The Florian Life

Fantasy Lover Short Story

By: Suzanne Somers

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Story Summery, The first sound I heard this morning was a little girl letting loose a strained and agonizing cry on the bed across from me. It was the same, unmistakable sound that I’d heard for the last two months and served as my unofficial alarm clock. The noise jerked me from my slumber and I sprung up out of my bed, crossing the larger bedroom of the two-bedroom apartment where my younger sister shrieked beneath her sheets. Holding her in my arms I tried to comfort her. “It’s okay, just breathe and try to get through it.” Weeping, she thrust her head into my chest and mewled “It hurts!” over and over. I just held her tighter as my eyes fell onto the source of her pain: Her right arm and left leg. There was an accident only two years ago, it cost my father his life and my sister two of her limbs. The artificial limbs, which were the cheapest available, cost more than my mother made in a year with two jobs, the loss of the income from my father’s work placing us firmly into the ‘poor’ territory. The material that made the arm and leg up was lightweight and suitable of her age, but the durability wasn’t as good as some of the more recent materials for prosthetic limbs on the market and they didn’t have the features that let it change to a perfect replica of the opposite limbs, leaving her state obvious to anyone who looked. It made her school life difficult, what with teasing and her growing concern for her looks as puberty approached. Worst of all, every morning at five the limbs would wirelessly uplink to a remote server that would have it carry out a calibration, ensuring that the connection between flesh and nerves allowed for precise motor control. However, due to the limbs needing to be replaced because of her growing body, the calibrations now caused immense pain for her since the electrical signal conductors now mingled with the pain receptors as they functioned, causing a phantom pain that she could do nothing about but bear with it until the calibrations ceased. There was no manual way to cut the connection, meaning there was nothing we could do to stop it either. “It’ll only hurt for a little while more…” I lied softly. Only the first sixty seconds of the calibrations had passed. There was seven-hundred and twenty total. All I could do was hold onto her as she screamed and writhed from the pain the entire time, until it finally ended and she fell asleep shortly after the signals stopped coming. Read More - Download This eBook