Change

That's funny, thought John. I can't seem to feel my right hand. It was an odd sensation but not particularly alarming one. It was early in the morning and he had no need for his right hand yet. After awhile, he tried again, this time testing each finger individually, but they still did not respond to his mental commands. He shifted his attention over to his left hands. Index finger? No response. Ring finger? Same result. Next, he tried to bend his arms but they were both locked into position. He moved his attention to his neck muscles but they refused to budge. He then moved his concentration to his lower body. He thought hard about his knees but they refused to flex. What about the toes? No such luck. John sighed. It was going to be one of those mornings. At least I’m warm.

This had been going on for several long months now and John was sick of it. Initially, he thought nothing of it, being rather glad that he had no more responsibility but now he was becoming irritated. He hated being in a vegetative state. To occupy himself, he mentally flexed each muscle every day although they could not respond with physical motion. His morning exercise over, John sighed again and resigned himself to his fate. Usually after his morning exercise, he entertained himself by counting to a million. He averaged about two thousand numbers per day. Yesterday he stopped at two hundred ninety seven thousand eight hundred twenty two. He hoped to break three hundred thousand today.

All of a sudden, there was a tremendous jerk and his world began to shake violently. What’s going on? He thought with alarm. His neck began to squirm, his arms clawed at empty space his legs began to spasm uncontrollably. Stop it! He commanded with all of his energy. Stop it now! His heart pounded faster and faster as his body writhed while being tossed around. All of a sudden, a rush of cold air tingled every nerve in his body. He felt fear like he never felt before and he gave a guttural cry that strained his tender voice box and stretched the capacity of his newly developed lungs.

"Congratulations!" said the nurse to his mother. "It’s a boy!"