Can't Wait to Meet You

Can’t Wait to Meet You

Week 1

It’s dark. Comforting, but dark. In the darkness, something magnificent blooms to life, and stays there. It grows slowly, but surely. On the outside, the parents are overjoyed, and mom and dad constantly talk about how they can’t wait to meet the extraordinary thing that is forming inside mom.

Week 27

Me, mommy, and daddy have been together for so long now. I listen to her voice and it soothes me as I listen to her. She sings me songs, she rocks me to sleep, and she and daddy are always talking about me. When daddy talks, I get really excited. I giggle, I roll around, and I get ‘wiggly’ like mom says.

Week 29

Mom and dad have been a lot quieter lately. I miss hearing mommy’s voice, and dad I almost never hear at all. I don’t know what’s wrong or what’s happened to them, but I don’t feel like bouncing or being wiggly as much anymore, so I’m very still.

Week 32

Something strange happened today. I was terrified. Me and my mommy were sitting together, and she was singing to me again for the first time in a long time. I thought I even heard daddy’s voice. But then, I heard a loud crash that startled me. I went absolutely still. Mom sounded like she was crying. I could feel myself being jerked forward. Everything went completely silent. I nearly shriveled up in fear. All I could hear was mommy’s harsh breathing which kept getting louder and louder.

From the stillness, an image flashed in my mind and hung there.

Two yellow eyes slowly opened up, pulsing at me from the darkness. Around the yellow eyes, white, sagging flesh began to form, and on this flesh, I saw splotches of skin torn away– red underneath. There was a huge, pointy nose–it looked so sharp that I might cut myself on it–and under the nose, I saw an unhinged mouth hanging crookedly from flesh.

The face kept getting closer and closer to me, snapping at me repeatedly. I heard mommy weeping as the teeth were about to clamp down on me. I was too scared to move.

Then, I heard daddy’s voice again. He was saying something over and over. The face began flickering–melting–before me. The teeth tried to clamp down on me, but disappeared before they could. It was dark again.

Week 35

Mommy and daddy never talk anymore. It’s scary, being here, alone in the darkness when the face could come back. Mommy moves around a lot, and rocks me to sleep silently. I don’t move very much either. I can’t see anything other than the face that tried to eat me. I’ve decided to stay in the dark. Mommy and daddy don’t seem to like me anymore, so why should I come out? It’s safer here.

Week 40

I keep still–absolutely quiet–as mom talks to a man who is not my daddy. His voice is deep, and it has no joy in it. He doesn’t try like daddy does to get me to wiggle or get me excited. He just starts talking to mommy, explaining something I don’t understand.

“He’s going to be born blind and have dozens of complications. He’s barely even moving at all right now. He’s most likely going to die anyway. Your best bet is to give him to the miflefzets. They’ll set you up–make sure you’re taken care of for life. Besides, I… have to turn this report in to them, and they’re going to require you to give him up to them anyway.”

My mommy starts weeping heavily again, and then, I feel her get up. Mommy walked for a time and rocked me to sleep. She says, “I want to meet you. It’s what I’ve always yearned for. You’re mommy and daddy’s miracle child. I’ve dreamed about you forever. Your daddy did, too. But, no matter what, I can’t seem to keep you safe. Mommy needs you to come out soon.”

Week 42

Mommy lies down with me often. She’s singing to me again and petting me. She’s really hungry and thirsty, so I am, too. She talks about daddy all the time. I wish I still heard his voice, and she says she does, too. She falls asleep with me, tells me I’m the only thing that matters, and says she doesn’t know what to do. I start moving gently again, trying to cheer her up. She falls asleep, and I feel her body is at rest.

I wake up before she does, and I start kicking, trying to cheer her up still. She remains asleep. I roll on my side, waiting patiently.

Then, I feel mom being jerked to her feet.

I kick and punch out of terror. I feel the clawed imprint left behind on my mom’s wrist. It burns like fire. This must be the same creature whose face is burned into my memory. I curl up and shrivel away again.

Mommy is screaming loudly.

I feel the claws tearing across my mommy’s body. The pain is electric. I feel mommy fall to the ground. I don’t think she’s moving.

I remain in the fetal position, trying to turn my face away from the monster. I hear a voice. It’s slithery, whispery–it encloses me on all sides.

“A tasty treat.”

The yellow eyes flash blindingly inside my peaceful, dark place. This time, I try to move away. I see the loose, white skin. Everything goes very quiet. Two clawed hands appear in the darkness and start snatching at me. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out the monster.

Then my mind is overwhelmed with the sharp teeth, gleaming brightly and dripping with blood. I kick and kick and punch and punch, but there’s nothing I can do. The teeth snap down.

I wake up after a long nap. I don’t know if mommy is moving or not. I feel she is hurt. I don’t know what I can do to help. I willed everything in me for her to heal. I feel like it’s working–she’s breathing more evenly–so I continue, closing my eyes and continuing to send mommy what she needs. Eventually, I feel her move. I feel her hands on me, rubbing me lovingly and calmly. The connection between us is strengthened, nearly impossible to break. We are both completely at peace, and I move and kick. Mom giggles from all the kicks. I heard her say, “I can’t wait to meet you. I’ll never let you go–I can’t believe I ever considered it. Never. Please, I need you to come out now. I know it’s scary out here. There are monsters of all kinds, but there are beautiful things, too. Like snow and good men like your father. So come out, and live.”

Week 44

I come out for the first time and meet mommy. She’s a beautiful lady. She has messy brown hair and big, clear, hazel eyes that are full of tears when they look at me. I’m placed on her chest, where I lie for a long time, completely at peace. At first, I couldn’t wait to meet her, then, I didn’t want to meet her at all. But now, I never want to be away from her.

Age Eight

In a cabin in a forest full of pinewoods, me and mommy made a nice home for ourselves. Mommy has a gun to protect us from the monsters, and will frequently stand watch outside with other mommies and daddies who have kids like me to defend us. On the mantle over the fireplace, there’s a picture of daddy. Daddy died protecting mommy while I was still in the womb. I dream about him often, and I’d like to be like him someday. I got my big nose and my olive skin from daddy. Mommy says they’re reminders that dad still lives through me.

I’m not very useful right now. I can barely hear or see. I have a lot of what mommy says are ‘autoimmune’ deficiencies, too. If anything, I make it harder for mommy and the others to survive. But mommy says me and the other kids here are priceless and that worth isn’t always something that can be measured so easily. But most of all, she says she wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for me, and that’s good enough reason for me to keep going.

Mommy, you waited so long to meet me. I stayed inside of you so long, but I think I was yearning to meet you and daddy, too.

Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door. I get up from where I am sitting, writing down all these thoughts, and I look through the peephole by standing on a footstool.

Yellow eyes flash at me from outside in the darkness.

I nearly faint from fear. I rush to go find mom. She cocks her gun and looks through the peephole. She glances at me, and then through the peephole. “You’re sure?”

I nod.

She looks at me in awe, her eyes wide. “They always wear human disguises like this… but you see right through it.”