The Marble

For the marble, the world rarely sat still. He was rolling along the floor at that very moment having been jostled from his place on the side table. The woman had put him up there that morning saying something about keeping him out of reach of the toddler. He wasn’t sure why though. The toddler seemed to want to play with him. And he wanted to be played with. It had been so long after all.

But now he was rolling toward the couch, and he knew all too well what that meant. The room flipped and flopped smoothly.

Ceiling. Floor. Ceiling. Floor.

He had no control of where he rolled. He was just along for the ride. But such was life.

The couch drew nearer and the marble was losing speed. His world became darker underneath the upholstered furniture. A bitter contrast from his days in the sun, outside, knocking into his friends in the dirt. But, lighter at least than the velvet bag that was once his home. Did the lack of darkness make up for his lack of family now? He rarely saw another marble and hadn’t been touched by one in… he didn’t even want to guess the number of years.

He bumped into a plastic dinosaur and his journey ended, well near the back of the couch but not quite against the wall. Still, he probably wouldn’t be recovered until the woman decided to deep clean the house. It had happened before and he’d been left for months. If he could sigh, he would. He wondered how long the plastic dinosaur had been there.

He could hear the toddler nearby pushing one of the plastic cars across the wood floor. He loved things that rolled away and went fast. Surely the toddler would love him too.

The toy car skidded along the ground and the marble could see it now as well as hear it. It was headed for the couch to join the party of forgotten things. The marble winced as the car hit the wood trim along the wall.

“Mama!” The toddler wailed.

The woman walked quickly across the room and then huffed. “I’m not getting it out for you again. All gone!”

The toddler cried harder and the marble wished he could help. It seemed so unfair. The toddler wanted them. They wanted the toddler. The world was cruel.

A chubby hand was suddenly in view, reaching and grabbing and dragging through the crumbs. It would never reach the toy car though, that way too far. But the marbles' heart raced as the little fingers were drawing close to him. He willed himself to roll just a little closer, but of course nothing happened.

The toddler made a frustrated sound and then thrust his arm forward again. Two fingers bracketed around the marble and he wanted to shout for joy. He was being rescued! The small hand squished around him and he felt himself being dragged away. It was dark, and slightly sticky, but he was being held, really held!

Light started to filter in as the toddler opened his hand and peered down at the marble. Eyes bright, mouth wide and smiling, nose so close it nearly touched him. The marble wanted to be thrown so badly, and he was pretty sure the toddler liked doing that, he was buzzing with excitement when the hand moved upward and the marble realized what was happening.

He was being popped into the toddler's open mouth. All at once it was dark again, and warm, and slimy. Oh no. He wasn’t food, this wasn’t right. The toddler’s tongue was prodding at him, moving him around to knock against teeth and get tucked between gums and cheeks.

“Brody, what do you have in your mouth?” The woman’s voice sounded muffled from his place inside the child, but she seemed to be nearby.

Things got suddenly bumpy as the toddler must have decided to run away. The marble was pushed from one side of the mouth to the other.

“Get back here!”

The woman was following. Or at least, the marble was pretty sure she was. It was a little disorienting, much like being swung around in the velvet bag with his marble family.

The marble grew nervous as he bounced toward the back of the boy’s tongue. The toddler opened his mouth and giggled, letting in a small amount of light. He was unable to stop himself from rolling right on back down the toddler’s throat. He could see two openings and panicked. One was larger and one looked a bit smaller. He wasn’t sure which one would be worse to fall down. But then the smaller one seemed to close off and he was forced through the larger portion of the throat.

Unfortunately the esophagus was still not large enough to accommodate the marble’s size. He felt the walls of the kid’s throat pressing around him, squishing him tight. The marble was at a loss for words.

“Brody?! Brody, did you swallow it?”

There was still light floating in and the marble imagined the woman was probably sliding her fingers around the toddler’s mouth, looking for whatever he’d eaten.

“Shit… I mean- gah- hold on baby.”

It was dark again and the toddler was crying. It was loud against where the marble was stuck. The marble thought it was probably a good thing he hadn’t gone down the way the sound was coming from.

“Mama!” Brody sobbed, causing the marble to shift slightly but not enough to move any further.

The marble felt bad for causing the toddler distress. He felt the sudden shift of gravity, probably the toddler had been picked up. The crying quieted for a moment.

“Yeah he’s breathing fine, I just think whatever it was is stuck down in his throat somewhere.”

The woman sounded worried, her voice warbling slightly.

“Okay… okay yeah I’ll bring him in. Thank you.”

The marble wasn’t sure who the woman was talking to. He didn’t hear much more for a while except small whimpers from the child and reassurances from the mother.

Then there was a car door closing and an engine starting. Music from the radio that lasted a long time. The marble didn’t like being stuck in the toddler’s throat. He wished he was back under the couch.

“It’s okay baby, they’ll get it out.” The woman said after cutting the engine.

The marble realized she was talking about him and felt defeated. The toddler was moved around again but still the marble wasn’t dislodged. He was stuck in place, the toddler’s throat squeezed him too tightly.

Apparently they were at a doctor’s office as the marble heard someone asking very specific medical questions. There was a bright light shone down the boy’s throat and the doctor hummed thoughtfully.

The marble was scared.

The doctor started saying big words like “endoscopic removal” and “general anesthesia”. The woman was crying instead of the toddler now but the marble didn’t know why.

“It’s perfectly safe.” The doctor said, and the marble thought the mother should probably believe him.

The toddler laid down after a while, or someone laid the toddler down. Gravity shifted either way and the marble waited. The boy whined a bit and then seemed to relax. His throat became a little less constrictive but still the marble didn’t move.

A few minutes later he felt something bump against him. A little plastic straw of some sort. Then two metal sticks that slid in on either side of him. He realized they were some kind of grabbing device when he was slowly pulled up the esophagus and out of the boy’s mouth.

It was very bright. As bright as he remembered the sun being. It was almost nice except that he had no idea what was going to happen to him next.

“There we go.” The doctor said calmly before dropping the marble into a little metal dish.

The marble hit with a loud clanging noise and buzzed happily about it.

“You want this one for your collection too?” A nurse asked, reaching out for the dish.

“You betcha.” The doctor said, pulling the long straw thing from the toddler’s throat. The boy was asleep which relieved the marble, he didn’t look so scared that way.

The marble was whisked away to a sink where hot water poured all over him. The nurse rubbed something sudsy over him as well, and though it was odd, the marble didn’t really mind. Someone was holding him and it was nice.

After being dried off he was brought down several hallways and into a little room surrounded with shelves and a big desk. The nurse walked over to the desk and plopped him in a big glass bowl. The marble was practically vibrating with joy when he realized the bowl was full of other marbles. There had to be nearly fifty or more, small ones, large ones, colorful ones. It was wonderful. They all radiated happy vibes and the marble was delighted.

The nurse was gone, there was no one in the room, but obviously the other marbles were used often or they wouldn’t be so happy. So he waited.

The doctor came by after several hours and stretched as he entered before setting up his phone on a little tripod.

“Hey there viewers, it’s Doctor Gray, back for tonight’s livestream where we will race marbles that I removed from actual human beings to see which is the fastest! Let’s get started- oh! Thank you for the rose jennyray87, appreciate the support so much.”

The other marbles were buzzing and our little marble could hardly contain himself when the bowl was scooped up and brought over to a long plastic track that wrapped around the room.

“Place your bets now everyone! Here we go!”

The bowl was tipped, all the marbles clanked into the tray and began the journey down, racing giddily and knocking into each other along the way.

The marble couldn’t believe it. He was being played with! He was with other marbles! It was better than anything he could have ever imagined!

For the marble, this was heaven.