PEYDRAN

  “We can do our first session with your arm covered, if you prefer,” said Jeanin, my physical therapist.

  “No, I’m going to look at it,” I told her with false confidence.

  The thought made me want to violently puke smoothie all over the place, but I had a reason. I would not back down.

  And there it was. No hand, no forearm. My elbow was half human and half machine. Oh sands, oh sands.

  I swallowed everything back down. I breathed. I was the breath. The breath moved me. I felt my breath.

  "I will be back in the dojo,” I thought. "If I just get through this, I will train again. I have a reason."

  “See if you can raise your left pinky. You can practice with your right pinky first to remind your brain of the sensation of lifting,” the therapist continued.

  I looked at the finger. It wasn’t a finger. I couldn’t tell it was there. How could I move something I couldn’t feel?

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  I had a reason. I had a reason to move that metal finger. Focus. I could do it. It was basically a computer, right? My brain would tell the computer to move.

  Focus. It moved! Sands, yes! I did it. I had a reason. I would do everything Jeanin told me.

  Peydran: Requisition for an animation.

  Alen: Peydran! We are sooooo sorry about your surgery. How are you?

  Peydran: Better than everyone expected.

  Alen: Are you seriously working?

  Peydran: Trust me, working is good.

  Alen: Yeah, can’t argue with that. Who’s the client?

  Peydran: Me.

  Alen: Gonna dress up in a sexy nurse outfit and hit on strangers in the hospital?

  Peydran: Hysterical. You can do that one too just for the giggles.

  Alen: Ha. What do you need?

  Peydran: For purely entertainment purposes only: me waking up armless, augmented, and needing a reason to do physical therapy. To get back to the dojo. To work myself into a blade. So I can murder someone. I’m having murderous fantasies so I can get out of the hospital. Don’t tell Ryst. It’s a surprise.

  Alen: Criminy! That’s bizarrely funny, and concerning. Good drugs, eh?

  Peydran: The best. Keep me laughing.

  Alen: Always. Miss you and give Ryst a kiss from her favorite animator.

  Peydran: Yeah, I’ll tell her it’s from Jasen.

  Alen: Ass.

  Play “The Avenging Augment” by Jasen and Alen