to school.
“Bobby! Get your ass back to work.” Jim yelled across the job site.
I hadn't even been sat down long enough to eat my sandwich and the dick was already yelling at me. This guy is the source of problems in my life now. You would think a guy whose job it was to sell and build houses would know how long it took and how much it cost to build a house but no this guy continually underbids and over promises making the workers go without lunch or breaks in order to be done anywhere close to the deadline. One day he's going to drive this company into the ground and it's a good thing I won't be here for it in just a few more weeks I will have enough for a tuition and can pick up where I left off 5 years ago. While I complain about the work it would have taken much longer to get to this point without all the overtime pay.
“Fine!” I yelled back, “What do you want done next the basement floor is done.”
“Good then get Jeff to help you install the stairs to the basement so we can stop using ladders.” With my next task in hand, I went back to the grind with half a sandwich stuffed into my mouth.
Not an hour later I hear Jim yelling about something again. Maybe he realized it's hard to install stairs when most of the ground is wet concrete but most likely he did something that he's going to blame on me. “Bobby! It's starting to rain get out there and tarp up the windows you opened!”. Yep, he's blaming me for doing what h mee told to do even though he knew it was going to rain. By the time I got the tarps and was outside the rain was pouring down and the wind was so strong that it made the rain look like it was falling nearly horizontally. climbing up the wet scaffolding to the fourth story windows I started to fix the tarps over them when I heard a low grown. Confused i looked around for the source of the noise but could see nothing in the rain. Then the scaffolding jolted with a screech. Looking down i could see that the wind had blown a sheet of plywood into one of the scaffolding legs and bent it in. with the stress of the plywood catching the wind like a sail and me walking around on it made the tube wrinkly and then bend in half. Slowly at first nearly unnoticeably the scaffolding started to fall away from the building. This did not compute at first, the scaffolding is supposed to be attached to the building. Looking at the growing area between the wall and the scaffolding it became very clear that whoever put up these scaffolds failed to do that. I felt a pit in my stomach and dread fell over me. Looking down again I knew I was either going to die to break a lot of bones if I fell or jumped. Too late i realized that I was just a few steps from a open window. I moved as fast as I could but this caused the scaffolding's fall to accelerate. by the time i made it in front of the window it was about two feet above me and 5 feet away with no time for thought I jumped towards it. Catching the edge of the window opening with my hands I tried to hold on but the opening was to deep and i wasn't able to grip onto the wet brick. I hit the wall and bounced back and away from the wall. In the short seconds of falling all that went through my mind was i was so close then everything went black.
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The next thing i saw were my arms hanging in front of me wrapped in casts. I tried to look around the room but found that my head was fixed in place. Wanting to know what was going on i shouted out for someone to help. Moments later a nurse walked in with a serious look on her face. “Sir I'm guessing you would like to know what happened.” I nodded to get her to continue or at least i tried but my head didn't budge. After a few awkward seconds, I said yes. “Well from what we have been told by your coworkers a scaffolding was blown over during the storm and you fell off it. They found you unconscious on the ground and called an ambulance. When you arrived here you were taken into surgery to realign and position the bones that were broken. You broke both your arms and one legs and the bone pierced the skin of your leg. Multiple ribs were broken but thankfully no organs were severely damaged during the fall.” She when silent for a moment and looked me in the eye before taking a long breath and continuing. “The most severe injury is to your spinal cord. It has been severed in the neck and in two other places down your back. You are paralyzed from the neck down. We think you should have control of your facial muscles but that is all.”
I sat there stunned my sight going blurry. just hours before I was so close to achieving my goals and getting my life back on track. The nurse was still talking but I couldn't bring myself to listen. Moments later the nurse noticed my state and left the room. I closed my eyes and within moments I was asleep.
Shaken awake I looked over to the man standing at the edge of my bed. It was Jim and he was smiling. Why the fuck was he smiling. “Good your awake now.” Jim said with way too much happiness in his voice. I didn't have time to respond before he continued. “I have come to see how you were doing and explain what your position is with the company.”
looking at Jim in the eyes I asked, “what do you mean my position in the company all I can do now is move my eyes and face.”
“Well that's just it. you are being let go as you can no longer work. That being said you will receive your last week's pay, a rather large bonus as a sorry, and of course, your medical bills will be covered by worker comp insurance.”
Staring at him I said “just how much is this bonus because I'm pretty sure that I can sue for unsafe work conditions.” with that I saw a bit of sweat start to bead up on his forehead.
“W-well the company is prepared to give you $25,000 in return for your umm discretion.”
I let the silence build for a few moments before saying, “A week for four years” with 4.8 million I should be able to pay for treatments I might need to try to get back on my feet and then live well for a long time afterwards.
Jim stiffened and looked me in the eyes with a bit of a sneer. “You think that you can get us to pay you so much for this.” gesturing at me. “There is no way!”
“Then I suppose I will see you and the company in court and I will take you for as much as possible. In fact, it's your job to ensure that safety codes are followed what will happen to you if the reason for the accident is connected to the scaffolding not being tied off at all.”
Growling Jim spat “fine I will speak with the board about this you will be informed of their decision.” Jim stormed out of the room after that. His job was definitely in peril.
With a chuckle at his misfortune, I reached for the tv remote that was resting on the bed. Then it hit me again that I was completely paralyzed. Calling for a nurse I decided to ask about what the medical bills would be and what possible options I had. As it turns out there isn't much that can be done to fix a spinal cord that has been severed in multiple places. As for the medical bills they were to all be covered by workers comp insurance as well as an assisted living apartment that I would now live in.
Within hours I got an offer from the company for 2.4 million over the 4 years instead. Apparently, the average reward for that kind of claim was about 3 million so they probably saved money by paying me off now. with workers comp insurance covering my living arrangements for the next 30 years and a huge monthly income I was set to live an easy life as a head in a jar
In a few more weeks my life had turned into a world of screens with the money I got from the settlement I set up my room to be covered in screens that we all controlled through eye tracking and a mouthpiece that I could use my tongue to press buttons or bite to complete different functions. I spent my time reading, watching videos, and studying. Trying to find something that I could do with my life. I studied physics, chemistry, biology, any science I could that might have something to help me get back on my feet or just do something productive. But after a little over a year, I had nothing to show for it. all I could do was read books and watch videos. No new treatments or technologies had come out that could fix me and I gave up. So I did the only things I could read and watched and learned. I watched every video I could on anything I had ever thought was interesting. I learned programming, blacksmithing, mining, gem cutting, jewelry making, stone working, fletching. So many things that I had wanted to do but will never be able to. I couldn't even play video games that require more than a mouse. So I played puzzle, point and click adventure and turn-based games. For the rest of my life, I was going to have to lay around and wait for someone to find a way to fix me.