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The Hand

Roger Benham

Had one of those truly bizarre quarantine dreams last night. There was a lot in it, but the central experience was I was traveling and had to sleep in a cemetery behind a closed church because all the campgrounds were closed. While there, a thunderstorm came up, and I got struck by lightning.

I got hit on the right side of my head and the bolt travelled down my right arm, exiting through my hand, which was resting on a tree next to a headstone. My hand was pretty badly burned, but I didn't want to go to a hospital.

I took care of it myself, and went on my way. But when I met people later who wanted to get close and shake my hand, I just held it out there, all swollen and blackened.

"Pandemic," I'd say.

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Once they saw my hand, they didn't want to shake it anymore.

This was one of my most vivid quarantine dreams.

I've been mildly electrocuted, long ago at work, also in my right hand. But this nightmare really recreated the experience. Good job, subconscious. You are working overtime processing so many anxieties.

broken image

Roger Benham is a law student in Vermont.

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