Ideas and Thoughts 59-62

Submitted by E on Tue, 02/08/2011 - 02:08

*A/N* I am Myself will probably be continued under a different title. Hope everyone likes these!

59-My Hungry Belly “My stomach growls, my intestines begging for some sort of nourishment to fill their empty sockets. I look down; poke my belly button (which hurts a bit). Shut up, you ridiculous stomach, I say aloud. When my un- obliging belly ignores my command, I take a different approach. You know that apple I ate earlier? Yeah, I have an idea. Use your magic stomach acid to somehow create the crazy-awesome ultimate apple of fullness. My stomach aches from its emptiness. I clench my jaw. How dare my food holder complain about hunger, when obviously, it has a solution! BELLY ACID, IGNITE! I shout in my head. All that comes from that is an unceremonious growl. Grr.” 60-I am Myself “Vida, they whispered. You know what you have to do. Step in the lake. You will be beautiful forever, you know. Men will chase after you. Your life will be eternal. Their voices rippled off of the dark, murky water-- eerie, cold, and yet entrancing all at once. Vida tried to grasp her senses, she tried to plug her ears and turn her eyes away from their clear, beautiful faces, but she couldn’t. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t. She stepped toward the water. They smiled, childlike and giddy in their excitement. You will be beautiful, Vida. Just like us. They repeated these words in a great echo. More faces of beautiful women rose above the water, their faces and hair wet. Vida was at the edge of the lake. The sirens giggled, their smiles glowing. Beautiful forever, they said. Just like us. But I don’t know if I want to be just like you, Vida murmured. Their smiles disappeared. Come, now. Before it is too late for you to be beautiful, they said gravely. Help me, Vida cried, just as her foot began to scrape the surface of the lake. In a blur, she slipped in the cool mud and fell on her back with a cry of pain. With fierce, harsh screams, the sirens grabbed at her ankles. Their hands were slimy with algae and lake water. Vida kicked and fought, the sirens tearing into her ankles with claws that hadn’t been there before. Let go of me! She sobbed. Please! I don’t want to be like you! I don’t want to! She felt the water on her leg and cried again. But then she realized that claws were no longer ripping into her. She dared to open her eyes and saw the tops of the sirens’ heads descending underwater. As she dragged herself away from the water’s edge, she pondered their swift surrender. The first words that came to mind were simple. I don’t want to be like you. She whispered them aloud. I don’t want to be like you. I am myself. She let her head fall into the cool earth at the edge of the trees and started to giggle. It sounded frightening, insane. That was all they needed to hear that entire time. Now she couldn’t walk or move……..” tbc 61-Hollow “She is merely a shadow A ghost, a whisper Not flesh and blood and life As she used to be She is dead inside Rotting and withering Floating away Or being brushed aside She used to sing And dance, and laugh A laugh like a bird’s call Smooth as honey But she laughs no longer Now she cries A cry raspy and rough Like a hollow tree They tell her, He’s gone, dead But in the backs of their minds they know That it is not he who is gone But her.” 62-Drawing “Light charcoal marks dance across my paper. I smile as they form into circles and squares and ellipses. They appear out of nowhere. They make apples and stages and grapes and candles and yogurt containers. They make horses and people and eyes that watch so closely that you can’t bear to look.”

Author's age when written

Genre

Fiction