The Hand That Chooses

A university electronics laboratory on the south coast of England on a windy autumn afternoon, grey light from a wide rain-streaked window, on a wooden workbench a prosthetic hand in a smooth pale pink-beige glove, its fingers and thumb curled gently around a plain white plastic cup, at its wrist a short dark socket with a flat grey ribbon cable running to a small green circuit board with black integrated circuits, a small grey box with a short black joystick and a soft dark carrying bag, a hand in a rolled wool jumper sleeve moving the joystick, a soldering iron in its stand, a coil of thin wire.