Finn shut himself in his small house since the surgery and would only emerge if he needed to or desperately missed human contact like today. But he always regretted his decision with the first person that stared at his arm with fear and disgust. It had been several months since the accident and the surgery, but it felt like years. In a nasty car accident, he had lost his right arm, went unconscious, and woke up a few days later in a strange government hospital with his wife hovering over his right arm. As he opened his eyes, she smiled at him as though she succeeded at a goal.
When Finn discovered they had placed a cyber arm on him, he agonized over it. His wife worked in a government job where she created cyber body parts and apparently, Finn’s accident was perfect timing to try out their newest model. He argued with his wife over it, but the operation to remove the arm was potentially fatal. In her explanation she used a lot of words and technical jargon he could not understand so in the end, he just shrugged and held a bitter resentment for his wife’s actions. She seemed not to notice for a while, doting over his arm and teaching him how to use it efficiently. She would always say, “You are now a big part of the future. Isn’t that exciting?” and other encouraging words.
Finn thought the idea of cyber body parts was great, but what his wife failed to notice is how the rest of the world saw it. There were the religious bunch who claimed cyber parts were not a part of God’s plan, the techno-fear people who believed that technology was evil and would one day turn against humans, and the rest of the world who did not trust any cyber body part or the person who had a cyber body part. Maybe in fifty to one hundred years it would be accepted, but not now. People just finally accepted cyber-pets even though they were created nearly sixty years ago.
A few weeks out of rehab and back at work for the J&J Co. where he was expecting a promotion to regional manager, he was soon let go due to “decrease of funds.” Finn might’ve believed that if he weren’t the only person to be let go and if he weren’t rejected for several jobs with generic excuses. It became clear that everyone was uncomfortable with his arm. His wife, trying to make Finn feel better and maybe even forgive her for her decision, suggested that he simply stay at home instead of go to work since her job paid really well. At first, it sounded great, but Finn became lazy without a goal to work towards. And he became incredibly bored simply sitting around at home, not wanting to go out due to the reaction of the public at his arm.
As Finn continued to walk he tried his hardest to ignore the people staring at his arm, but every once in a while he’d hear a gasp or someone mutter under their breath about it. He would try to hide it by wearing a coat or jacket, but his cyber arm continued to rip through his clothes, so he would just wear short sleeved shirts and deal with the discrimination.
He walked into the pub that he often used to visit after work at the J&J Co. Since it was early evening there were very few people there and the music was always loud enough so that he could only hear someone who was in close proximity to him. This made it easier to ignore reactions as he walked to the bar and sat down on a stool several seats away from another gentleman. Finn discreetly glanced at him to see that the man had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep and his clothes were fairly ragged. The man lifted his glass to his lips and Finn saw that the man had a cyber hand. Of course, he couldn’t find a job either. It made sense as to why he was so bedraggled.
The man noticed Finn staring and glared towards him. Finn held up his right hand and waved it as he smiled. The man’s eyes softened and he lifted his left hand and waved back, smiling too. The bartender approached Finn and handed him a beer.
“Hey, Finn,” he said. “I haven’t seen you in quite a while. I got you the usual.”
“Thanks.” Finn took the glass with his right hand and took a swig when the bartender said in a judgmental tone, “Wow. You actually got yourself one of those things? It must be awful.”
Finn looked at the man with the cyber hand and the man looked back and smiled again. Finn grinned like a little kid, looked at his cyber arm and said, “Oh, it’s not so bad.”