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"The first symptoms most often appear in the hands," the doctor explained to the young couple and their aged father. The grip weakens; manipulation of even the most basic instruments becomes increasingly challenging. Within a very short time, you will feel that you've grown feeble and uncoordinated. None of these symptoms represent an actual loss of strength, you understand, but rather a declining capacity to interact with the physical world."
David woke at 3:07 a.m. to the sound of breaking glass. He found his father in the kitchen, staring out the dark window over the sink.
"Dad?"
His father was startled. "I'm sorry," he said. "I just thought I saw . . ." he gestured toward the window, either a dismissal or an effort to explain something outside, David couldn't tell. He went to his father's side and looked out, saw only moonlit yard, then a broken drinking glass in the sink.
"I'm sorry," his father said again.
"It doesn't matter, Dad. I'll get it in the morning." David took down another glass from the cupboard and filled it from the tap. He offered it to his father, but the older man's eyes had gone back to the window.
"Dad."
David's father absently reached for the glass, and that was when David noticed that the outline of his father's hand had become indistinct. When David didn't surrender the glass, his father looked at his own hand. "Oh," he said.
"Okay," David said. "It's okay." Retracting the glass, he transferred the water to a plastic cup.
David's father accepted the offering and drank.
"We knew this would come," David said.
***
Greg studied theology without purpose before stumbling into a career in information technology -- a career he hopes to stumble away from someday. His work has appeared in Interzone, Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Gray's Sporting Journal. He is sometimes mistaken for Gage Kurricke, with whom he co-authored the grim fantasy novel Gideon's Wall. He can be found online at gregkurzawa.comPosts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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