And Many More

I unwrapped the mummy hand.  Holly looked at it carefully.  I had had it with these stupid doctors and was ready to use my hand again.  We pulled the wires out.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  My finger looked a bit weird and swollen and crooked, but it was okay.

I drove to the west side of Atlanta, way out by the Holmes MARTA station.  Anything with 'Holmes' in the title tends to be a bit sketchy.  I spotted the Department of Labor in the run-down parking lot and pulled in.  I felt sheepish. 
"Hey!" a brisk walking man called.
"You unemployed too?!"
It oddly put me at ease.
"Well, underemployed and THAT is NOT enough!" I called back.
"I'm telling you!" he agreed.
"But we are going to be alright.  The jobs will come back and we will be fine".
"Thank you for saying so".
"It's Jehovah's word" he answered, still smiling and walking briskly. 

The doctor unwrapped the mummy hand.  Thick hunks of skin were peeling off of the splinted fingers.  Flaky orange skin covered the rest of my hand.  It was disgusting.  After my X-ray, the nurse guided me into a suspicious looking room and laid out some gloves and iodine.  The doctor walked in, carrying a pair of pliers. 
"Um, looks like the wires are coming out?"  I asked Spider Pig. 
"Yup they are," he answered, "one, two, three".
I could hear and feel the wire scraping against the bone.  I didn't realize it was imbedded inside, I thought it was just like, well, a guide.  It hurt as it exited.  The wire was about two inches long. 
"One, two, three" he continued.  I didn't say anything. 
The second wire was like getting your second ear pierced.  You're scared now and you know it's going to hurt.  The hand really did look just like in my dream, weird and swollen and crooked.  The wires hurt more in reality than when Holly pulled them out.  And, my finger was about as thick as my big toe and would not move an inch.  Actually, not even a quarter of an inch.  It is a claw.  A toe shaped claw.  

"Don't worry, Ms. Wagner, I got you," a big, silly student boy professed as I walked in the classroom.  He was standing by the door.  The bell rang. 
"Happy birthday to you!!!"  the kids shrieked.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU !!!!"
My big silly boy student blinked the lights on and off, in lieu of a light show.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MS. WAGNER, happy birthday to you.....".