The Replacement
I look out into the chaos… someone just spilled a drink. A girl screams. Others laugh. The mothers hush the other girls, while one mother tells the girl that everything will be okay. The little girl is about five or six, brunette hair, freckles, and glasses. I had seen it coming.
About 5 days ago I woke up. The lights turned on inside the large empty room. She had an idea. I could see it on her face. She looked around in the room differently than anybody else I've ever seen. She had an apron on, and I could see hard work on her hands. I liked hands. They were the best. Each one was different. Each one had a different story, a different tale to tell… The old woman walked over to the light switch, and turned the lights back off, and walks back out of the room. The next day, she brings in things, a bunch of big plastic things. They were huge. Men in old blue suits came in and laid them out where the old lady pointed. The men leave; the old lady stays awhile and looks around the room for a long time it seems. The lights go out.
I wake up. There I hear high pitched electrical sounds, I look around. I see the plastic things get fat and form shapes like slides, and big colorful cages. I saw a big rectangle in the corner by the door. It said Snacks 99¢. I wonder what a snack is? The horrible high pitched sound goes on for a while, then I go back to sleep.
When I wake up I hear little girls laughing and having fun. They go inside the big cages, and jump. I hope they aren’t stuck. Is the old lady mean? What will happen to the little girls? I will never know. If only I could speak…
The girls are called back to a table the old woman had brought in. It was small, barely big enough to hold the pizza that a man with a funny had brought in. This man reminded me of the man that was here before the old woman. He had that same halfway here look, like he wasn’t looking in any direction. He had things all over his face. They were sticking out of his nose and in his ears, little circles.
The man before the old woman liked the always liked it dark in here. He would come in here and smoke would come out of him. He would talk to things, but I couldn’t see them. One day he tripped when he had come into the door. He walked over to me. He put his hand on me. It was the first time I have ever felt anything. Then the weirdest thing happened. He pulled some of my insides off. It made ripping sound. My first reaction was fear. Then I saw. I saw him hold my insides on his knee. It started to turn red. He wiped his brow, and made a small light with something in his hands. Then the weirdest thing happened. He started talking to me. Calling me dad his personal first aid kit, his savior. Then he started yelling at the floor. The man finally left. He never came back after that.
the mother looking at the girl with the wet pants and shoes looks at me, and points a finger on her left hand at me. She asks the old lady if she had ever changed the dispenser. “What was a dispenser?” I thought.
The old lady shrugs, and tells the mother to check.
The mother walks over to me, and touches me. Then pulls on my insides, and makes a nasty face. What did I do wrong? She tells the old woman that the paper is old. “What is paper?” I thought.
The old lady disappears for a little bit. Then she comes out with something white. It looks familiar! “So familiar.” I Thought. I think so hard. I don’t know what it is. Then it hits me. Time stops. I remember…
The man before the old lady, he put me on this wall. I felt life, but it was very dull and remembering anything was impossible, I lost track of anything before. He gave me a purpose, and filled me with a white thing much like this new stuff. Its core was brown, and it was shaped like a tube. When he put it inside me, I could remember things. I pulled memories from the brown inside.
Time starts again. The woman is up close now. She is touching me a lot, wiping me off with her hand. I felt new, young, better. Then she said, “Ah hah!” She pulled my whole insides out. I felt that same dullness when I first came to life, I could not remember. My memories erased. I see a bright light flash all around me. The new paper, the new roll. I am gone. My life is over, gone in the dusty tube that held me, that had held my memories. I have been replaced.
