Originally from: Something to hitch meat to by Nalo Hopkinson
A confusing life & lesson learned
by Jennifer Morales Vega
That night Artho ventured into a dark alley to take the precaution against having anyone see him and discovering his new power. Artho lift his hands up to the point where they were in front of his eyes, he slowly started directing one of his fingers of his right hand and carefully made a click on his left arm, while imagining what he would become: would he become some kind of superhero with big muscles and having everybody love him?.....
Then something happened… his shoulders and arms started growing spines, his fingers and toes were swelling up, his clothes started ripping and his shoes seemed to be getting tighter and tighter with each second. His respiration started getting heavier and faster. He lifted his now deformed hands in front of his eyes trying to understand what was happening when suddenly his skin started to change color to what seemed to be mushy mud mixed with blood. He then started to quickly panic and tried double clicking himself as to change back into his normal human form, but it wasn’t working as to how it did when he would click a door handle or the walls in a building to change a design...
Artho started running down the street to head home, people who saw him would start screaming monster and run away from him. He then realized he was creating too much panic so he headed for another dark alley. He waited for a few hours until it was about four in the morning. He then came out of there when the coast seemed to be clear and walked down the sidewalk when his reflection appeared in front of a store window. He put his hands on his face and tried to get closer to his reflection. He stared at himself for a while and repeated the words he heard people scream by the sight of him, “a monster”. Suddenly... a familiar voice said, “well, do something about it then”. Astonished he looked at the little girl not believing he was seeing her as if she had nothing to do with what was happening to him. Suddenly Artho said, “you!” “it’s all your fault!” “ If you hadn’t given me this power, this would’ve never happened”. The little girl let out half a smile and said, “ you’re only like this because you want to, I never told you to change yourself so others would like you or accept you when in reality you’re the one who had to work on the way you viewed yourself”. She then disappeared into the mist early morning leaving Artho to think of what she had said. A few days passed and finally he understood what the little girl had meant. Without noticing he started thinking less and less of himself just because a few people decided to discriminate him. As he realized that only what he thinks of himself matters, he started changing back to his normal human form without him even noticing. He walked up to the corner store expecting people to scream and run away from him, but instead the old man at the register said, “ good morning Artho”. Artho looked at this man astonished and touched his face realizing that his normal self was back, he sighted with relief and realized that the power of changing things with just a click wasn’t in him at all, it was just the little girl trying to open his eyes to the world one way or the other and this was the way she wanted Artho to learn from his own mistakes.
picture retrieved from: http://wallpaper4me.com/wallpaper/Spiky-Demon-Monster/
Then something happened… his shoulders and arms started growing spines, his fingers and toes were swelling up, his clothes started ripping and his shoes seemed to be getting tighter and tighter with each second. His respiration started getting heavier and faster. He lifted his now deformed hands in front of his eyes trying to understand what was happening when suddenly his skin started to change color to what seemed to be mushy mud mixed with blood. He then started to quickly panic and tried double clicking himself as to change back into his normal human form, but it wasn’t working as to how it did when he would click a door handle or the walls in a building to change a design...
Artho started running down the street to head home, people who saw him would start screaming monster and run away from him. He then realized he was creating too much panic so he headed for another dark alley. He waited for a few hours until it was about four in the morning. He then came out of there when the coast seemed to be clear and walked down the sidewalk when his reflection appeared in front of a store window. He put his hands on his face and tried to get closer to his reflection. He stared at himself for a while and repeated the words he heard people scream by the sight of him, “a monster”. Suddenly... a familiar voice said, “well, do something about it then”. Astonished he looked at the little girl not believing he was seeing her as if she had nothing to do with what was happening to him. Suddenly Artho said, “you!” “it’s all your fault!” “ If you hadn’t given me this power, this would’ve never happened”. The little girl let out half a smile and said, “ you’re only like this because you want to, I never told you to change yourself so others would like you or accept you when in reality you’re the one who had to work on the way you viewed yourself”. She then disappeared into the mist early morning leaving Artho to think of what she had said. A few days passed and finally he understood what the little girl had meant. Without noticing he started thinking less and less of himself just because a few people decided to discriminate him. As he realized that only what he thinks of himself matters, he started changing back to his normal human form without him even noticing. He walked up to the corner store expecting people to scream and run away from him, but instead the old man at the register said, “ good morning Artho”. Artho looked at this man astonished and touched his face realizing that his normal self was back, he sighted with relief and realized that the power of changing things with just a click wasn’t in him at all, it was just the little girl trying to open his eyes to the world one way or the other and this was the way she wanted Artho to learn from his own mistakes.
I love how you incorporated the life lesson of learning how to accept yourself as you are into the story. It's an important lesson for all of us to learn and is often one of life's toughest. Therefore, when Artho tries to change himself and instead of changing into what he thinks others want him to be, he changes into what he thinks of himself as, giving him the opportunity to sort out his own problems and learn the lesson the hard way. Great Story!!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed all the details you used to describe Artho as he was changing. It gave me a clear vision in my head of exactly what he looked like. Also i enjoyed how at the end of this he learns something and returns back to himself. Its a great way to end a story by someone learning a very important lesson in life.
ReplyDeleteOh, I agree with Justin and Kara. There is a wonderful lesson in this little story -- "Without noticing he started thinking less and less of himself just because a few people decided to discriminate him. As he realized that only what he thinks of himself matters, he started changing back to his normal human form without him even noticing," and you present it nicely! I wonder if you would consider doing some clearer paragraphing?
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