First Story - Paralyzed by Science: Prologue

Dr. Winnie, as she liked to be called, was a born genius. She quickly mastered her first chemistry set, setting her off on a path to medical school, graduating from high school and college early, and medical school soon after, like a real life Doogie Howser. Winnie liked people, and was plenty personable, but, she didn't have her sights set on treating patients. She preferred research.

The real beginning, however, started when she was six, after her Aunt Winifred, who she was named after, was in a terrible car accident, breaking her pelvis, leg, and worst of all, her back, an injury resulting in paralysis from the waist down. Young Winnie then soon became fascinated with her aunt's condition, her traction in the hospital, her cast, her spinal braces, and especially her wheelchair. Young Winnie immediately became jealous of Aunt Fred, as she called her, wanting to be in the hospital bed, wanting her leg in the cool device, the subsequent casts, the back brace, though not realizing what it really meant, the pain that came with it all. Winnie would close her eyes at night, her aunt still in the hospital, dreaming of being in her place, her leg up on two pillows, lifted up like the traction device. She would later, after Aunt Fred left the hospital, sit in her desk chair, in her room, and put her legs together. She played with each one, as if they didn't work, like her aunt's. Before sleeping, in bed, she continued to manipulate them, getting out of bed first, after her mother would tuck her in. After moving the desk chair besides the bed, she would then transfer to her bed, like she had seen her aunt do to the sofa, and would scoot her body up the bed, to her pillow, dragging her “useless” legs behind it.


Then, at twelve, just after a nice growth spurt, she was sent to her Aunt Fred's while her mother went on her second honeymoon with her father. Her aunt was physically well enough to take care of young Winnie, but what Winnie's mother didn't know, was that her sister liked a few glasses of wine with her pain meds every night. Winnie soon figured out what this meant, that she had time to herself, and that her aunt wouldn't be easily awakened. She also knew that she could never tell her mother about it. Winnie was fine, able to take care of herself, and even better, she was finally as tall as her petite, barely five foot aunt. She' was finally big enough to sit in her aunt's Quickie 2, and actually feel like she fit in it.

She first sat in it, at age six, not long after her aunt's accident, while her aunt was napping, after taking some of her “medication”. But she was too scared to wheel anywhere, and her feet dangled off the chair. It engulfed her, and didn't feel like it was hers, though it excited her nonetheless. At age eleven, however, it was perfect, and Winnie enjoyed every moment of it. She felt safe, her aunt out cold, and unlocked the brakes and wheeled around the house. Winnie was in heaven those nights, which were many, that she could play the paraplegic. She had been doing this, in one form or another, since her aunt's accident -- sitting in chairs, moving her legs with her hands, like they didn't work, manipulating each part of her little legs, turning her ankles inward to make herself look more crippled, manipulating them and letting them flop back, and practicing not using her muscles. The quick learner and dedicated, driven student that eventually would make her a doctor so young, had made her the best pretender too.

In her teen years, she still visited her favorite Aunt Fred, telling her mother that staying with her was the best experience. Her mother, and especially her father, who didn't care too much for Aunt Fred, didn't understand, but didn't protest, using this fact to have summers to themselves, sending Winnie to her aunt's every year for an entire month.

During her thirteenth year, Winnie grew five inches, and had outgrown her aunt's chair, or at least her chair height settings. That summer was her least favorite at her aunt's, the chair just too small for realism, Winnie already a stickler for realism while pretending, but the next summer, Aunt Fred revealed to Winnie her aunt's brand new chair, telling fourteen year old Winnie that she left the old one in the guest room, where Winnie stayed.

“It's okay if you take it for a spin.” Her aunt simply said, and Winnie wondered if her lush of an aunt wasn't so clueless after all.

That night, after her aunt had “fallen asleep”, Winnie still shy about her pretending, not at all liking that her aunt seemed to know about it, she adjusted the footplate, lowering it to fit her longer legs. It wasn't perfect, but believable. Winnie was back to pretending, and her summer vacation with her Aunt Fred, was again, her favorite time of the year.

The 5'8” Winnie had not inherited her mother and aunt's petite frames, but she had inherited their thin frames, which included thin legs and arms. She was a healthy a hundred and twelve pounds, only skipping meals sometimes when preoccupied by research. Even before her accident, Aunt Fred's legs were like sticks, like her mothers, and like her aunt's, making Winnie's legs were the perfect legs to pretend. She also made sure her arms were strong enough, just in case, and they were strong enough to make her good at wheeling around in her aunt's chair.

Every summer, and almost every night of the entire month, Winnie took control of her aunt's chair after her “medicine.” She then became bolder, when one night, at fifteen, she stole a diaper, put it on, wheeled in it, and finally, becoming even bolder, and peed herself as if she couldn't control it, as if she were a real paralyzed girl. She then put it in the bin with her aunt's other, though dirty, diapers after cleaning herself in the shower, her soiled privates reminding her of how serious being a paraplegic was. She only wished she could have a catheter, wanting one day to mess the diaper. “Maybe next summer.” She told herself, the night of her soiled diaper being the last night at her aunt's that summer. Her aunt didn't use it for that, she knew, having smelled it one night while her aunt was passed out, confirming this after opening the bin that night. She still wanted to be just like her favorite aunt, and knew, at the least, that she could go to these extremes, even just as a pretender.

Outside of pretending, her teen years focused on reading all about neurology, spinal injuries, and orthopedics. So, in college, she breezed through her studies, graduating Summa Cum Laude, graduating early. There was no time to waste, and she got into the best medical school, and graduated with highest honors again.



This is when another big step in her journey as a pretender and wannabe happened. She continued to visit her aunt during summers, though only for a week at a time, during college, and it was the same routine the summer after graduating. But her aunt had a surprise for her. Aunt Fred had purchased a new wheelchair, to keep up with the times, and Winnie suddenly, after congratulating her, wondered where the old one was. But Aunt Fred had also stopped drinking, she announced proudly, and was months sober, she told Winnie, who was disappointed, and happy for her favorite aunt at the same time, thinking that the previous summer had been her last to pretend without her own chair. Winnie then followed her aunt to the guest bedroom, which she thought was odd, until she saw it – Aunt Fred's old wheelchair.

“Give it charity or keep it for yourself sweetie.” Her aunt simply said, then wheeled out, leaving her niece alone with it. Winnie found this curious, her stomach fluttering again, and later that night, sitting in the chair, she wondered if Aunt Fred somehow knew.

Residency, however, wasn't as easy as studying, though she found comfort and security every night studying, and relaxing after a long day and often night, sitting in her inherited wheelchair. She also found that she quite enjoyed the care fetish aspect of being a resident, and not quite doctor. She often volunteered for the bathroom related duties, over taking blood talking with patients.

But she preferred research most of all, having known this from a young age, and that was her focus, researching better anesthesia and spinal blocks, and succeeding. Right out of med school, she was hired by a big pharma company. The success of her formulas, Winnie getting a percentage of their salves, let her “retire” early and she was happy to be out of the corporate game, and was looking forward to working for herself. She had plans, and on her own, was soon ready to perfect her formulas, despite not having the rights to do so anymore. But she knew that her new products, her hopefully new serum, wouldn't be sold on the mainstream market anyway, and she knew that she would likely not be found out. Her serum idea was different enough too, Dr. Winnie having modified her research to block the spinal cord below the injection site, paralyzing the patient, or client as she thought she preferred – and permanently.

It was brilliant, and it was soon time to test her theories, and serum, out. She was over pretending, and like so many fellow wannabes, ones that she had met on a new forum dedicated to such people, she was ready for the real thing.