Man from the South

In this story, an older gentleman makes a bet with a young solider. The bet was over the dependably of the soldier's lighter and if it could light up ten times in a row. If it does, the solider would get the old man's Cadilac. If the it did not, the solider would lose his left pinkie finger. The soldier agrees to the bet after thinking over how much he actually uses his pinkie finger or ever used this finger. However, the soldier didn't really think about EVERYTHING this finger helps you with. As a soldier, I think it would be extremely difficult to hold a rifle or gun steady. The pinkie finger has a strong grip to it and gives extra stability when holding a gun. Another disruption to his daily routine and occupations would be working out. For example, with pulls ups, all fingers give a better grip to the person. For shooting a gun, I think the soldier could include going to therapy and strengthening the grip of the other fingers to compensate for the heavy gun. Another modification would be to learn to shoot with the other hand with all fingers. The last modification, could be that the soldier become more of a sniper, long range gunsman. This would allow him to rest the gun on a table or flat surface to help with the unevenness of his new found grip.

In the story, the wife races in to stop her husband from this bet. At the end of the story, the author realizes that the wife only has a thumb and has lost all other fingers to the husband. I think one daily activity that would be more difficult for her to perform would be driving. When I am driving I keep my thumb on the steering wheel, while pushing down on the windshield wipers or the turn signals with my fingers. It wouldn't be impossible for her to drive but it would be hard. Also, I am curious to know how she got into the hotel room. Holding a regular key or a key card would be very tiring on just the thumb. The wife would definitely need either therapy or even a splint or some kind of adapted hand that would help her. Therapy could strengthen the thumb. Driving could be modified by having her gears all on her dominant side or have a bigger knob or post to hit, instead of a tiny signal.