Prologue

It was the beginning of a beautiful day, the sun was shining in through the high window and onto the bed, it illuminated a hideous sight, two huge white cases, these in turn were attached to what could only be surmised as a human being.

Alan windrow sat up in the hospital bed gazing towards its end, at the now ugly site that his once strong legs had become, it had been twenty weeks since the accident that had crushed not only his legs, but his pride and his life as well.

Maybe it was fate he mused to himself, he had been in a road accident travelling back from a gymnastic completion that his team had won, his team always won because they were the best he believed.

Alan at the early age of five had stared in wonder at the acrobats at the circus, he was visiting with his family, he had taken such a profound reaction to what they were doing that he at that tender age had begged his mother to let him join the circus, his mother in turn smiled happily at him and enrolled him at the local sports centre for gymnastics, thinking he would only be there a short while before giving up, his mother was wrong.

At the age of twelve he won his first competition, after that the flood gates seemed to open, no matter where he went he and his team won competition, after competition at the mere age of fifteen the country was waiting with bated breath as he competed in the national games, of course he won.

It was on a routine journey home from a competition, that the teams coach crashed, throwing three of the members of the team out of one of the windows Alan included.

Now he was laid in a hospital bed, every bone from his lower back downward had either broke or shattered completely, the doctors had done their best but in their words he would never walk again, never mind do the one thing that he loved.

When would it be time, Alan fussed he wanted to get out of the room get away from the hospital the bills were bad enough, but to be stuck here was absolute unforgivable, the other team members had visited him all had expressed their condolences, how he hated them now only two hadn’t visited.

Clair and Dave, the former had been discharged from hospital after suffering a broken arm she was Alan’s junior and always looked up to him, the later Dave would not dare to show his face he knew that Alan blamed him for the accident and rightly so.

The door to the room opened to reveal his mother, she entered the room promptly followed by a three of the many nurses, that seemed to buzz around his hospital ward, one of them was pushing a wheel chair at last Alan sighed he could finally escape.

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It took another five hours, for the casts to be removed from Alan’s legs, revealing equally hideous metal contraptions that were now strapped to his legs, more time past as two orderly’s somehow managed to lift his body up and place it into the wheelchair, they were worried that they would hurt him so they were moving with upmost care until Alan snapped at them.

He couldn’t feel anything in them because the damage done to his spine at least in the wheelchair his legs could be bent instead of sticking out affording him some minor relief.

After returning home he was quiet shocked to discover that his entire room had been moved to the ground floor, he had wondered privately how he was going to manage getting up the stairs, not to mention to the toilet, but that thought left his head as his mother explained to him that his room now had an on sweet bath room, she continued on saying that everyone had clubbed together, to make this and that happen all of which passed in one ear and out the other.

The only other addition to his room was something called a capsule that according to his mother was Clair his sister’s idea, apparently it was a specially adapted version that was laid down like a bed, it would allow him to connect to something called royal road which had no particular meaning to him what so ever.

Deciding to leave it well alone for the time being, Alan began trying to pick up the pieces of his old life starting with the huge back log of high school work.

Two month had passed since Alan was discharged from hospital, life had not returned to normal, it was anything but normal, he had managed to keep his temper in check at school, but would explode when no one was around, all the pitying looks he got just made his blood boil, it wasn’t till one of his female class mates witnessed, one of his explosions after school that he found a very good cure.

She had been a secret admirer and gently whispered in his ear that royal road, which everyone in class played would allow him to walk again, allowing him to become anyone he wanted to be, after his mother picked him up from school he had a very thought full expression on his face, if royal road would allow him to walk then maybe just maybe he could do gymnastics again.

After getting home he sat in the wheelchair gazing at the capsule, before pressing the open button on the side the lid slowly opened as he manoeuvred the wheelchair to the side of the machine, using the same method he now had to use to get in and out of bed, he managed to leaver himself up and into the capsule before pressing the close button.