bag and set it on the counter.
Next to the thumbs. The box
was out of the line of sight of the
wall unit, but she still pushed
it farther back so her parents
couldn’t see it.
“Sweetheart, you know that
isn’t the problem.”
Inez shook her head and opened
the cabinet to put away the small
jar of peanut butter she’d found
at the health food store. No one
in this country willingly ate the
stuff and it was outrageously
expensive, but it reminded her
of home. “How different is this,
really, from wearing glasses?”
Not that she’d put the thumbs
on yet. She’d had them for two
days and they just hung out on
her counter.
“It’s not the same at all.”
Her mother leaned forward.
“Augments rewrite your brain.”
“Really?” She paused with a box
of pasta in one hand and stared
at the camera. “Now you’re using
science to make your arguments.”
Her father was an engineer so
that wasn’t entirely fair and his
sigh said as much. “Everything
rewrites the brain. That plasticity
is what makes it good at learning.
You’ve spent your entire life
learning to play the piano and
neither your mother nor I could
do more than Chopsticks. And
that’s because your brain has been
rewired to pla–” His image froze
with his mouth half open as the
internet blipped. “ –can’t play
without them.”
“You froze for a moment.”
He grimaced. “Sorry. We’ve
been having brownouts all day.”
“It’s the electric cars.” Her
mother shook her head. “They
keep promising to upgrade
the infrastructure in our
neighborhood, but...”
“But everyone gets home
from work and they all plug their
cars in at the same time.” Her dad
shrugged. “Progress.”
“I get it. But I’ve also read that
your brain flips back to normal
after about two weeks of not using
an augment.”
“Really.” Her mother looked
dubious. “That’s not what I’ve seen.”For now, that would do.
Inez tugged her woolen socks
down and grabbed the left ankle
sensor. She placed the flat sensor
on the inside of her ankle, over the
bone, where it would get signals
sent to her big toe. The geckoskin
adjusted and hugged against
her ankle like the second skin
it was designed to be. The other
sensor went to the matching spot
on her right ankle. Both felt like
manacles and she had to resist
the urge to kick them off. She’d
get used to the sensation.
The thumbs went on with a
similar patch, but also included a
structural band that went around
her wrist as a safety. The deep
blue was a shocking contrast to
her hand. Would it be better if it
matched her skin tone?
Did the obvious artifice make
it more offensive or less.
She wasn’t sure and she wasn’t
sure that it actually mattered.
She had to learn to use them,
regardless of how she felt. She“I wasn’t aware of your vast
experience with augmented
people.”
“When people join the church,
they stop using augments. So
yes, I do have experience with
augmented people and their
transition back to their natural
gifts.” Her voice had gone icy,
which meant that they were one
sentence away from “don’t get
snippy with me, young lady.”
“There is nothing that–”
She froze mid-sentence, mouth
twisted to the side and one eye half
closed. Inez kept putting groceries
away, waiting for her parents to
start moving again.
The brownouts reminded her
that this fellowship wasn’t just
about the music. Iceland, with
its geothermal power, never had
brownouts. It had beautiful clean
air and a universal living wage
and socialized medicine and all
the things that her home might
have had but chose not to. Well,
maybe not the geothermal.
But windfarms could have
been a thing. This wasn’t just
about her career. If she could
get citizenship in Iceland then
she could serve as an anchor
to bring her parents over.
The screen went dark. Call lost.
She sighed and tucked the
shopping bag back into its elastic
pocket to make a tidy ball for the
next shopping trip. Sighing again,
she grabbed the box from the
counter and went into her living
room where the piano was. Twopages of Einhverfjöll were sitting
on the piano. Ragnhildur was still
writing the rest, but Sóldís had
slipped her these two pages as
a sort of temptation or promise.
Even on the page, even as a
sketch, it was already beautiful.
It should be something that
filled her with delight, but she
felt trapped into playing it. Theyshould have asked her. Biting her
lower lip, Inez pushed the piano
bench back with her foot and sat
down. The first notes dropped
down like scattered rain on stone,
clear and beautiful and not quite
random. Then from the left hand
a gust of wind pushed up into–
She didn’t have enough fingers.
The missing notes left aching
holes in the music. Fine. Fine. She
grabbed the box and broke the seal
on the edges. Inside, in beautiful
pristine white board, lay two
robotic thumbs chased in silver
and deep blue-green like the sun
glinting on the Atlantic. A pair
of transmitters lay next to them
in a flat, discreet black with a
geckoskin adhesive on the surface.
Those would go on her ankles.
She knew that much from
having seen colleagues use them
in college to extend their reach.
Wetting her lips, she pulled out the
instruction manual and started
skimming it. There were details
and there was the quick start.“ Inside lay two robotic
thumbs chased in silver
and deep blue-green
like the sun glinting
on the Atlantic”Views A sci-fi short story
40 | New Scientist | 18/25 December 2021
JOONHO^ BRIAN^ KO