Here is her story, with a ‘Twilight Zone’ twist at the end. Read it now!
Love At First Sight
Kelly averted her eyes.
“It’s easy for us ugly girls to say it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but someone like you,” her eyes roamed over Kelly’s silky blonde hair, big blue eyes and porcelain skin, “someone like you who’s probably always been fawned over for her good looks, well. I think it takes a great bit of character to give that all up and go for it,” she said making more notes on the computer as she read Kelly’s transmitting vitals.
“I mean, if we can’t be seen for who we are, how can we ever find love, right?” she said, repeating the company’s tagline as she patted Kelly on the shoulder. The nurse, upon seeing Kelly’s panic-stricken face, misinterpreted the source of her dread and continued chorusing from the company’s brochure.
“Our office has been transitioning patients for almost a year now. With the Love at First Sight cerebral and ocular implants, you will see others, others who also have the implants that is, for who they truly are inside, and they you. The implants will allow you to find the things you find appealing, be it ambition, or humour, or a love of pot-bellied pigs, through the implants as if they were physical attractiveness in others. So, you will be physically attracted to the kind of person you want to be with, and they with you. Finally, our appearance will no longer hinder us from being loved, but we will be seen and loved for who we truly are.”
The nurse paused, and then added, “You want to be loved for you, right?”
And there was the problem.
“But… What if I’m ugly?” She hadn’t realized she had voiced her deepest fear aloud until she saw the nurse’s comforting smile. “Kelly, those are just nerves. You’ve done all the paperwork, you’re prepped and ready to go, let’s get on with it, shall we?”
It was true. Kelly had signed the paperwork. The solicitor had urged Kelly and her parents to take the odd terms of the settlement so as not to appear before the judge, who would surely have given her a much harsher sentence. Her school had a zero-tolerance policy for bullying after all. And what she’d posted about Jessica, repeatedly, online, making sure everyone took notice of her repulsive deformity, had gone viral through the school, and according to school policy, that was bullying.
These were the terms of the settlement set by Jessica’s family: Kelly’s parents not only had to pay for Jessica to get the Love at First Sight implant, but Kelly had to get one too.
An hour later and Kelly was handed a mirror.
“All done now. You want to see what you, the real you, looks like?”
Kelly nervously raised the mirror.
And screamed.