Month: July 2018

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…

I was standing at the side of the court watching, as best I could, my brother and two of my cousins play basketball. It was easier to keep track of the game by listening to their talk.

‘Na man, that was travel!’ one of them shouted.

‘Two points! Yeah, suck it!’ another exclaimed.

Three of them played with the ball while I stood at the side of the court and played with my fingers. I enjoyed listening to them play, hearing their excitement when they got a swish and listening to their banter on the court. But my smile slowly disappeared when I heard a voice that I didn’t recognise.

‘How about you three versus us two?’ the voice said. It was a guy. His voice was deep and confident and he had a wog accent, but I could tell he wasn’t an adult.

I could see that the two…