Flash Fiction Friday – The New Body

Tonight’s flash fiction piece is vaguely inspired by a dream I had the other day, though the tone in this is quite different from the dream:

She sat in front of the tank for several hours the day before. The body was awe-inspiring, tall and powerful, silicone skin flawless. The red lips were parted slightly, showing a row of brilliant white teeth, and the eyelids were closed. She wondered what color the irises were. She hadn’t asked during orientation. It had seemed such a trivial thing then, not worth the guide’s time, but now it seemed important. Her current eyes were hazel, with specks of green. It was strange to think of having another color. It was strange, too, to think of not having any hair. They had all been offered wigs, and she still hadn’t decided if she would take one. It seemed contradictory; get a body perfectly suited for its task, then put an entirely cosmetic wig on it. Not that the bodies weren’t beautiful, she found them breathtaking, but their beauty was incidental, a side-effect of their power and potential.

When she heard the guard coming down the corridor, she stood up. It was closing-time. She put a hand on the glass of the tank for a moment as the steps echoes closer and closer. “Soon,” she said, though she knew it couldn’t hear her, that it was still a blank slate. “We will do great things together. 55 Cancri c won’t know what hit it.” Before the guard arrived, she had taken her hand off of the glass and begun making her way towards the exit.

“Good night, ma’am,” the guard said.

“Good night,” she replied.

She took a detour on the way home, walking through the park and then down along the seashore and finally across the nature reserve. She walked until it was very dark and her body ached, her feet and hips and lower back all hurting together. Once home, she poured a glass of wine and ran a bath. As the tub filled, she wondered if wine would taste the same on her new tongue. Slipping into the hot water, she felt her tired limbs relax little by little. She wiggled her toes under the water. She liked her body. It was a good body. It just couldn’t go with her where she was going.

This came out a lot more interesting than I expected. I am a little tempted to make this a longer piece somehow, but we’ll see what happens.

Good night, lovelies!