Filling The Void

I looked at my hands and wondered what life would have been like with those extra fingers that they removed at birth. Would I have been better at piano? Would I have been able to mark a footy better? Or maybe they would’ve gotten in the way.

I kept my eyes on my hands as I lay on the hospital bed, waiting for the surgery to start. My extra digits were removed when I was about two years old so I don’t remember that surgery, but I was back in the hospital for a follow-up operation to make my hands stronger. My mum told me it was important.

The doctors in their blue facial masks entered the surgery room. I saw glimpses of them moving around and heard them preparing instruments and other things. They told me the surgery shouldn’t take long and I’d be able to get back to…