Brain Surgery

Stick to what you're good at

Dascha Paylor

Jun 4, 2023

“It’s hardly brain surgery, Harvey.” Misty practically had to sit on her hands to stop herself from ripping the tangled mass of cords out of her brother’s hands.

Harvey had arrived, unannounced, on her doorstep right when she was taking delivery of her new theater system. She’d researched this inside and out before purchasing the components to turn her living room into a mini theatre, complete with surround sound.

She knew how to do this, damn it. She didn’t need her kid brother stepping in and making a mess of things. And now he had the cords so tangled it would take her hours to straighten them out.

“It might be easier if it were brain surgery,” Harvey grumbled, giving up and setting the cords on the floor. “I’m sorry. I should know enough to stick to what I’m good at.” He plopped down on the sofa in defeat, his earlier enthusiasm extinguished.

Misty’s irritation with her little brother evaporated. He really did mean well, but this just wasn’t his forte. She joined him on the sofa and gave him a quick sideways hug. “This isn’t what you came over for. What’s up?”

Harvey brightened at the reminder. “I got the residency.”

“Neurosurgery?” Misty squealed in delight. “We have to celebrate! Dinner out, on me.”

Harvey looked ruefully around at the mess. “What about this?”

“I can deal with that tomorrow,” Misty said, laughing. “After all, it’s not brain surgery. But what you’ll be doing is!”

I wrote this story in response to a Reedsy prompt based on idioms. The prompt asked for a story inspired by the phrase “it’s hardly brain surgery.” So, naturally, my mind jumped to, but what if it could be? Or at least if brain surgery might somehow become an aspect of the story.

Creating an image for this story proved to be a problem. Midjourney either wanted a couple of humans or it wanted a tangled mess of cords. It didn’t want to provide both together for me for some reason. I finally managed to come up with an image that kind of fits the bill. Not what I envisioned but good enough!