Paige's+Group

 Thumb Less

By: Ryan Weaver, Paige Hartsoe, Kelsey Foster & Farrah Rogers “Freak!” That’s what they yelled at him as he sulked through the halls. Thumbs, this strange young man had something nobody else had, and that was a fifth finger. Most of them wondered, “Where can he be from, this boy can not be a human, for humans do not have ten fingers, we only have eight.” Others just did not notice it, or they did not want to know. Back in the day texting became extremely popular, and necessary for teenagers. Any person between the ages of twelve and twenty three would be seen constantly pressing away at buttons. If you didn’t have a phone to text on you were socially distressed. People would not want to be seen talking to you or even near you. Verbally speaking became something that rarely occurred, the conversations that took place between one another, no matter how close you were, were done through text messaging. English as we knew it was changed. Words had become only a few measly letters, silly smiley faces made of symbols and letters replaced any true emotion left in this world. The consequences were inevitable. Texting has taken away our very important fifth finger, what we used to call our thumb. Years ago in 2087 thumbs got weaker and weaker, and eventually they began to fall off. Humans were evolving into thumb less humans, just as some think we evolved from the ape. Babies were born with eight fingers and ten toes. This was occurring so quickly that seeing a boy or girl with ten fingers was simply strange. It became harder to write in school along with typing on computers and many other things. There were special television programs on to help people learn to function much quicker, yet some things were still never the same. The sport of thumb wrestling ceases to exist, tossing a football is pretty hard with out the thumb. Sign language had to be re-invented, and so much for a thumbs up. Just so many simple tasks had to be reevaluated and re taught. January 25, 2747 Tom Johnson was born, and to the doctors’ surprise he had ten fingers and ten toes. He grew up alone with his father, Ralph Johnson, in a small town in West Virginia. He never even met his mother, her name was never mentioned because it was such a touchy subject. When Tom was born, his mother abandoned him and her husband because she was horrified that her son had additional fingers. She worked at the local news station as the weather woman and said she couldn't stand the news getting out, especially with her being so popular. Rumor has it that she headed out to New Mexico and now has a new husband and thumb less child. Tom was quite the peculiar kid growing up, and along with the fact that he had thumbs he also had red hair, freckles, glasses, and braces since he was 10, which people stereotype as a nerd. The poor boy has been made fun of ever since fifth grade. The kids were all frightened by the "Weirdo with extra fingers”. Tom suffered through sideways glances, pointing fingers and laughing faces. You can only imagine how awful that must be for a young boy who just wants acceptance. After all of the years of taunting; the anger, frustration and depression built up inside of Tom. It was just a matter of time before something had to happen. Tom thought that maybe things would get better once he got into high school, but boy was he wrong. He was constantly mocked for having two extra fingers, called a cheater and simply just beat up. The kids would constantly say “Look at ten fingered Tom!” He held in all of his anger and sadness until eventually it got to the point where he would completely exclude everyone in his life. The only people he would even talk to was his father and occasionally a teacher when he had a serious question. When Tom was upset, his father would tell him “It’s ok. Think about how much easier you can do things thanks to that thumb. Is anyone on the planet able to catch something better than you? You have a gift and don’t let anyone convince you to think otherwise.” These talks with his father were the only things that kept him sane and from doing anything drastic, that is until Tom was pushed over the edge. At school one day the most popular kid at the school, Jimmy Stevens, was making fun of Tom for a half an hour straight about his thumbs. Tom was incredibly upset by this and went home so angry he started punching holes in his walls. His dad could not think of anything to say to his aching sad son except, “Son, I know it’s hard to deal with, but karma will come to give that boy Jimmy what he deserved. You’ll be so much more successful when you grow up, please don’t do anything you’ll regret.” The next day, Jimmy began to pester Tom again and as soon as he started up, Tom leaped out of his seat and socked Jimmy straight in the nose. Jimmy passed out. Tom became terrified and didn’t know what to do, so he sprinted through the hallway, stumbled down the stairwell and left the school. He ran with his heart racing and head pounding. Tom felt nauseous. Tom's father was at work but when he arrived home Tom was told that he received a call from the school at work. Tom's punch cost him twenty days suspension. His father was very disappointed in him and could barely look him in the eyes for fighting, especially over something so stupid. Tom was upset with himself for getting suspended, but even more upset about letting his dad, the only person in the world he looked up to, down. That Saturday, Tom was walking by Jimmy’s house, and out came five boys including Jimmy. Jimmy strolled over towards Tom with a smug grin on his face. As soon as he was a few feet away he popped Tom hard on the jaw. The other boys joined in and kicked the scared boy until they got bored with him. Tom was found unconscious on the sidewalk by Sheila, who just happened to be Jimmy’s girlfriend. Tom, not knowing what had happened, or where he was, opened his eyes wearily when Sheila began yelling and shaking him frantically. Tom wearily wandered home. Luckily his father wasn’t home yet so he went into his room to see how much damage had been done. Tom looked at the cuts and bruises all over his body and began to try and clean himself up. When his father got home, he complained about how cold it was and Tom offered to go get some firewood. Out by the shed, laid an old rusty hand saw. Tom jogged back into the woods and began the amputation of his own thumbs. His pain was somewhat numbed due to the disappointment in himself and the chill in the air, but without even realizing it, he was screaming at the top of his lungs. The amateur surgery he was performing on himself could be heard for miles around. Tom's father heard the screaming and instantly knew what his son was doing. He automatically ran back into the woods towards the screaming of his son. When he arrived, Tom had just finished cutting off his second thumb and was throwing up due to the blood loss and the sight of all the blood on the ground. Between ragged breaths his father screamed “What have you done to yourself! What have you done!” He ripped off a piece of his shirt and used it to bandage the stubs where Tom's thumbs used to be. He hoisted his shrieking son over his shoulder and carried him to their house, where they scrambled into their Dodge pick-up truck and sped away to the hospital. “What were you thinking?!” Tom’s father screamed at him. Unfortunately, Tom couldn’t hear anything other than his own racket. As they sped down the road, weaving in and out of traffic Tom’s father kept screaming why and Tom just kept yelping in pain. He could hear the frustration in his father’s voice but couldn’t bring himself to answer. The last thing Tom wanted to do was disappoint his father again, but as he began telling him what had happened at Jimmy’s that day, they heard the sirens. As the police officer walked up to the left side of the car Tom’s father jumped out and told him what happened. After explaining what was going on they got a police escort to the hospital. But when they got to the hospital, his father slung him over his shoulder again, and ran into through the emergency room doors. He was very panicky and was shouting incoherently to the women behind the desk, “My son cut off his thumbs!” They assumed he was crazy because nobody had thumbs; but once they saw Tom with his paling skin and the blood drenched white shirt wrapped around thumbs, they had no choice but to believe him. The nurses came up to the front desk with a stretcher and laid Tom on it. They put him on oxygen, found his blood type, gave him the blood that he lost, and stopped the thumbs from bleeding. Luckily Tom’s father had remembered in the chaos to bring the thumbs with them. He had placed them in a cooler in the bed of the truck desperately hoping they could be reattached. He handed them over to the nurse and went reluctantly to the waiting room. The nurses put Tom to sleep, and told his father to please wait patiently. They tried to fix the haphazard chop job of Tom's thumbs, but the rusty saw had infected the wounds and was spreading, very quickly. Four hours later Tom’s father hadn’t heard any news about his son and he was becoming very angry. He went up to the front desk and tried to get information about the surgery for the eighth time and they still would not tell him anything, saying they didn’t have a new report on his condition. About half an hour later the surgeon came out “Are you Mr. Johnson?” she said, Tom's dad nodded. “I’m sorry to inform you -” she started, but Tom’s father cut her off, and started crying hysterically. The surgeon comforted him and continued “… we were able to re-attach his thumbs at first, but the rusty saw Tom used has caused an infection to spread from his hands up into his arms. I’m sorry but they had to be amputated.” Tom’s father walked down the white hallway not sure what to expect when he opened the door to his son's room. He didn’t recognize Tom at first. His son who was always so full of life was now laying on a hospital bed, connected to monitors and IV’s with gauze covering the stumps where his arms used to be. Not knowing what else to do, Tom’s father sat in the chair and waited for his son to wake up. Tom was asked to stay in the hospital over night so he could learn how to perform tasks without his arms. It was very difficult for him at first, but he was told he’d get the hang of it eventually. His father slept in a very uncomfortable chair near Tom’s bed. In the morning, his father opened his eyes and saw Tom lying in his bed looking very confused. He got up and went to his side, as soon as he put a hand on his shoulder Tom said, “I guess trying to fit in wasn’t so important after all.” Tom’s father didn’t know what to say to that so he just patted him on the shoulder and sat back down. All he could manage was, “We’ll figure something out.” The entire ride home from the hospital was silent. Tom did not know how to say sorry, because deep down, he was not sorry for trying to be normal. Tom’s father was not capable of expressing how very upset he was with Tom, but at the same time he understood and could not be angry. Tom was still suspended for another 16 days, and decided to get prosthetic arms, and learn how to write. It was hard for him to eat, use the bathroom and shower, among with other hands on activities. Over the next few weeks Tom went through the process of getting fit for prosthetic arms. They had to make sure that everything was going as planned. Tom was miserable, he would lay in bed all day and only leave when forced to for doctors appointments. The projected date for his prosthetic was about 2 months. When he received the fake arms he was amazed. They were so realistic and even better than his real arms. They had great control and even sensors, you could barely tell the difference. Another advantage was that he was now fifty times stronger. Tom was so excited. He thought to himself “I can’t wait to show them.” Tom’s first day back at school was really difficult. Everybody noticed that the rumors were true, that Tom didn’t have arms anymore, and nobody knew what to say to him. They all treated him differently and did not know how to apologize for making fun of him, they all felt accountable for the loss of his arms. The kids were not really sure why Tom didn’t have arms, but they all tried to start over and be friends with him. Tom didn’t seem to notice how awful everyone felt. It may have been he just did not care. Tom began to go crazy. All of the pent up anger inside of him burst and he ran around punching and screaming in rage. He rampaged through the hallways. Many people were injured in his fit. Innocent bystanders, teachers who had snickered at students jokes, even people who were sometimes kind all got beat. No one got it as bad as Jimmy Stevens. Tom was out to get him good. Jimmy had heard what was going on and began to run down the street towards his house. His speed was no match for Tom’s with all of the adrenaline driving him. Once he caught up to Jimmy he began to pummel him. Tom punched with all of his might, he repeatedly hit Jimmy’s hands and arms. After 5 minutes of this brawl, the police came to the scene. Tom was arrested on the spot for battery and Jimmy Stevens was taken to the ER. Now Tom is in jail with two prosthetic arms, and no more friends than he started out with. Poor Jimmy lost use of his hands after they were crushed. Some say they both had it coming because of a little thing called karma.