Obelus

Nebulae

Beep. Beep. Beep.

People clad in white and green welcomed me the moment my eyes set itself upon the world, the moment my sense came in contact with everybody else's. I felt unusually heavy, and for a second I realized that I didn't know how to breathe. I was reminded of the memory I last had before the darkness enveloped me.

I was in a panic as I scrambled and struggled how to breathe, frantic on learning how to do such an involuntary thing that was always taken for granted and yet was never taught.

Alas, it came out, and I continuously heaved and ho'd with an erupting cry in between. My gift of speech has been stripped away from me, and all I managed was a sustaining chain of pulling air in and out of my lungs in a dramatic way.

I have to tell them that it's a mistake, and that my curse is supposed to be locked away forever in the depths of the ocean.

I was supposed to be denied the gift of life. The light had took me in, and here I am inside its womb once more.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Diaz. But your wife..."

"It doesn't matter."

Dressed in leather black, a tall man with sunken cheeks housing a newly lit cigarette gazed without contempt towards the woman who was holding me between her arms, while I was nestled against her ravenous hair.

Silence formed a barrier between the two, and all I managed was a small, gurgling howl. The woman attempted to tone me down, "Karlos..."

The man rose from where he was and disappeared behind the door without another word.

The woman was ecstatic, with tears streaming down her face in successive attempts, her shoulders deliberately shaking, her body in short convulsions. She was entirely livid the moment the man had gone.

And there I thought I knew. That life was the true curse, and that death was the real thoughtful present anyone could ever receive from above. And she was already waiting in line to receive such a beautiful gift.

I reached out my impossibly tiny hand to touch whatever part I could possibly grab, and when she felt my warmth beside her face and I felt hers, her wheezing stopped, and she slowly opened her eyes and turned to me. For a moment, she seemed to have forgotten about her misery as a smile broke through her wrinkled face, and brought me some form of tranquility akin to being at peace when dead.

And I knew I'd never want to see this woman cry again.