Ficlets

Call It A Keepsake

“My ex-wife gave me this arm.”

“And you still want to keep it?” Kendal’s got him by the wrist joint, one foot on his thigh, and she’s pulling.

“That’s not,” his voice breaks into a shriek as his elbow port disconnects, “funny!” He’s panting. Something drips out of the joint. A bit of conductor fluid, a dab of blood.

“The worm’s in your wrist now, for sure. You’re about ten seconds from losing your shoulder. You want I should wait?”

“No,” he says. “Yes. Wait.” He looks at the ceiling. Yellow tiles, used to be white. He swore he’d never let her do this again. He smells the electric burn of his elbow grinding itself, out of place. If the virus gets into his myokinetic interface, into the flat ribbons under his shoulder muscles, leading to his spine, it could mess with the signals that run from brain to arm in a game of bioelectric telephone. Permanent damage.

And yet.

“Don’t do it,” he says. Almost crying.

“Screw that,” Kendal says, leaning back into it, pushing off thigh until his arm’s off its threads.

Comments

Average Reader Rating:

Call It A Keepsake
White Hat
Posted 5 months ago

Woah.
Call It A Keepsake
THX 0477
Posted 5 months ago

Great little moment in time, urgency, doubt, suspense, danger, bad memories…all wrapped around just enough sci-fi lingo to let us know what the situation is all about in this reality.
LoA

and yeah, whoa.
Call It A Keepsake
Nouvelle Bardot
Posted 5 months ago

whoa…that was really good.
Call It A Keepsake
Wil Wheaton
Posted 4 months ago

I love this, Will. I think this is the first ficlet that’s inspired me to write a *quel.
Call It A Keepsake
YodaOnCrack
Posted 3 months ago

There are some fascinating descriptions here. “10 seconds from losing your shoulder…” Ha.
Call It A Keepsake
Seth Miller
Posted 3 months ago

I could learn much here. The immediacy. The moment.

Great job. I might just have to muck it up with a continuation.