Date:
28.03.2024 16:08
A contribution by
pulpliterature.com
The Slade Transmutation
by Richard J O’Brien
One winter morning I woke up with a titanium alloy toe. It was still dark when my alarm clock went off. When it came to moving around in the dark, I was the worst. I could not get from my bed to the bathroom without stubbing a toe on something—the bed frame, the dresser, the nightstand, it didn’t matter. If it was in the room and a solid object, chances were I came into contact with it in a hard way.
My wife Katie was still asleep. When the alarm clock sounded I shut it off quickly and got out of bed. Katie stirred as I made my way toward the bathroom. My left foot connected with the chair in front of Katie’s make-up table. A clanking noise sounded but I felt no pain. The chair tipped over and fell on its side.
“What are you doing?” Katie asked.
She turned on the lamp on her nightstand.
The chair leg that I had kicked was splintered at the bottom, as if someone had taken an axe to it. I stood the chair upright and let it go. The chair toppled over again.
“I broke it,” I said.
“Jack, you didn’t,” said Katie.
The chair leg I had kicked was a full inch shorter than the other three now. That was the first time I noticed the little toe on my left foot that shone in the pale light against the blue carpet. I flicked the little toe with my finger. It rang like a small bell.
“What was that?” Katie asked.
“My little toe,” I told her.
“Are you kidding me?”
“See for yourself.”
Find out what happens next in Issue 19, Summer 2018, ON SALE now!
Richard J O’Brien lives in New Jersey where he teaches writing and literature at Rowan College at Gloucester County and Stockton University. His novels include The Garden of Fragile Things, Infestation, and Under the Bronze Moon.
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