Friday, April 13, 2012

Lengths To Which We Will Go - Flash Fiction - A to Z Challenge

Marina. So beautiful, lying there in that netherworld between life and death; he almost felt guilty, but she had asked for this, begged for it in fact.

And this was what he had been called to do, by who or what he did not know.  Chosen.

He fractured both of her legs, cleanly and neatly.

Drove the first metal spoke, with absolute precision, through the bone.

A second one on her opposite side.

Attached the rods and cogs (who knew that the shaft bow harness on a horse carriage would present such an elegant solution).

Surveyed his work with pleasure.

Four times a day he would be able to turn the screws, keeping the bones apart.

He hoped that she would be pleased with his handiwork.

After all, she'd paid good money to add inches to her height.  When she recovered, he hoped that Marina would become the fashion model that she'd always dreamed of being. Perhaps he would become famous in his own right.

But he couldn't help wondering if the injury to her soul, which had driven her to these lengths, would ever heal.


Fiction, but the medical procedure referenced is leg lengthening using an Ilizarov apparatus.  It is NOT an approved cosmetic treatment. 











9 comments:

  1. Li, you had me thinking, this has got to end up being a sculpture or something, not a person, but it was! Oh, poor model. To put yourself through that!

    Denise

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  2. Ugh. I've heard of a girl who had this done to be tall enough to become an air stewardess. The lengths some people will go indeed.

    J.C. Martin
    A to Z Blogger

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  3. Shudder! Yikes, I could actually feel the pain.

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  4. Ouch! I thought he was a madman torturing her but in the end it turns out she was mad. It is amazing the violence people will visit upon themselves in the name of "beauty"

    *~ MAJK ~*
    Twitter @Safireblade
    A to Z Blog Challenge

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  5. He can change the outside but not the inside.

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  6. I remember reading a news article about this before - some guy in Britain did this just so he could find a wife. And apparently, the wife would not have considered him before the procedure because he would have been "too short".

    Also, I've tagged you in a meme here.

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  7. You gotme from the start to end...andevery word is giving me a good view of imagination...

    JJRod'z

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  8. I'd like to give you the Liebster Blog Award, and thank you for nominating Luke Wortley.

    Dave
    Dave Wrote This

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  9. I think I held my breath while reading this. Nice job!

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