...I thought they were pimples. I layed on my stomach, on top of a bed cover with a floral duvet. the unseen doctor began to exam my back. Hmm, he said. This one here is a worm. I felt him tugging, I felt discomfort, it felt small but long. i felt the snap when the worm was detached from my skin. the doctor placed it on the bed and I could see a thin white string but as I tried to touch it with my pointing finger, it moved and wriggled around. the doctor pulled out another but this one was shorter. the third was tinier. just as I was pushing off the bed, because the exam was done, my daughter crawled across the bed, her feet too close to the area where the worms were placed. immediately, I searched for the long worm. I picked it up with a tweezer and as it got to eye level, it tried to get in my mouth. I closed my lips immediately and blocked it. my husband than disposed of it. the second worm was tossed but the tiniest one was not found. I feared it attached itself to my daughter. I felt small relief that she was wearing a pair of dark colored socks that could protect her feet. if it did attach itself, it would be spotted.
I was on a bus on my way to a new school, a high school on the south side of Chicago. I transferred to that school because I had moved into the area. The bus went south over a dark brick road bridge--it was dark because it was a gloomy day out--like the sky was heavy with rain. This new school was completely new--metal framework with floor-to-ceiling windows, open floors. The class body was mixed, with a majority being black and white students. I went to the second floor to wait in line at a check-in window. A very chatty boy behind me bumped into me and as I turned to look at him, we both felt an immediate attraction--we are both brown, we are both alternative. I'm reminded of my husband, I remembered I have a husband--maybe in that life or another--so I keep the boy in mind to feel less alone but ignore him as I wait in line. I'm outside in the vast woods that is the campus of the high school. There is a pond and there are green rolling hills of different sizes, all moving l...
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