Written by Odin Meadows
I was born wrapped in cellophane. The doctors
used a screwdriver to poke out breathing holes
and slapped my ass—to clear my lungs.
The world whipped around me in a creamy
meringue. They made noises toward me and I
approximated back. They seemed to like that.
I kept mostly to myself, decapitating dandelions
or dancing on the hill. A bee landed on my
finger. It tried to sting me but I couldn’t feel a
thing
through the plastic. I watched Them play. I
stood on the hill. When I waved, no one waved
back.
Before long, I’d plucked all the dandelions and,
bored of spinning in circles until I fell down, I
looked out into the woods and saw all kinds of
flowers: bluebells, poppies, violets.
I took one last look at Them and when no one
looked back, I ran into the trees. Inside the
woods, I lost myself but found new friends:
spiders, wasps, leeches. They’d bite, sting,
feed but I wouldn’t feel a thing through the
plastic.
I never complained. They seemed to like that.
It was months before I saw another person. My
throat dry and stomach starving, he brushed
the cobwebs off my face, and I flinched. On the
cheek,
he kissed me but through the plastic, I couldn’t
feel a thing. He hugged me (I didn’t feel a
thing). He waved goodbye.
but I heard kisses were warm and lovely.
(I didn’t feel a thing).
I dug my fingers into the air holes. Ripping at
my second skin, I peeled it off like snake-shed.
I writhed myself out of the plastic cocoon without
feeling a single thing. And then,
all at once, I felt it: the wind caressing my hair,
the sun’s gentle warmth baking my skin, the
grass tickling the soles of my feet; and as I
stood, soaking it all in,
a bee landed on my finger.
.
Odin Meadows is a first-generation graduate with a BA in English from Yale University currently living and working in Central Illinois with his husband and two dogs, not too far from the rural town where he grew up. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Dark Holme’s Ethereal Nightmares, SFWG’s Nightmare Fuel Anthology, Mystic Owl Magazine, Breath & Shadow, and more.