The chance of a Lifetime

Kai eventually got his breathing under control and tried to relax as much as possible. He tried to move his body a little to get comfortable but he was unable to. "I think I'm just exhausted from everything" he chalked up. He tried again but to no avail. As he was trying to get comfortable, the door opened and a man arrived. Based on his attire and the report on his hand, Kai guessed it was his doctor.

"Good afternoon son." greeted the doctor with a friendly smile. Kai nodded his head and greeted him back. "Good afternoon doctor. Thank you for your help. I'm really grateful for your efforts. The nurse mentioned that without your help, I could have died"

"It's what I'm trained to do, son" remarked the doctor smiling but then his face took a solemn edge. He intoned "What was the last thing you remember?"

"The robbers. They were hitting the old man trying to find me and I rushed and hit one of them. The other one tried choking me but I luckily managed to fend him off and then tried to help the old man up but a split second later, I couldn't feel a thing and then I passed out" Kai recalled.

"Good job. You did good. The police arrived just as the thieves were running and managed to apprehend one of them. Unfortunately the last one managed to escape. The police has managed to get a BOLO out for this person"

"I see." drawled out Kai. While he was satisfied that one of them was in prison right now, the other one did escape and that frustrated him a lot.

"Uh-huh" The doctor nodded and then he cleared his throat as the next part will be the toughest part of the conversation. "Mr. Jones, I want you to do something for me please." He purposely called the boy with his last name as this was not a friendly discussion and he wanted to be as professional as possible

Kai looked confused and then nodded. "Sure. What is it?"

"I need you to move both of your arms. Slowly. Just try and make a fist. I know that your body is not responding as well as you'd like but I need you to do this for me" The doctor instructed firmly.

Kai was confused but nodded and tried moving his arms slowly. But it was really difficult for some reason. He did not rush himself and tried his best to make a fist as the doctor instructed. The arms moved slowly and formed a loose fist after multiple seconds.

"Great! Now unclench it. Slowly again" confirmed the doctor. As instructed by the doctor, he slowly unclenched the fist. he repeated the movements a few times and the doctor was satisfied.

"Now do the same with your legs. Clench your toes as tight as possible and then unclench it." As instructed, Kai tried to do the same with his legs but no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to move his legs at all.

"I think my legs are asleep doctor" chuckled Kai but the look on the doctor's face made him get a pit in his stomach.

"Mr. Jones, while performing the surgery, we observed that by some awful luck, the bullet was lodged into your spine. I don't know if the shooter was highly trained was just plain lucky but he managed to hit your spine in such a way that it caused some major vertebrae damage" the doctor stated. The pit in his stomach deepened and Kai felt like he was in his nightmare. "We did the best to save you but you're currently dealing but paraplegia - in simple words, you're paralyzed from the waist down." finished the doctor.

Kai laid there stunned. All his dreams of making it into the entertainment industry, of living a happy healthy lifestyle, everything came crashing down in seconds.