"- and that is why the Athens Medical Institute has invited you all here today," droned the speaker. Balding. Slightly overweight. Genial. Name, Dr. Bosse. The young man sitting stiffly in his dry-cleaned suit on the right half of the stage registered this even as he endured the slightly-too-loud microphone acoustics. He shifted slightly in his plastic chair, which had been decked out to look like a wheelchair like its brethren alongside it.
"Once again, thank you for attending Amy's forty-second birthday," Dr. Bosse said, referring to the nickname the hospital's acronym, AMI, had earned its disability awareness dinner, 'Amida.' "And without further ado, I present to you these stunning examples of human courage, perseverance and fortitude in a world that does not yet accept them."
The audience, fresh from a some-expenses-have-indeed-been-spared-but-you're-not-supposed-to-know chicken dinner, seated in their red ballroom chairs, reclined back to absorb the speeches. The first speaker, seated in a wheelchair on the young man's left, rolled smoothly forward, plucking the mic from the good doctor's pudgy hand.
"Hey, folks," the middle-aged man said in a chipper voice. The young man seated stiffly on the right-hand side of the stage narrowed his eyes slightly. He's faking enthusiasm. I can't stand it when they do that.
The audience laughed at some joke the speaker had made while the young man was deep in thought. The wheelchair man went on to describe the great difficulties he'd been faced with, but, hey, he pulled through so all of you out there in the audience certainly could, huh?
A bit of light glinted off a few lumps of dull metal on the young man's face. He saw his parents out there, grinning oh-so-proudly at him. And knew they wouldn't stop it until he walked off the stage. Walked off, he thought savagely, shifting his seat in the non-wheelchair. And with this damned chair as well. He waited his turn in silence, knowing those blasted organizers had saved him for last. Well, he had a speech to give, and he'd give it, by God.