October 27, 1986
The day begins as any other would. For one woman, it continues on, as if it had not yet come to an end. The birth of the child too early but it was the only way it could have happened. Living through the whole of the pregnancy would have been the end of her.
The child eventually born, wrapped and offered to the mother for a few moments before he was taken to be settled to an incubator would be called Shadei Frederick Morgan. His mother smiles at the little face, at the quiet little cry before her arms go lax and the child is taken away.
As he is settled into the incubator, his mother is settled back comfortably to her bed.
On the morning of October 28 of the same year, Olivia Morgan was found as having passed away in her sleep, leaving behind her husband, their three year old daughter and their son who would most likely never even know what his mother looked like.
September 8, 1995
Nearly nine years have passed since Shadei’s birth. The first few years were difficult for the frailness of his body though he was so strong in spirit that it could have almost been overlooked. Slightly small in build for his age, he manages as much as his sister and she holds back in no way when they’re together.
Those times are rare, at twelve, Marie spends her weeks away in a private school, sleeping in the dorms and only coming home on the weekends. Only the best of education as per her father’s request and he would have done a lot to make his daughter happy. The only issue was perhaps why he had picked a private school all the way across their state. The more she grew, the more she reminded the man of his dead wife and it was all too clear he still was not over it.
There were no pictures of the woman anywhere in the house, no mementos. While Marie had spent the first few years of her life in the presence of their mother, her younger brother hadn’t had that luck and yet he never truly had asked about it.
Unlike his sister, Shadei was rarely let outside of the house. His father still saw him as the frail little thing he had been able to bring home nearly three months after his birth. Tutored at home, the homework was no less difficult, if not perhaps more so, than it would have been at school.
When Marie was home in the weekends, she usually tended to try and make time for her brother so they could play.
Play is what they were doing now, bouncing the ball back and forth within the yard. It was one bounce too hard that had that very ball go right over their fence and out to the street. It was Shadei who took off after the ball, getting to it without so much of an issue. It was on the way back, as he started crossing the street that one car turned the corner too sharply and rammed right into the child.
It would only take a few days before the news was out and in the open that the sole male heir to the Morgan family would never, ever walk again.
The media swarmed and the papers rolled out, the prints printed and there was not a soul in New York City who didn’t know the story of the broken child and the driver blamed for the accident.
March 10, 2003
At sixteen, Shadei spends the better part of his days locked home. It was rare enough he was allowed outside in his own yard, let alone anywhere else. He still was tutored daily, had his weekends to himself though the presence of his wheelchair kept him from going to most places even in the house.
His room had been moved to the first floor where he had access to the kitchen if he was hungry, his bathroom had been modified and the locks on the doors were far out of his reach when it came to heading outside. There were no ramps anywhere or any means for him to get upstairs so he kept to the first floor.
When his sister was home, she usually was dubbed his caretaker and they were allowed out of the house. Her visits were far and few in-between. At nineteen, she had herself a boyfriend and it was looking to be turning into more, she had a job one state over and she managed a visit every few months, for a day or two over the weekend.
It wasn’t something that bothered him more than he should have. For having spent the last nearly seven years locked inside, he was rather used to it though he cherished the days where he could have a moment of his sister’s time.
Today was one of those times and she had managed to sweet talk their fathers into letting them out into the zoo not far from where they lived. It perhaps help that their father was the main caretaker, the owner, so to speak, of that very zoo.
Shadei loved the animals though he understood how they felt, locked behind bars. He understood a little too well. The place had been quiet on that day since the day had been just slightly chilly. At one point in their visits, Shadei had managed to sweet talk his sister into letting him finish the visit on his own. He had craved so much the chance to be by himself outside that he would have done most anything.
It took some puppy-eying and some pouting but she relented and he was off on his own. The day was turning out to be going just the way he wanted it except for one small detail and that detail had him so distracted that he sent himself, and his chair, tumbling down a large staircase.
A moment of panic later when he checked himself for anything and everything and found that he was still in one piece brought some relief until he noticed that his chair was quite a ways away from him. Not such a good thing that in the end though the day did turn out better than he was expecting it to for a single reason.
There was someone. Someone who helped him and someone who kept him company throughout the day. Shaile had been nice and fun to spend time with. The other couldn’t have been much more than two or three years older than him and it was comforting to spend time with someone who wasn’t going to judge him because of the chair.
How much he would have wished to spend more time with his new-found friend but he knew that the moment he was back home, it was going to be back to the cage and it would be worse than before.
July 8, 2009
The days bled into one another at that point and they were achingly lonely. After his little stunt of wandering on his own in the zoo some six years back by that point had made going out or anywhere for that matter resound with a big fat ‘no’ out of his father, despite that he was well over eighteen by that point.
How he had wanted to know more about Shaile, to have some means or ways to keep in touch but asking for an address would have felt out of place since they had met that morning, had spent a few hours together before the zoo had been closed for the day and that had been that.
At least he had made no promise to the other about managing to meet again though he never was far. It had been his first friend who had not been part of the family and he was rather certain that he had lost that very friend the same day he’d made that friend.
Marie’s visits were less and less frequents, he saw her perhaps once or twice a year, usually around holidays as she was now a married woman with a little one to take care of.
It was one of those rare visits and their father had summoned the both of them to a dinner at a quiet little restaurant so they could catch up once more. While the man still took care of the zoo, he rarely was home and Shadei was left in the care of the staff and it did nothing to take away the aching loneliness he felt from watching people walk on by from his window.
Still, for those rare times he was out and in public, he was all smiles and happiness. It was what his father wanted of him and that was all he could do. He knew, from reading journals and old newspaper that he had taken away from his father, their mother and could only imagine that the man must have held some sort of grudge against him, even after all this time. He knew more about the maids than his father, he’d rarely ever seen the man face to face.
The trip to the restaurant was event-less, as was the dinner, it was the trip back that seemed to prove that something was out to get to him whenever he stepped out of the house and beyond their fences.
Why or how remains a mystery though it made the headlines in the papers. Right as they were turning the last corner to head on home, something rather literally exploded from under the car. Whether a bomb or a malfunction, no one has yet been able to find out any detail about the incident.
That night, Shadei lost more than simply the sight in one eye. He lost his sister, lost the child she didn’t know she was pregnant with. Her husband and their child were never heard of again, they never stepped up to know more, as if they had never been.
At twenty two, nearly twenty three, Shadei swore to himself that he would never, ever again set foot outside of the house for the fact that no matter what happened, something was always taken away from him when he did.
In the following weeks, he found himself with a newly appointed caretaker. Malcolm shared his quarters, shared his meals, kept him company though most of the time, Shadei realized it didn’t matter. Malcolm was helpful, the burning scars along his shoulder tended to pull horribly depending on the weather and he welcomed the help when it was necessary.
In the presence of the other he still managed the happy façade that was his to wear but once he was left on his own, so rare those times now, he was left to wonder just as to what the point of it all was.
February 6, 2011
A year and a half after the last accident found Shadei sitting on his bed and staring off. Malcolm had slept elsewhere and he was waiting on the man so he could honestly get out of bed properly. His shoulder was aching in a way that made it near impossible for him to get to his chair and it had been left out of his reach as it was.
His eyes were on the far wall where he kept cut outs from the newspaper, every time it mentioned something about the zoo, about his family. Those were bitter reminders but it kept him from going outside, no matter how beautiful the day might have turned out to be.
When he heard the key turn into the lock, he sighed softly and shook his head. It had been a fair while now since Malcolm had seen through his masks and he barely ever bothered to put them on.
The man stepped inside, grinning like a loon and it was easy to gather from that look alone that he’d spent the night with whomever had caught his fancy the day before. “I’m glad you’re happy and all but I’d like to get out of this bed, if you would?”
It was rare that the skin of his arm pulled bad enough to keep him from moving on his own though it was perhaps more the chair being across the room that had made him stay right where he was. Malcolm rolled his eyes at him a moment and went to fetch the chair, setting the breaks on. “Aren’t you just cheery this morning?”
Still his lips were quirked into that grin and he snickered, letting the other move as he desired into the chair before he wheeled it towards the bathroom. The routine was settled well enough at this point that it wasn’t hard to get through it with his eyes shut. “Well no matter, today is special and today we’re going out to the zoo!”
The deer in headlight look was missed altogether as he turned his back on the man in the chair, letting him take care of his basic needs as he went about digging out the necessary clothes.
“Last thing I want, Malcolm, is to go outside and you know this as well as I do.”
“Ah but see, met up with someone I hadn’t seen in years a few days ago and I invited them out to the zoo and you need some fresh air. I know you don’t want to spend time out there but I’m not giving you much of a choice. So wash up, I have clothes set out for you and we’re going to the zoo.”
Rolling his eyes, Shadei still went about his morning routine as best as he could before he was slowly wheeling himself out of the bathroom. “I know too well I’m not getting out of that one, just by the look on your face. Just so you know, if you somehow get maimed for some reason, you can’t blame me for it.”
“Won’t blame you for it. I promise.”
Well it did seem as if his day was going to take a whole different route than the one he had been thinking of, which would have been nothing more than stare off, maybe read some, rinse and repeat.
If anyone did get maimed.. he knew it would be just another cut out on his wall.
