"Hands Keep Coming" by Joshua Young

It wasn't the prettiest hand they had ever seen, but it was there on the bulging root of a skeleton Oak across town, a half-mile from the quarry. The boys found it at sunset, probably wouldn't've seen it, but the sun cut over the fields and through the clouds, making a spotlight. Unclaimed. Not a person, nor animal in sight. It sat in a plastic bucket full of ice. The ice had yet to really start melting, so one of the boys said, “Maybe whoever this hand belongs to is still here.” They called out, “Hey,” and “Did anyone leave their hand?” and “Hello?” When no one answered they all figured it was fair to take it....On Tim's porch, they offered him the hand, one of them saying, “You can have two hands again.” But Tim didn't want it. He was fine with only one.The boys didn't know what to do with it, so they took it to the hospital to see if anyone wanted it. There was an old man who lost his that morning. It wasn't his, though he gladly took the new one.Later that day at the river, the boys were fly-fishing, perfecting their casts, when a ray of sun came down as clouds started covering the sky. It pointed to the front side of a boulder in the center of the stream. One of them went over to where it landed and found another hand in the cool water. He grabbed it and all the boys went back to town, to show Tim.At Tim's door, one said, “This must be a sign, there's another hand for you.” Tim touched it again, but said he didn't want it.The boys took it to the hospital again, and there was a girl whose hand was burned real bad. The doctors took off her old one and put on this new one. It was a little too big, but it worked okay....Tim was happy with one. When he came back from hunting a year ago, he had a bandage over where his hand used to be. It was bloody and wet. He said it got bitten off by a bear, but the doctors didn't believe him. It was a cut clean at the wrist. But the doctors let him keep his story. Tim was a town hero and college bound—famous bound. People came from all over to watch him play whatever he was playing. He was supposed to leave for college in a few months, when he came home without a hand. His father led a search party looking for his hand. They were out there three days before the search was called off. They were looking for the bear that ate his hand. They only found one bear and it was a cub. His father wanted to shoot the cub and check, but the sheriff wouldn't let him....Tim walked outside and there was a hand sitting on a block of ice in his granddads rocking chair. He picked it up and took it to the hospital, where a doctor offered to sew it on. Tim didn't need it and told the doctor that, then asked if anyone else needed itThe doctor knew of a young out-of-towner who cut his hand clean off while trying to open a jar of peanut butter. So, the doctor took the hand and put it on the guy. He was pretty happy to be going home with a hand.This kept happening for weeks. And eventually, if someone found a hand, they would just take it to the hospital. There was always someone who could use a hand. In fact, some older men and women started having their old arthritic hands removed and the new ones put on. They could garden without pain, clean without pain, make their ships in bottle without hassle. Made their lives easier. A young kid who would shake when he talked to the girl he liked had both his hands removed for stronger more confident and experienced hands. With these hands, he went up to her and asked her out. She said, Yes, admiring how strong his hands had become, how manly they were. When they were out she wanted to hold his hand, to caress it. She couldn't control herself, she wanted to kiss it and so she did. When he tried to kiss her lips she said, “No, I just want to kiss your hands. I'm not ready for that.” And so it went....Then one day the hands stopped coming. Those waiting became depressed. Some people had cut their old hands off the day before, knowing that no one had ever been turned away from a new hand. So, when they went to the hospital and there were no hands, they went back to their house and scoured through the garbage to find their old one, and have it put back on.For a month there were no new hands....Then one morning, a hand landed on the courthouse lawn, and another on the bench outside the diner, then another by the quarry, then another and another. They started parachuting down from the sky, falling. People ran out of their homes, gathering the hands, but Tim stayed inside, watching the hands pile up outside his door.