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Author Topic: Reading a story  (Read 16392 times)

Offline eddiestobbart

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #45 on: 19. September 2021, 12:58:50 PM »
Another really good chapter - I like the split personality between Robert and Chuckee.

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #46 on: 13. January 2022, 16:04:15 PM »
It's been a while since I posted a new chapter, so here it is.


Chapter 20

In the morning, we left the legbraces in the bedroom and I transferred into the wheelchair, lifting my legs to place them on the footpads. Robert had to get the bowls from the cupboard while I carried the jug of milk on my lap. Then he had to rub my legs to warm them up again, something that we both enjoyed.

After breakfast was cleaned up, he sat on the couch and I transferred so that I was sitting between his legs, resting against his chest. Together, we worked on the story, putting in the details from our research the night before. It took a little longer than normal, because he insisted that he follow some of the things described on the screen, just so that I had something to compare being in legbraces and not having them on. It was actually a good idea, because there were some significant differences that I hadn't taken into account. That led to adding the morning-after to the story.

Just before lunch, I told him that he had to leave, but I didn't let him go until he kissed me properly. I did tell him that he would be coming back very soon so that we could record the latest chapters and post them to the storage site.

After he left, I had a shower and attended to a little bit of grooming of a few patches of stubble. It was just a quick shower so that I was clean, not one that was used to relieve my frustration, Chuckee had well and truly satisfied those the night before. Even though my body was satisfied, my mind wasn't, and I dressed in an underwire bra with a little padding, stockings and garterbelt, then added a pair of medium-height slim heels.

Then I spent the afternoon in and out of my wheelchair, starting to make my place wheelchair-friendly. The first place I worked on was the kitchen. Starting with the cupboards, I moved half of my dishes from above the counter to below the counter where I could easily reach them, then did the same with the pre-packaged food and cans. I would make a change, then get into the wheelchair and check to make sure that it was convenient to access what I had done. It didn't take very long to do the kitchen, and there were a few changes that would be done after I did some shopping.

Then I started to rearrange the furniture so that I didn't have to maneuver around things as much. The couch, coffee table and tv-stereo stayed where they were, but smaller tables were moved to places that were more convenient. I spent plenty of time in and out of the wheelchair, and found that the short dress that I was wearing was comfortable and didn't bunch up around my legs the way that the skirt had.

In the evening, it was time for me to test out if my work rearranging the apartment was adequate. I transferred from the wheelchair onto the bed and strapped on the legbraces, then transferred back into the wheelchair. There were a few things that I would have to learn to do while standing in the legbraces, like cooking and washing the dishes, but that would come with practice, and I intended to get advice from HotWheels on how to manage. I had moved the microwave to the front of the counter so that I could reach it and planned to get a stand so that it would be at a more convenient height, so I heated some leftover pizza for supper.

It had been a busy and productive day, so I transferred from the wheelchair to the couch and worked on my stories, adding details based on the research that Chuckee and I had done the night before. Some of the descriptions were very detailed, and more than once I had to stop and run my hands over my legs and along the metal struts supporting them. I had learnt something from how Chuckee had teased me, and my hands stayed away from the bare skin below my waist, just touching where the stockings covered my legs.

I went to bed gloriously frustrated, not allowing myself to have a shower to relieve the built-up feelings, mainly because I couldn't figure out how to have a shower without getting the legbraces and wheelchair wet. Having a shower while disabled went onto the list of things that I needed to research.

For the rest of the week, when I got home from work, I had a shower or bath to clean up, then dressed in a different outfit each day so that I could learn what worked and what didn't while wearing legbraces and using a wheelchair. I also bought some things to make life easier. The microwave went onto a stand that was wheelchair accessible and I bought some rods for the closets so that I could hang my clothes within reach. I rearranged my drawers so that all my lingerie was easy to get at.

The most significant thing that I did was practice using the crutches. I started by learning how to maneuver around my apartment with just the crutches, and learnt that rugs were a problem, so I rolled up the loose ones and stored them away. I started out wearing shoes with no heels and worked my way to wearing medium-height heels. Learning how to go from sitting on the couch to standing using the crutches took a bit of research, but Google helped with that. Getting out of and into the wheelchair took more time to learn, but I managed that too.

Then came the real challenge, learning how to do it wearing legbraces. After changing to the metal shoe insert, I tried the legbraces with a pair of shoes with no heel. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get up from the couch using just the crutches. The wheelchair was no better. Sitting down on the couch was more of a controlled crash, and I didn't bother trying to do it into the wheelchair.

I realized that I needed some professional help learning how to do it. HotWheels and I had been chatting online every day and I had sent her a few samples of the story that I was working on for her. I had told her that I had rearranged my apartment so that it was more wheelchair-friendly, but I had kept my learning how to walk in the legbraces a secret…. I wanted to surprise her with how good I had become.

Finally, I had to admit defeat. So I invited her over, telling her that I needed her help with some research I was doing for the story. I had expected her to say that she could come over in a day or two, but she surprised me by saying she would be right over. What I didn't know was that she had her own van with hand controls and drove wherever she needed to go.

I was still trying to figure out how to get up from the couch while wearing legbraces when my phone buzzed. She was at the front door, so I buzzed her in and told her just to open the door to my apartment and come in. As soon as she saw what I was trying to do, she laughed and said, "You're doing it all wrong, you can't use your legs the way that you're used to, you have to coordinate your whole body to get you up." Then she took my crutches and demonstrated what I was supposed to do, standing up and crutching in place until she was lined up with the couch, then bent over until it looked as if she was going to fall over, released the locks behind her knees and sat down.

She smiled at me, and I saw that she was wearing her retainers again. "You're not the only one that has been practicing. I realized that I needed to work on it too after how clumsy I was at the hospital." She looked around at my apartment and said, "How about you show me around. I'd like to see what changes you made to accommodate using a wheelchair. I can probably give you a few suggestions to make it easier to live this way."

I still hadn't tried walking while wearing the legbraces, so I transferred into my wheelchair and waited for her to do the same. Then we started the tour in the kitchen. She made a few suggestions about how to make cooking in my kitchen easier while wearing legbraces, but my kitchen wasn't really that wheelchair-usable for cooking. She liked what I had done in the bedroom with the extra rods in the closet and rearranging my drawers. As she looked through my drawers, she picked up a few pieces and said that she wouldn't mind seeing me in them sometime.

When we went through the bathrooms, I finally got the answers to many of my questions about how she showered and used the bathtub. Her place had been modified to accommodate her limitations with a longer hose on the shower and a water-powered hydraulic seat in the tub, which she invited me to use sometime.

We sat and talked for a while, discussing what I needed to adjust to make my place more 'handicapped-accessible' so that I could experience some of what she did every day. She frowned at the terms I was using and said that she wasn't handicapped, she was capable of doing everything that I could, she just had to do some things differently.

She took me into the kitchen and said, "Make us a pot of coffee and I will show you what I mean." I tried to reach over the counter to grab the coffee pot so that I could fill it to make the coffee, but the counter was too high. "Let me show you how I do it. Move back and watch me." After I rolled back, she took her crutches from behind her chair and, leaning forwards until she looked like she would fall over, stood up. She positioned herself between the sink and the coffee pot, set one crutch to the side, and used her free hand to fill the pot, pour it into the coffeemaker and start it running. "I just did something that you can't do right now. I just did it differently than you usually do."

While we sipped our cups of coffee at the table, she asked me, "Have you gone outside of your apartment in the wheelchair or the leg-braces yet?" When I shook my head, she asked, "Why not? How do you expect to write about things that you don't know about? The stuff that you have been writing lately seems so realistic and I have been really enjoying it."

When I explained that 'Chuckee' and I had actually done the things that I described, she smiled and said, "Then I think that it is time we had a girls-day-out. Let's get you ready to go out." I rolled behind her as we went to my bedroom. She began going through my closet and dresser, selecting things for me to wear. She seemed to have more than one change of clothes when she finished.

My curiosity got the better of me and I asked, "What are all those for?"

She just smiled, the wires across her teeth shining, and said, "We are going to make more than one stop, and you are going to have to change your clothes at least twice. Now, get over here and change." When I looked at her questioningly, she said, "You can either do it in the chair or on the bed, the choice is yours. I recommend the bed, it's much easier to move around on."

I followed her suggestion and changed on the bed, then transferred to the chair again. While I was changing, she packed the rest of her clothing selections in my backpack.

By the time I was done, she was laughing at me. "Stop trying to act like a cripple, it looks fake. Use the muscles you have to do what you want to do. All you have to do is relearn how to move using the devices you have. Let the wheelchair, leg-braces and crutches become a part of you. I'm still learning how to use mine, and that changes as I recover from my injuries." Placing the backpack on my lap, she said, "Now, let's get out of here."

She stopped me before we could leave, telling me that I needed to take the crutches with me and showing me how to stow them in the clips behind me on the chair. When we got to her van, she explained how to transfer into it from the wheelchair and how to use the crutches to transfer instead. Her explanation included how she found it easier to get in and out of the van with her leg-braces and that it made it easier to load and unload the wheelchairs with the power sliding doors.

It turned out that our first stop wasn't a store or restaurant, it was a building that looked like a warehouse, except that the interior had been turned into a gym. She had me use my wheelchair to give me a tour of the building and introduce me to the staff on duty. The owners were a group of disabled veterans who had wanted a place to regain and maintain their health away from the eyes of the general public. The place was by referral only by members of the gym. She told me that she was a member and that I should watch how the different people used their bodies as they exercised. She also told me that I would be coming back to exercise with her.

Then she took me to the mall. As soon as we started rolling through the mall, I became aware of the different ways that people were looking at us. Some would glance at us, then it would seem as if we became invisible to them. Others would turn and stare at us as we rolled by them. To many of them, we were just a couple of females out shopping. I noticed that guys tended to pay more attention to us than the women. It shouldn't have surprised me that much, since we were both wearing knee-length skirts, blouses that showed a bit of cleavage and heels. The fact that we were also wearing leg-braces and in wheelchairs definitely drew a lot of attention as well.

By the end of the afternoon, I had a better idea of what she was talking about when she said that I needed to 'stop pretending to be crippled' and to learn how to use my body differently to accomplish what I wanted to do.

Before she took me back to my place, we stopped at a restaurant for something to eat and to just sit and talk. Other than eating in the hospital cafeteria, this was the first time that I had been in a public environment in the wheelchair to eat, and it was an eye-opener for me. It felt as if everyone was watching us, yet when I looked around, there were only a couple of guys our age looking in our direction, and it wasn’t really the wheelchairs they seemed interested in. When HotWheels saw where I was looking, she glanced at them, smiled and then turned her attention back to me.

“You’ll have to get used to that if you're with me. Being a good-looking female in a wheelchair isn’t much different than without the chair, it just takes a while to get used to the attention you draw.” Then we went back to chatting.

The conversation moved to the latest chapters of the stories I was working on. She hadn't seen the last few chapters of the story that I was writing for her, so I transferred them to her phone and she read them. When I commented that the one female character had a lisp and I didn't know how I was going to record it convincingly, she asked, "How did you do it when you recorded the other story?"

I explained that I had used the whitening tray and that I was a bit drunk when I did it, so I was slurring the words more than lisping. My accent had also been stronger and that added to the impression of the lisp. "While it was kind of fun to do it that way, especially with who it was for, I don't want to make it a habit of getting drunk while working on my stories."

HotWheels looked at me for a while, then began to grin. "Let me think about it for a while. I may have a solution to your problem, and I think you will enjoy what I come up with." She took a couple more sips of her coffee, then asked, "How would you like to go to the gym with me? I haven't been going enough and need to work on building strength in my legs. You can sit at the side and watch the other people there and see how each person uses different methods to accommodate their injuries."

I probably could have said 'no', but the opportunity to be able to gain information for my stories was too good to pass up, so I agreed.

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #47 on: 13. January 2022, 16:05:14 PM »
Chapter 21

When we arrived at the gym, she suggested that I bring in the backpack and get changed so that I would fit in with the rest of the people there. There were no large changing rooms. The owners had thought of what would be best for their clients and had built several private changing rooms, each with an adapted shower. Even the washrooms were adapted so that they were convenient to use. Their changing rooms were large enough that we both were able to fit in at the same time, as long as we were careful how we maneuvered our chairs.

HotWheels made more room by transferring to the bench and folding her chair before changing into her workout clothes. I expected her to wear yoga pants so that her legs would be covered, but she slipped on a pair of sheer leggings and a pair of short-shorts, then put on her leg-braces again. When she saw my puzzled look, she said, "The leggings are so that the cuffs on my leg-braces don't stick to my skin. The shorts are so that I look good. I may have a few scars, but my legs still look good and I like to show them off. I'm not going to be the only one with scars out there and mine aren't that noticeable. Now hurry up and get changed."

We switched places and I began to get undressed. She stopped me and said, "Stop trying to act disabled. Use your muscles to do the things you need to do, just learn how to use them differently." I followed her advice and was soon changed. She had packed yoga pants for me and a skin-tight sleeveless top. The leg-braces felt a little different with the yoga pants between them and my legs, but not much.

We put our backpacks in the lockers, then rolled into the main workout area. It wasn't busy and HotWheels was soon warmed up and ready to go. I wasn't sure what to expect her to do, but it didn't turn out to be a normal workout. She grabbed her crutches and stood up, crutched to the counter and talked to the girl there, then crutched back to me with a grin on her face. "My favourite instructor is here today and is going to work with both of us. Don't worry, I told her about you writing a story for me and that you need some experience before you write more of the story. She knows that you just got the legbraces and need to learn how to use them. She'll take it easy on you and concentrate on teaching you the basics of how to walk and get in and out of your wheelchair."

A few minutes later, a door opened and a tall blonde girl walked through the door. HotWheels had been right, her scars weren't that visible. The girl walked, or rather strolled, over to us. She was dressed similar to HotWheels in shorts and a tight top, though her shorts weren't as short. She shook hands with HotWheels, then introduced herself to me as "Sarge" and said, "You must be IrishMolly. I've read your stories and really like how you write things from the women's point of view. HotWheels told me that you just got the braces and are learning how to live with them. I'm surprised that your therapist didn't spend more time working with you, but I'm sure that I can help you out. As you can see, I have some experience with learning how to walk again."

It was pretty obvious what she was talking about. Her left leg had scars from the ankle to her knee and her right leg ended above the knee, with a metal and plastic prosthesis below that. If she had been wearing street clothes, I wouldn't have been able to tell that she was injured,  even with her slight limp.

"Okay, HotWheels, let's get you started, then I'll work with IrishMolly for a while." Sarge took us over to the wall where a set of rails were located and lines were taped on the floor, along with several obstacles such as stairs and ramps. After watching HotWheels for a while, she turned to me and said, "Okay, Molly, your turn. We'll start you with the basics. Grab the rails and stand up, then we'll practise swinging your legs together as you move around. If you are okay moving between the rails, we'll try the crutches next. Hopefully, by the time we are done today, you'll be walking by yourself."

I remembered what HotWheels kept telling me and used my muscles to stand up. Swinging between the rails was easy because they didn't move the way crutches do. Before long, Sarge had me to the point where I could get in and out of the wheelchair and swing between the bars, turn around and swing back, then sit in the chair again. Then she had me try it using the crutches and I found out that it wasn't that easy to do. I had to relearn how to stand up without being able to pull on the rails.

It wasn't until Sarge took off her leg and showed me how she shifted her balance around when she got into and out of my wheelchair that I finally figured out how to do it. She obviously could do it without removing her leg, but it was a much more educational experience for me to see her do it with one leg. She wouldn't let me stop practicing until I was able to get out of my wheelchair and crutch beside the rails and return to my wheelchair. By the time she was satisfied with my progress, I was starting to feel sore all over.

HotWheels had been sitting in her chair for a while, watching Sarge torture me and trying not to laugh. More than once, I heard her stifle a laugh as I learnt how to walk all over again. Sarge finally took pity on me and said, "That's enough for today. Join me for a drink and let's talk for a while."

HotWheels and I rolled after her as she led us to the juice bar. After Sarge brought us all drinks, we talked about the stories that I was writing. She suggested that I should come back again and that she would like to work with me more to improve my skills with the wheelchair, leg-braces and crutches, then she said something that surprised me. "You move pretty well in those leg-braces for someone who isn't disabled. With a little more practice, nobody will know that you don't need them." After I recovered a little, she added, "I'm actually impressed that you are willing to learn what it is like to have to do things differently than most people are able to. What I don't understand is why you would go to all the trouble."

It took me a while to explain that it all started when I couldn't find stories that were written from a female point of view, and that I found it easier to write about things that I knew about, including how things felt. When I explained about my boyfriend temporarily blinding me and everything that had happened since, she grinned and asked, "So, you've done everything that you wrote about?"

I blushed a little as I replied, "I didn't write about everything I did. Some of it is just going to stay unwritten, though I will tell you that I very much enjoyed everything that I did. If you don't mind, I'd like to use some of what we did today in my stories. Can I use you in my stories?"

She grinned as she said, "You can, but there is a condition attached. You have to come back again so that I can torture you some more. And I want to tell you a few stories of how I ended up this way. Maybe you can write about them, though I don't want you to have to go through what I did."

I happily agreed with her conditions, and after exchanging emails and phone numbers, HotWheels and I headed back to my place.

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #48 on: 16. January 2022, 06:42:56 AM »
Chapter 22

For the next week, I practiced what I had learnt at the gym and improved to the point that I felt pretty confident in my ability to walk in the legbraces. I worked on both of the current stories, adding a couple of chapters to each story. Sarge had given me an idea for a new story and I had started on an outline for it.

HotWheels and I had talked about the story that I was working on for her, among other things, and one of the things she had asked was if I would be available on Friday afternoon to go with her to an appointment. She wouldn't tell me where we were going, though she said that I needed to use the wheelchair. The leg-braces were optional, but I would enjoy it more if I wore them, and heels would be appropriate. I was to dress comfortably in a knee-length or longer dress or skirt, though pants would be fine.

When she picked me up in her van on Friday, I chose to wear the leg-braces, and after a bit of experimentation with pants, decided that a dress was more comfortable. I chose dark-grey stockings, without a garterbelt, and mid-height heels that I had practiced wearing while crutching around my apartment. As long as I didn't have far to go, I was comfortable wearing them, and I thought they looked good with my outfit.

All during the drive, we talked about the progress I was making on the stories, though she avoided any mention of my recording them for the storage site. Before I realized where we were, she had parked at the hospital, in a disabled parking stall near the entrance doors. I surprised her by using my crutches to support myself while I unloaded my wheelchair, then stowing the crutches behind me after I had seated myself.

It was still a mystery as to where we were going, but at least the building was a little familiar. The time spent practicing in the wheelchair paid off as I was able to keep up with her as she set a brisk pace through the hospital. Some of the corridors we took looked familiar and then she turned a corner and we were outside her orthodontist's office.

As soon as we rolled inside, I knew that I was in for an interesting afternoon. The assistant at the front desk greeted me by name and said, “You’re a bit early for your appointment, Miss Molly, but that’s okay. It gives me a chance to tell you that I have been enjoying listening to your stories and I think that I have read most of the others. HotWheels said that you write about things that you have experienced and that you were having a bit of an issue with recording what you wrote, and that she hoped we could help you.”

When I turned to look at Hotwheels, she had her finger against her lips, trying to get the assistant to not say anything more. “Miss Molly has no idea about what I asked for, and I want to keep it that way a little longer.” The smile on the assistant's face got bigger as she realized just how much fun I was in for. “Why don’t I take you in and get you ready. I see that you have your crutches with you. Do you want to leave the wheelchairs here so that the room isn’t quite so crowded?”

Now I knew why Hotwheels had been so specific in what I should wear and what options I had. All the practice wearing the leg-braces and learning how to use them properly paid off as I parked my chair out of the way, leaned forward and stood up using the crutches. I used the swing-through gait to move down the hall and into the treatment room, then sat down in the treatment chair when she directed me to it and adjusted the level for me. Instead of being a controlled crash, I was actually pretty graceful as I sat down.

The assistant left to get the doctor, and she must have said something to him, because he had a broad smile on his face when he walked in. “So, Miss Molly, this is your second appointment with me. I don’t usually have patients that are in as good shape as you, but I was asked if I could help you out a little. I told HotWheels that I would have to think about what she asked, but she said that you would be okay with being my patient. Now I was told that you have no idea about what is going on, so I have to ask you. Are you okay with being here today? What I am doing is a bit unusual, to say the least.”

Before I had a chance to reply, HotWheels said, “She’ll be fine. I told her that I had an appointment. I didn’t tell her that the appointment was for her. She’s been fine with everything that I have done to her so far and this is going to be the easiest experience yet.”

He looked at me for confirmation and I just shrugged and nodded. He took that to mean that I was agreeing to what was happening and said, “Let’s get started then. I want to have one more look at your teeth before I do anything, just to be sure that everything is okay.”

HotWheels pulled a sleep mask out of her pocket and said, “I don’t want her to be able to see what is going on. It would have been so much more fun if she could have worn her contacts, but this will have to do.”

Just as he was about to ask what she meant, his assistant leaned over and whispered something in his ear. His smile got bigger when she turned to Hotwheels and took the mask, then slipped it over my eyes. The chair reclined and I opened my mouth as he adjusted the light to shine onto my teeth. The check didn’t take long and then I heard things being placed on the tray beside me.

I wasn’t really surprised when the doctor said, “I don’t exactly know what is going on here, but I suspect that some of my employees are involved in it. I know that you have no idea, so before I do anything else, I think that I need proof that you are agreeing to what is going on, so I'm going to have HotWheels record you saying that you agree. I’ve always been able to trust her and she’s always been honest with me, and I think that you trust her as well. If you agree to let whatever is going on continue, I’ll still let you stop me at any time that you want.” He paused until I heard Hotwheels say, “Okay, ready to record.” Then he asked me, “Do you agree to become my patient and let me treat you?”

I wasn’t too sure about how he was phrasing the question, but I responded, “Yes, I consent to being your patient.”

With a chuckle, he said, “Now that the formalities are over, I’ll get started. I’m going to be describing what I am going to do so that you know what is happening. You can ask any questions you want and I’ll stop any time you want me to. Most of what my assistant has scheduled you for won’t be visible and almost everything can be removed by you whenever you want. I have a feeling that HotWheels has spent quite a bit of time talking to her about what is happening, because almost everything can be used separately and will still fit together with many of the other pieces.”

I heard some chuckling coming from both of them, and the assistant said, “I felt that it was my responsibility to provide professional advice in the matter. If I didn’t have an answer to a question, I asked someone who did. When I explained why I was asking and who it was for, almost everyone was happy to help. I may have made a few suggestions along the way as well. Miss Molly has quite a few fans around the hospital.”

I could hear the amusement in his voice as the doctor replied, "That would explain some of what is on the tray." Then he directed his next comments to me. "Okay, Miss Molly, we're going to start on your molars. You’re going to taste a sour chemical as we get them ready to put bands on them. You won’t need spacers, since there are already small gaps. Nobody will see them because they are at the back. They will be used to anchor some of the other things that are on the list for you to wear. Any questions about the molar bands?”

I had about a thousand questions that I could ask, but not about the bands. He had been thorough enough in his explanation of what would happen. I knew people that had worn braces and they told me that they didn’t have a problem with their molar bands, except for the spacers that were used at the start. I just shrugged, opened my mouth and waited for them to start working. It felt strange to have my lips spread so far apart and not be able to close my mouth when they stuck the retractor in place. I felt them brush something along my gums in the back, and a little while later, my gums went numb.

His warning had been accurate. The chemical smell was kind of strong, but it didn't last long and the suction hose did a good job of removing the water that was used to rinse the chemical off. The next part felt even stranger. They put a ring around a molar, then they took it out, did something to it and put it in again. Then they took it out and did it all over again. I could feel the pressure change when they moved from one side to the other and top to bottom, but the back of my mouth was numb.

I didn't realize that I hadn't been listening to them until Sheila tapped my shoulder to get my attention and asked me to bite down. When I bit down, I felt something between my jaws that felt like the handle of a toothbrush and that it was pushing something around my molar. She had me do it several times on each side, and then there was a buzzing noise for a while. When the buzzing stopped, the retractor was removed.

Without being able to see what was going on, I was using my other senses to try to compensate. My imagination was in overdrive as I listened to the noises around me, inhaled the scents around me and felt the air moving around me. The noises were the most fascinating. Every time HotWheels shifted her position, I could hear the joints on her leg-braces creak a little. I could also hear things being moved around on the tray, and in the background, just loud enough to recognize, was a recording of my first story. I hadn't used any real names and the locations had been left vague, and very few people knew how much of it had actually happened. Whoever had put it on had started at the beginning and it was still about shoes, clothes and coloured hair, and about the coffee-dates.

I felt the back of the chair moving upright and Sheila asked, "Would you like to rinse before we continue? It's always nice to get rid of that chemical taste. A little mouthwash will clear it out." When I nodded, she placed a paper cup against my fingers and held it until I grasped it. "There's a hospital pan in front of your mouth, just lean forward and spit gently." It seemed as if she had thought ahead about how to make things as convenient as possible, but then working in a hospital probably meant doing things a little different than in a normal orthodontist's office. After I swished the mouthwash around a little, then spit, she wiped my lips with a damp cloth.

After I settled into the chair again, Sheila said, “We’re going to test fit a few things that you can put in and remove by yourself. You may need a little practice with some of them, and I am sure that HotWheels will be glad to help with that. Some of them she had herself, so she is familiar with them. For the devices that are a little more complicated, I am more than willing to teach you how to use them. I’ll tell you what each device is and if you need information about what it does, just ask. Is that okay?”

I nodded and smiled, then waited for her to continue. Whatever they had used to numb my gums had gotten onto my tongue and numbed it as well. It had acted very fast, but it didn’t seem as if it lasted long, because the feeling was starting to return to the tip. I ran my tongue around the inside of my mouth, but didn't have enough sensation yet to feel what they had done.

Offline MetallicTaste

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #49 on: 16. January 2022, 17:17:53 PM »
I'm really enjoying to where the story is heading. Hoping to read what happens next.

Offline Lithpkith

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #50 on: 09. February 2022, 22:06:09 PM »
Gweat thtowy tho faw! Love the detailed dethcwitionth and chawactew development. Pleath continue when you have time! Thank you tho much!

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #51 on: 09. February 2022, 22:57:48 PM »
To everyone that has been commenting on TheArchive, Thank you for supporting me. Almost everyone who I have asked has given me permission to copy their stories. There is no requirement for me to ask for permission, since the stories are posted to public forums and sites.

I do it out of respect to the authors and ask that they send me any other stories that they write or that they have written that I don't have. Some have been very generous in helping me.

I have a read-me file that explains how to have stories removed and how to contribute to TheArchive. At this time, Dun is the only one who has asked to have any stories removed.

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #52 on: 09. February 2022, 23:11:27 PM »
I am still working on more chapters of this story. I haven't had much urge to write lately, and don't like to post stuff that I am not happy with. I will add more to this story, just be patient. I am also working on a few other stories that I feel a need to continue adding to.

I go through periods where my creative juices decrease and my stories suffer as a consequence.

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #53 on: 16. February 2022, 15:54:10 PM »
Chapter 23

I heard things being moved around on the tray and then Sheila said, "HotWheels asked for this device and one modification was made to it. I'm sure you've heard of a face-bow and maybe seen pictures of people wearing it. This one has an additional feature to hold it in place." She placed something in my hands and moved my right hand to the end of a wire. "There are clips on the ends of the inner wire to keep it from sliding out of the tubes on the molar bands. Just press down on the clip and it will release." She moved my finger to one of the clips and pressed on it. "After the face-bow is adjusted, I'll show you how to release it from the tubes. The neck-strap for the face-bow should be left as loose as possible and still look as if it is working, the clips will stop the face-bow from sliding out."

I felt her fingers slip between my lips and then I had a vague sensation of her doing something at the back of my mouth. I opened wider and waited as she moved my head from side to side. Her fingers slipped out and I heard her doing something beside me. Her fingers returned briefly and there was a click, and when she removed her fingers and pressed up on my chin, there was a wire between my lips. This was followed by her slipping a cloth strap around the back of my neck. There was a slight tug on the face-bow and just a little pressure on the back of my neck before she asked, "How does that feel?"

More sensation had returned to my tongue and gums, and I was able to feel that there were things in my mouth that hadn't been there before. The most noticeable was the wire between my lips. The wire was pushing up on my top lip slightly and I found that I had to bring my bottom lip up just a little to close my mouth completely. I tried to get my top lip behind the wire, but there wasn't enough space between the wire and my top teeth. Then I attempted to put my lips over the wire so that they would meet in front of the wire, but it just felt weird to have my lips stretched that far. When I let my lips relax and meet as naturally as possible, it felt as if I was smiling, so that's what I did. It was just barely a smile, but it was still a smile.

I was curious about what they had done in the back of my mouth, and with some feeling back in my tongue, I was finally able to explore a little. As the feeling had returned, I had felt something against the edges of my tongue, and I ran the tip over the inner surface of my teeth. When I got to my molars, I found the rings that had been placed around them. I was surprised to find that there were eight rings at the back, not four, and that the top and bottom molars all had rings. With a little more exploration, I noticed that they all had tubes on the inside and that the tubes on the front bands were closer to my gums than the back bands.

I spread my teeth slightly, keeping my lips together, and ran my tongue over the outer surface of my teeth. It felt strange to have my tongue between the wire and my teeth as I moved to the back of my mouth. I had to move my tongue to the outside of the wire as I got closer to the back because the space between my teeth and the wire decreased at the back. Just as on the inside, there were tubes on the outside, and the tubes were closer to the gums on the front tubes.

The creaking of the joints on HotWheels legbraces increased as she waited for my reply, and I could hear that Sheila was shifting beside me as well. There was also a new creaking from the
area of my feet and I realized that I was flexing my ankles and toes. I normally wouldn't have noticed the sounds, but my hearing seemed to be more acute, probably because my ears were trying to make up for the lack of sight.

I was curious about the wire that was on the outside of my mouth, so I brought my hands up to my face and ran them along the wire, starting at the front and moving to the back. My fingertips reached the ends of the wire and explored the way that the wire connected to the strap, then moved along the strap to my neck. A picture formed in my mind of what I must look like with my hands touching my face and the artificial smile created by the pressure of the face-bow on my top lip turned into a real one.

My tongue had been playing with the bands on my molars and the ends of the face-bow attached to them. I was still curious about how the inner and outer wires of the face-bow came together between my lips, so I opened my lips and ran my tongue to where the joint was. My tongue sent messages to my brain and a picture formed. My smile got bigger as ideas for my stories coalesced.

I was momentarily distracted from my thoughts as HotWheels said, "I think she likes it. At least she isn't trying to pull it out. And look at that smile on her face."

The next voice I heard was the doctors. "If you ladies don't mind, I'm going to go to my office and do some paperwork while you all are playing." His next comment was directed at me, "I'll keep my door open and I'll be listening for your scream. If they do anything that you don't like, just call for me."

I was too busy exploring my mouth to answer him, but I heard him walking away. As his footsteps faded away, I noticed a clicking sound, then I realized that it was coming from my knees. I was trying to rub my legs together, and the knee joints of the leg-braces were stopping my legs from bending. The clicking was coming from the locks on the knee joints. The girls heard it too and HotWheels said, "She IS enjoying it."

I wanted to know how to take off and put on the face-bow, so I fumbled with the strap until I disconnected it, then ran my fingers along the wire until I felt the joint between the inner and outer wires of the bow. My fingers paused to feel the joint and a better picture formed in my mind of what the face-bow looked like. I tugged on it a little just to see if it would move, but it was firmly locked to my molars, so I moved my fingers along the inner wire until I felt where the ends entered the tubes.

Sheila had said that there were clips on the ends to hold it in place, but I couldn't figure out how they worked, even though I tried. Sheila must have been watching me, because she said, "I'll do it this time and describe what I am doing, then I'll have you do it with me guiding you." I removed my fingers from my mouth, closed my lips and swallowed the saliva that had built up. Then I spread my lips again and waited for her. "The clips are facing downwards on the back molars and the face-bow fits into the bottom tubes. The top tubes are for something else. Run your fingers along the bottom of the face-bow, just like I am doing." I felt her fingers against the inside of my cheeks as they slid towards the back of my mouth. "The part you press on is just in front of the tube. Press up and pull forward on the face-bow. If you find it easier, do one side at a time and use your free hand to pull on the wire." There was a change to the pressure she was exerting on the face-bow and I closed my lips around her fingers.

I could hear the amusement in her voice as she chuckled and waited for me to open them again. When I didn't, she slowly pulled her fingers out, taking the face-bow along with them. "I'm going to get you to put it back in with my help. Most people use a mirror at first until they get used to inserting it, but I'm not going to allow you to do it that way. You're just going to have to do it as if you are blind."

I didn't know just how much she knew, but if she had read or listened to most of my stories, she had probably connected the dots. She put the face-bow in my hand and waited for me to bring it to my face. I explored the ends of the face-bow, forming a picture of what I thought the clips looked like and how I thought that they worked. When I felt that I had as much information as I was likely to have without seeing the face-bow, I slipped it between my cheeks and teeth, then followed the instructions that Sheila gave me. I found it quite easy to line up one side at a time and clip it into place. After taking it out and putting it back in a few times, the muscles in my cheeks were getting sore from smiling so much.

It wasn't until HotWheels asked me what I thought of the face-bow that I realized that I hadn't said anything yet. I closed my mouth, pressing my lips against the face-bow, then tried to talk. "It feelsh shtrange having the wire between my lipsh. I'm not ushed to it being there." Then I began to giggle at the way I sounded. “I have a lishp.” I inserted my fingers, pressed on the clips holding the face-bow in place and removed it. “What about now, do I still have a lisp?”

I heard the creak of HotWheels legbraces and the click of her crutches as she moved closer to me, then the sound of the knee joints on her legbraces releasing, followed by the squeak of the chair beside me. Her voice came from lower and closer to my head as I realized that she had sat down in the chair that the doctor had been in.

“That isn’t good enough. She needs to have more of a lisp than that. Let’s try something else.” I heard things moving around on the tray. “That will definitely affect her, but let’s save that for a while yet.” There was the sound of a plastic box being opened and then HotWheels gasped, “You did make them. Will they work? Will they stay in place without moving around?”

Sheila explained that the wire was heavy enough and stiff enough to not flex, and that the wires at the back would slip into the tubes on the outside of front and back bands to provide a stable anchor point. I had no idea what she was talking about, but Hotwheels obviously did. "Let's save that one. I don't want her to get those yet." There was a pause and then I heard Sheila say, "She won't be able to install and remove some of these by herself. These are all real appliances, they've just been modified so that they will fit into the tubes on her molar bands instead of being bonded directly to her teeth. She's going to need someone who can see into her mouth to put them in for her. Once they are adjusted to correctly fit her mouth, just about anybody can do it for her. Some of them have are going to be quite visible when they are in place."

I heard the sounds of plastic containers being opened and closed, and then Sheila laughed. “How about we give her these. Once they are installed, she can take them out herself. The guy who made them designed them with bands that fit over her lower canines and will stay in place using denture adhesive.”

I was getting the feeling that I was going to have little say in what was being done to me.

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #54 on: 03. March 2022, 12:46:43 PM »
Chapter 24

Since they were not interested in my opinion, I stayed silent and let them discuss my fate. I still had the face-bow in my hand, and with my tongue not being numb anymore, I wanted to explore my mouth in greater detail. While they kept discussing the various options of what they could use on me, I used my tongue to explore the bands on my molars. All of the bands had tubes on them on the inside and outside of my teeth, with the bands nearer to the front having them closer to my gums. I already knew that the face-bow was supposed to go into the tubes on the top rear molars, but the reason for the rest of the tubes was a bit of a mystery to me, especially why I had so many of them.

I probably should have been paying more attention to what they were talking about, but I was more interested in what they had already done to me. There was only so much I could do with my tongue, so I used my fingertips to add to the picture that was forming in my mind of what my mouth probably looked like now. As that picture developed more, I found that it seemed to include the face-bow, so rather than just try and picture it in my mind, I slipped it back into my mouth.

Just like the glasses, contacts, and the legbraces and other accessories, I was finding that there was something fascinating about the molar bands and face-bow. Even though I had just been given the face-bow, and it wasn’t attached to the neck-strap yet, it felt comfortable having it in my mouth. That changed as soon as the strap started to pull against my neck. The joints on the ankles and knees of my legbraces creaked as I tried to rub my legs together. I was enjoying the feeling of the slight pressure on my molars from the face-bow and the changes to the pressure as I moved my head around, when I was interrupted by a hand on my shoulder.

"Open your mouth for me, it's time for us to fit the next device into your mouth." I realized just how distracted I had been as I opened my mouth so that Sheila could insert a plastic object that spread my lips in all directions, preventing me from closing my mouth. All I could do was sit there as her fingers went into my mouth and placed things around my lower canines, removed them and put them back into my mouth again, this time pressing them firmly into place, then scraping something from around them. I could feel her doing things inside my mouth, I just couldn't tell what she was doing. My lips weren't close to touching my teeth, and her fingers were in the way of my tongue. I felt her press something down over my lower teeth, then a similar item over my top teeth and something was resting behind my teeth when she was done.

When she removed the plastic device that had been holding my lips open, from my mouth, then said, "Close your mouth slowly and tell me if anything pinches," I found out that she had put more in than I had thought. The first thing my lips encountered were two rods fastened to my lower canines, running upwards to my top front molars. That was followed by my bottom lip slipping over what felt like a fairly thick wire with bends that matched the contours of my teeth. My top lip came to rest against the wire of my face-bow. My mouth felt strange as my teeth came together, as if something was restricting the side-to-side movement of my lower jaw. I was finally able to use my tongue again, and quickly discovered that there were thin pieces of what felt like smooth acrylic pressed against my gums on the back of my upper and lower teeth. As I ran my tongue along the bottom piece, it encountered two metal bands, one on each of my lower canines.

When I explored what had been placed on my upper jaw, I found that the upper device had something that the lower one didn’t, a piece of wire with bends that projected into my mouth, that ran from canine tooth to canine tooth behind my teeth. There was almost enough space between my upper palate and the wire to just about fit my tongue into it. When I tried, the acrylic stopped my tongue from slipping into the gap.

Both the top and bottom acrylic pieces stopped just in front of the forward molars and a heavy wire emerged from the back, wrapped around the back molars, becoming the contoured wires that ran along my front teeth. When I opened my mouth and ran my tongue behind my face-bow, I found a wire running along my upper teeth, matching the wire on my bottom teeth. I discovered that I had considerably more metal in my mouth than I had first thought.

After thoroughly running my tongue over everything on the outside of my teeth, paying special attention to the rods running between my lower canines and my upper molars, and feeling how the outer rods slid over the inner rods, a big smile spread over my face. I still didn’t know what I looked like with everything that had been added to my mouth, but the picture in my mind was probably more extreme than what it actually was. I needed more information about what had been done, so I brought my hands to my lips and used my fingertips to explore as much of my mouth as I could. The most fascinating parts were how the pistons moved on and out while restricting the side-to-side movement of my lower jaw, and how the face-bow just barely cleared the pistons as I opened and closed my mouth.

Without even being asked, I tried to tell Sheila that everything felt fine. As I tried to talk, I found that it wasn’t going to be quite as easy to speak as I thought. As soon as I opened my mouth and tried to say, “Other than feeling a bit weird, everything feels fine,” my tongue kept bouncing off of the wire behind my top teeth, distorting my speech. That, combined with the face-bow between my lips, caused the T’s in my speech to be distorted to ‘TH’ and the S’s to “SH’, so that it sounded more like, “Other than feeling a bith wierth, eferything feelth fife.” They both laughed as I added, “I hafe eden more of a lithf now.”

 I reached up to take off the blindfold covering my eyes, but HotWheels stopped me before I could loosen it. “Leave it on a while longer. We don’t want you to see what else we have on the tray just yet.” Then she spoke to Sheila. “That is the effect I was hoping for. Just enough to give her a lisp and still be able to understand her when she is reading her stories. How about we save the rest of the devices for another time.”

I could hear things being moved around on the tray beside me, then things became quiet again. The back of my chair began to move to an upright position and, when I was sitting upright, a pair of hands moved my head forward enough to remove the blindfold from my eyes. I blinked a few times, getting used to the light in the room. When I was able to focus clearly, I looked to my right, then my left. Both of them were grinning at me and Sheila was holding a mirror in her lap with it facing down.

Sheila asked me, "Are you ready to see what we did to you? Keep in mind that other than the bands on your molars, everything is easily removable." When I nodded that I was, she turned the reflective surface of the mirror towards me and held it so that I could see myself in it. After letting me look briefly, she said, "Let me explain how everything works, and then you can ask me any questions that you have."

Again I nodded, then waited as she started. "The most visible item is the face-bow. If you want to remove it for me now, I'll show you how the clips work." Removing it was relatively easy, though the additional hardware in my mouth gave me more to get my fingers around. It would have been easier if I had unfastened the strap first, but it didn't occur to me. As soon as the face-bow came loose and I tried to get it out, the strap around my neck tightened and I had to use one hand to hold the face-bow while I unfastened the strap. When I pulled it out of my mouth and looked at it, the wire of the face-bow didn't look as thick as it had felt between my lips, and the clips were much smaller than they had felt against my fingers.

Sheila waited as I examined the face-bow before saying, "You are already reasonably familiar with how to install and remove the face-bow. Just make sure that the clips are facing down and that you use the bottom tubes on the back molars."

"The next thing visible are the pistons connecting your jaws. The whole device is called a Herbst. Normally they would be connected to the bands on your molars on top and to bands cemented to your canines on the bottom. The bands on your canines are held in place by denture adhesive and will just slip off with a bit of pressure, and the residue will come off when you brush your teeth. The bottom of the pistons are connected directly to the bands and you don't have to worry about disconnecting them. The other end of the pistons are connected to heavy wires that fit into the top tubes on the bands on your front molars and are held in place with clips, just the same as the face-bow. Leave it in for now, you can experiment with it a little later. The Herbst can be worn by itself or with the face-bow, and can also be worn in combination with the next items."

“The wires running along your teeth are retainers. The acrylic has been moulded to match the back of your teeth as closely as possible so that they are providing support to stop your teeth from moving. The little bends in the wire against your teeth are doing the same thing. Normally the acrylic would extend to the molars, but these are designed so that other items can be added to the inside of your mouth without the retainers interfering. If you are wearing the Herbst appliance, the retainers go in after you install the Herbst. The retainers can be worn alone or in combination with the Herbst and headgear.”

“The top retainer has a tongue crib attached to it. The tongue crib is a totally unnecessary device, but I had it added just for the fun of it. Normally it would be used to stop you from pushing against your front teeth if you had teeth that were protruding, and it will serve the same purpose now, just that it will stop you from pushing against them and moving them when you are playing with the toys in your mouth.”

“You should be able to put in and remove everything by yourself, though installing the Herbst bands on your canines might be easier if you have some help. I’ll give you a couple of tubes of denture adhesive. This is stuff we use in the hospital and is stronger than what is sold in stores. Any questions so far?”

It seemed to me that she had covered everything so far, but I did have one question, so I asked her, “How long will I have thith lithp? Will it go away or ith it a permanent thing?” Without the face-bow between my lips, my pronunciation was much better.

They both grinned at me and HotWheels said, “That will depend on how much you wear the retainers. The more you wear them, the better your speech will become. Don’t worry about the lisp going away. We have other things that we can use to affect your speech. I remembered what you said about wishing that you had something to give you a lisp for when you are recording some of your stories and how you used a whitening tray before. When I asked Sheila about what could be done, she suggested giving you retainers."

Sheila handed me the mirror so that I could take a closer look at my mouth. While I examined what had been put into my mouth without my consent, they took turns explaining how they had come up with the idea to do this to me.

They had gone out for a drink and something to eat on the weekend, and HotWheels had played the latest chapter that I had sent her. As they had listened, a comment had been made about how different it would sound if it had been read with a lisp. They didn’t remember who made the original comment, but Sheila said that a simple retainer would do nicely to create the right amount of lisp. After a bit more conversation, HotWheels had said that she could probably do something about adding the lisp to the recording because she knew who was recording the stories. They had both had a couple of drinks before their food came and were feeling pretty relaxed, and they had begun to talk about other ways to create a lisp.

Sheila had been playing one of the stories over the office speakers at work the next week, and she remembered what they had talked about. The idea of making a retainer for the person reading the story kept coming back every time that she tried to dismiss it, until finally she had called HotWheels and asked what she thought about the idea of making a retainer.

After getting together for a meal after work, and a drink for both of them, they decided to give it a try. When Sheila asked how they were going to get a model of my teeth to make it, HotWheels said that they already had one. They had it at the hospital from when I had visited her orthodontist for her retainer check-up. The idea to make the rest of the appliances had happened as a result of too much to drink and Hotwheels letting slip that I had done some of the things described in the stories. By then, my audio recordings had already started to circulate among the hospital staff and were popular listening material.

Offline Lithpkith

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #55 on: 03. March 2022, 23:35:25 PM »
Gweat thtowy! I’m fully enjoying thith! Thankth fow wwighting!

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #56 on: 15. March 2022, 14:34:00 PM »
Chapter 25

I kept looking at everything that had been placed in my mouth. It all looked so real. And I liked how I looked with everything. When they got to the part about deciding to have more than just a retainer made, I stopped them and said, "Is there a bigger mirror around, I want to have a better look at what you did to me."

Sheila just handed me my crutches and said, "Follow us, we'll show you where to go."

I still had the face-bow in my hand, so I slipped it back into my mouth, locking the clips in place and fastened the strap again. I moved my legs to the edge of the chair, unlocked the knee joints on my legbraces and lowered my feet to the floor, then stood up using the crutches that Sheila handed to me. HotWheels had lent them to me, after telling me that I could borrow them until I decided to get a pair of my own. As I adjusted my balance, I found that the legbraces felt different, that they were supporting more of my weight than I was used to and that my legs were a bit wobbly. I giggled a little as I realized just how much of an effect the whole experience was having on me.

I found that my swing-through gait was slightly different as I relied on the legbraces a little more to support me as I followed Sheila. HotWheels had been here many times before, so she already knew where to go and had crutched off ahead of us and was waiting for us by the sinks. Even though it was an orthodontist's office, it was still in a hospital and had been designed for patients with a variety of levels of mobility. One sink was at wheelchair level, one was at normal counter height, and a third was at the level for someone using crutches so that they wouldn’t have to bend over as far to rinse.

Beside each sink was a container holding single-use toothbrushes in a wide variety of colours. When Sheila saw me looking at them, she said, “Go ahead and brush your teeth. I know that you’re wondering what it is like and just can’t wait to try it.”

I’d done it before while wearing the legbraces, a couple of times while in the wheelchair, which didn’t work very well because I couldn’t get close enough to the sink and the counter was too high. Brushing while wearing crutches was easier, though it required a little accommodation to account for having an altered stance. The easiest way was to use one crutch for balance and lean against the counter with my legs for better stability. The counter in my bathroom came to about halfway between my knees and my thighs while wearing heels.

I positioned myself in front of the sink, rested one crutch against the wall and selected a pale-pink-handled toothbrush. As soon as I began to brush, I knew that I was in trouble. The counter was higher than the one in my bathroom and my upper thighs were resting against it. In order to maintain my balance while brushing, I had to spread my feet a bit to create a tripod stance. Every time that my arm moved to brush my teeth, my hips moved too, and they were pressed against the counter. I tried to ignore the movement of my hips against the counter by concentrating on watching the brush try to navigate around everything in my mouth.

They hadn't said anything to me about removing my face-bow first and it hadn't occurred to me, so by the time that I realized it, my mouth was full of toothpaste. What I was really having trouble getting around were the pistons of the Herbst. No matter what angle I tried, they were in the way. I found that opening my mouth fairly wide and moving my lips off of my teeth was the best way to get at my teeth to brush them. They were both laughing at me as I was attempting to brush my teeth. I knew how funny I looked because I was looking at myself in the mirror.

The more I tried to brush, the harder it became. The problem wasn't trying to get around all the metal in my mouth, it was the height of the counter and the way my hips were pressed against it. It was a good thing that I was wearing the legbraces, because the muscles in my upper thighs had been twitching for quite a while and the legbraces had taken more and more of my weight. I finally had to give up trying to brush my teeth, set the toothbrush on the edge of the sink, and tried to ride out the spasms enveloping my body, which was a problem in itself, because the spasms were part of what was causing my hips to rub against the counter.

I did my best to not show what was going on, but it was evident that I didn't do a good job from the looks on their faces. They just left me there, propped up against the counter, until I was able to regain enough control to push myself away from the counter.

HotWheels waited until I was rinsing the toothpaste from my mouth before she asked, "Do you want your wheelchair or do you think that you can make it back into the treatment room under your own power?" Her timing was perfect, and they laughed as I spat toothpaste all over the sink. I tried to give her a dirty look after I wiped my face, but I couldn't manage it.

I did make it back to the treatment chair, though I had to take my time because of how the legbraces rubbed against my stocking-clad thighs. As I settled myself into the chair, Sheila said, "I think that we've done enough to you for today. We'll save the rest for next time, because I assume there is going to be a next time. Now, if you lay back, I'll show you how to take everything out and clean it."

I just looked at her and tried to say, "Don't you dare. You can tell me what to do to clean everything, but I have other plans for later on." The tongue crib and face-bow got in the way and distorted my speech.

They both laughed, and then Sheila had me hold the mirror while she used one of the picks to point to the various parts in my mouth and explain what had to be done. When she was convinced that I had been paying attention to what she had told me and not just looking at all the metal in my mouth, she said, "We're all done here. There is nothing else on the schedule for today, so why don't we go for coffee. If there is an emergency, my beeper will go off and I'll have to leave, so it'll have to be at one of the places in the hospital."

HotWheels didn't give me a chance to respond, and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. It seemed that we had both agreed to spend some more time at the hospital. She was my ride home unless I wanted to have to deal with trying to arrange alternate transportation. It seemed that my plan to go home and enjoy my new toys had been altered.

Sheila took my crutches, clipped them to the back of my wheelchair and positioned the chair beside me, then lowered the treatment chair to the same height as the wheelchair for me to transfer. HotWheels was already in her chair by the time that I was settled in mine and they were both waiting for me. Sheila guided us through the halls, but not to where I expected.

The place we arrived at looked more like the food court in a mall than a cafeteria in a hospital. It even felt like one, right down to the smells and variety of places to buy food. I saw a Starbucks, a Subway, and several other big-name restaurants. We came out on the second level and most of the places on the level were dine-in, with the places on the main level being walk-up service. To one side was a glass-walled elevator.

I was the first one into the elevator, and as I rolled in, I felt as if everyone was looking at me. I realized that my hands were in front of my face, trying to hide the face-bow protruding from my lips when they both started laughing at me. It was HotWheels that said, “Relax, nobody cares that you are wearing it. This is part of the rehab building. Everything here is designed to get the patients ready to return to life outside the hospital. For some patients, it is to get them used to people seeing them with their injuries. Look around you.”

She was right. Quite a few of the people around me were in wheelchairs or on crutches. Others had visible injuries. Something else that I noticed was that many of the people working in the place had some form of injury.

HotWheels pointed to one of the upstairs restaurants and said, “I spent quite a lot of time there. At first, all I could do was welcome people to the restaurant, but as I got more mobility, I was able to guide them to their table, and eventually learnt how to waitress while using a wheelchair.” She pointed to one of the counters on the main floor. “I worked there for a while as well. Once I was able to stand using the legbraces, I took orders and worked the register.” She pointed to a guy with one arm clearing dishes and wiping down the tables on the main floor. “Sometimes it is just about teaching people how to do things differently than they are used to, other times it is about teaching people how to do things with the tools available to them now,” and she pointed to a young woman with prosthetic arms carrying a tray of food. Both had uniforms on for the restaurants they were working for.

Sheila added, “We also use this area to train our staff and volunteers how to work with patients. Sometimes the hardest thing is to learn when a patient needs to be left on their own to adapt to their injury. Not all injuries are outwardly visible.” She pointed to an older lady wearing wrap-around sunglasses working at a counter. “She lost her sight in an accident. Most people can’t tell that she is blind except that she doesn’t look at what she is doing. She teaches other people with vision difficulties how to adapt.”

I looked around at all the people. Nobody was looking at me. I forced myself to lower my hands. I felt my face warm up as I pushed my wheelchair towards a table sheltered by a plant where I could try and hide. HotWheels let me get settled before she said, “If you want something to drink, you’ll have to get it yourself. We aren’t your servants and there aren't any waiters and waitresses on the main floor. It is strictly self-serve.”

I reached up to remove the strap holding my face-bow, but Hotwheels said, “Leave it in, you need to learn how to talk with it in so that your lisp isn’t so bad, and it will be good for you to experience what it is like having to deal with a speech impediment. I didn’t have the option of just removing whatever was in my mouth after my accident. Besides, it will be a training opportunity for whoever takes your order.”

As much as I wanted to take the face-bow out, I had to agree with her. It was a good opportunity to get some experience that I could use in one of my stories, and it would be in an environment that I hoped I could feel safe in. I left the strap attached to my face-bow and rolled towards my first encounter with a stranger while learning how to talk and make myself understood with my new toys.

Offline Lithpkith

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #57 on: 15. March 2022, 18:14:36 PM »
Thweet! Thank you fow continuing with thith thtowy. I’m looking fowawd to the netht chaptew!

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #58 on: 30. April 2022, 21:15:53 PM »
I haven't forgotten about this story. It's just taken me a while to finish the next chapter. I needed to give myself a break from this one and get a few other stories out of my head.

Enjoy reading this chapter. Comments are always welcome and encouraged, even if it is just to say that you read it.

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Reading a story
« Reply #59 on: 30. April 2022, 21:16:44 PM »
Chapter 26

As I rolled between the tables, I kept looking around because I felt people looking at me, yet every time that I turned to face where I felt the stares coming from, no one was looking in my direction. I saw plenty of patients, most of them busy talking with family and friends, and some medical staff, judging by their outfits. That didn't change the feeling of being stared at. When I angled my chair so that I could see HotWheels and Sheila, they were both watching me and trying not to laugh too much.

I was feeling a bit hungry and I saw a place that offered teriyaki beef noodle soup, so I rolled over to the counter and tried to order a combo-meal. The girl at the counter was very patient with me as I attempted to get my tongue around the impediments in my mouth, and finally handed me a piece of paper and a pen so that I could write it down. What really stung was that she had retainer wires running over both jaws and I could see the colour of the acrylic on her upper palate as she did her best to take my order. I got a closer look at both retainers when she came round the counter and set the tray on my lap.

She managed to maintain her composure when I said, "Shank you," before I turned to navigate my way back to the table. On the way back, I passed the young woman with the prosthetic arms. She stepped aside and gave me a nice smile while she waited for me to pass. I tried to maintain eye contact with her, but failed when I felt her looking at my face-bow. Her uniform had short sleeves and the skin-coloured material of her prosthetics was on display. I heard a faint whir as the fingers on one hand flexed. She wasn’t trying to hide them.

When I got back to the table, they both had food in front of them. There was no way that they could have made it to one of the main-floor restaurants while I was facing away from them. After I transferred my tray to the table, HotWheels slid a small plexiglass sign in front of me and turned it so that I could read it. I had been so focused on looking at everyone around me that I had failed to notice it. The sign explained that food could be ordered using a cell phone app, and that it could be delivered to the table.

HotWheels took a little pity on me and said, “It’s been so much fun watching how you’ve been reacting to the face-bow. It will be much easier if you remove it and the retainers before trying to eat that. Always remove the retainers when you eat, they could bend out of shape if you try to chew with them in your mouth. The face-bow is a much heavier wire and you can wear it if you want, though it can be challenging. I found that out when I had to wear one after my accident.”

After taking a look around, I tried to unhook the strap attached to my face-bow as discreetly as possible, then folded it neatly and laid it on the table. There was no way to discreetly remove my face-bow. If anyone other than HotWheels and Sheila had been watching, they would have seen me stick my fingers into my mouth and press on the release clips before pulling it from my mouth. Of course, that exposed the Herbst and the retainer wires. Removing the retainers proved to be a problem. Sheila had explained how to take them out and put them in, but I hadn't actually done it yet. I had difficulty getting my fingers in position around the Herbst so that the retainers would come loose. It involved opening my mouth wide enough to get the pistons away from the retainer wires before I could get enough leverage to pop them loose.

Neither of them offered any advice on how to remove them, and it wasn't until I was done and they were laying on a napkin that Sheila pulled a couple of plastic cases from her bag. Having the cases wasn't much better because it was still obvious that I had retainers, but at least they weren't visible anymore.

They had waited to start eating until I was done removing my orthodontic devices and didn't begin until I took my first bite of soup. I found out right away that soup with noodles was going to be a problem. The first spoonful went between my lips fine, then bumped against one of the Herbst pistons. Fortunately it was mostly noodles and beef and very little liquid. I managed to keep most of it in my mouth by hastily closing my lips. Sheila handed me a napkin, which she had ready.

I was more careful with the second spoonful, managing to get it in between the pistons of the Herbst without splashing the liquid on my chin. The problem was that the noodles were wide and they were wrapping around the pistons. The more that I ate, the more the noodles wrapped around the pistons. I tried to slip my tongue between my teeth, but I could only reach a small portion of the pistons and the noodles tended to slide closer to the ends. Some broke off and I was able to chew them.

Eventually I had to accept that there was no alternative but to stick my finger into my mouth and dislodge the noodles. It wasn't very dignified, but it got the job done. By the time I was finished eating, I had done it several times. Even after I had used my drink to try to get the last of the small bits of food off of my teeth, I could tell that my mouth needed to be brushed.

Sheila was way ahead of me. She pulled several toothbrushes from her bag and offered them to me, telling me to choose a colour. Any colour would have been fine, but I chose pink. Having brushed once in the office, I realized it would be easier to do it standing up, so I rolled back from the table and moved my feet to the floor, then grasped the edge of the table and used it to pull myself upright. When the knee locks clicked into place, I shuffled around until I could roll the chair underneath the table and take the crutches.

I was ready to crutch to the bathroom when Sheila said, "Take your retainers with you and brush them as well. Never leave them in the cases if they haven't been cleaned properly, and rinse out the cases as well if the retainers have been in them before being cleaned. All the face-bow needs is a quick rinse, though brushing the clips on the ends won't hurt."

The cases went into my purse, which I removed from my backpack, and I crutched my way to the bathroom. Without the face-bow protruding from between my lips, the feeling of being watched pretty much disappeared and I enjoyed the feeling of my legs swinging between my crutches.

The door to the bathroom swung open at the press of a button. To one side of the room were stalls, with all the doors open, and the sinks were opposite them, in counters at levels convenient for patients with varying degrees of mobility. I chose a counter I could prop myself against, set my purse on it and lay my retainer cases beside it, then rested my crutches against the counter. Then I started to brush my teeth.

The height of the counter was slightly different than the one in the orthodontist's office and I found that the rocking motion of my hips against the counter was having a much more pleasurable effect on me. I changed the speed that I was brushing my teeth, trying to find just the right rhythm. As I finally found it, the door opened and HotWheels rolled through it, interrupting the very pleasant act of brushing my teeth.

I groaned in frustration and considered using one of the stalls to find some relief, but decided against it. It wouldn't help reduce the level of excitement I was feeling, and I wanted to be able to take my time and enjoy exploring all my new toys at the same time as I released my pent-up desires. Maybe a better way of describing it would be to say that I needed to get laid, and soon.

I had to smile at the thought of what a night with Chuckee would be like as we explored my toys together. HotWheels gave me a puzzled look as I rinsed the toothpaste from my mouth, reinstalled the retainers and clipped the face-bow into the tubes on my molar bands, then crutched out of the washroom, all with a big smile on my face. This time, as I crutched between the tables, I was looking to see who was watching me and smiled at them, putting all my new toys on display. Once again, I was glad that I had the legbraces to support me because my legs were still wobbly at the thought of the surprise that Chuckee would be getting when he arrived at my place. All I would have to do is ask my boyfriend if Chuckee had any plans for later.

I took the long way back to our table, still feeling as if everyone was looking at me, and still self-conscious about the attention I felt I was drawing, but enjoying the experience all the same. HotWheels was already back at the table and both of them were laughing at me as I pulled out my chair and lowered myself into it, before storing the crutches behind the seat and rolling up to the table again.

I just grinned at them and said, “What? I’m not supposed to enjoy my toys? The two of you are the people who gave them to me, besides, my legs are so shaky that the legbraces are the only thing keeping me on my feet right now.” I didn’t realize it, but my lisp almost went away when I wasn’t concentrating on talking.

That just made them both laugh even harder. When they calmed down enough to talk again, HotWheels said, “I told her what I caught you doing in the bathroom. If I had waited a few minutes more, I probably would have caught you with your hand between your legs. I can’t wait to read the chapter where you describe what you did today. It will probably be even better when I hear it with the lisp as you read it.”

Sheila said, "When you give me a name in the story, can I be DocSilver? You give everybody in your stories such cool pseudonyms."

I smiled at the name and agreed. Just then, her phone beeped with a text message and she excused herself to attend to a non-emergency matter. I had already spent more time at the hospital than I had expected too and wanted to get home so that I could get ready for my evening with Chuckee.

As we rolled towards the glass elevator, HotWheels stopped to talk to the woman with the prosthetic arms and introduced me to her, then explained that she was one of the physical therapists working at the hospital. The one-armed guy wiping tables wandered over and said ‘Hi’ to us as well, and I found out that they worked at the food court so that they could keep an eye on the patients that they were teaching how to adapt to their changed bodies. It turned out that the patients responded much better to the therapy when they saw that the people who were treating them were willing to act on what they were telling the patients to do.

HotWheels didn’t tell them who I was other than a friend of hers, though she did mention that there would probably be some new additions to the audio stories soon. They both said how much they were enjoying listening to them and thanked HotWheels for finding the audio copies. It seemed that I was developing a bit of a fanbase outside of the chatroom.

After loading our chairs into the van, I made sure that Chuckee was available for the evening. I was already deep into planning what I was going to do by the time she dropped me off.