Some Total

By G. W. Thomas

"Yes," agreed the wizard. "What is it you want?"

"In my country, it is the highest fashion to replace parts of your body with metal simulations. See here--my finger-nails are pure silver. My ear lobes are beaten gold. My smallest toes are polishing electrum to the first knuckle."

"I understand. What do you want?"

The princess smiled again, showing her platinum teeth. "They say you can build limbs of metal."

"Yes, I replaced an arm and leg for a soldier who has lost them in battle."

"I want you to give me legs of shining steel."

"But why? You have two very attractive legs now."

"In my country, I will be the envy of all the girls, the highest participant at any party, the queen of fashion. Will you do it?"

The Rainbow Man looked at the gold, then the squalor of his shabby home. "Yes, I will do it."

Lady Dilaha stood across the room with her nickel eyes, drawing silver nails over a hard-wood desk. "It has happened again. As soon as I replace something new, everyone copies me. It is impossible to demand the station I deserve." The voice was tinny and mechanical, the gears inside her mouth working with clock-like precision.

"But there is nothing left to replace. Your brain is the finest Hadisan steel wire. Your breasts are the softest copper. Your bones are titanium and your tenderest parts are--"

"I know all that. There is only one thing left."

"I could not."

"I demand it."

The Rainbow Man sighed heavily, handing over a small gold heart. The clanking, robotic princess handed him the real organ, accepting the replacement in her steel hand. "At last, I have achieved the height of fashion!"

After the princess had left, the Rainbow Man placed the real organ in a special jar, where he could look at it and wonder at a heart that could need love so badly that it would even abandon itself.

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