Originally from: Something to hitch meat to by Nalo Hopkinson

A confusing life & lesson learned

 by Jennifer Morales Vega

                    Via: http://wallpaper4me.com/wallpaper/Spiky-Demon-Monster/    

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/

With Hope: A Fan Fiction of Something To Hitch Meat To

With Hope: An Alternative Fiction Story

Artho’s skin began to prickle. Not with fear, not with fever. With hope. He rushed outside the building, put his palm against its dull brick exterior. Clicked. The walls flushed red, then purple. Fluted columns started to sprout beside the doors, which were quickly changing from sliding glass and steel to intricately joined oak. With big knockers.  Artho giggled. Pretty damned tarty. He wondered if that had been the builder’s original dream for the building. He double-clicked. The building reversed to its usual form.

“You’re getting it.”

When he turned towards the voice, Artho wasn’t at all surprised to see the little girl. She was crouched down beside the steps, jam-jar glasses winking at him. Her hair knotted and unknotted itself.

“Can I change everything?” Artho asked.

“Course not, silly! Changing things isn’t your job. You’re not changing things; that’ll happen anyway. You’re helping them peel off the fake skins” (Hopkinson 849).

Artho’s skin began to prickle. This was a moment that he never thought he would get to meet. This girl must have been sent to him from the heavens. He thought about all the years he carried around this bitterness and animosity, how weighed down he felt.

“I don’t want it anymore” Artho cried.

“So let it go”.

                The sky grew into this thick layer of black. The ground shook and debris filled the air as the winds picked up and buildings swayed. Artho stood in disbelief as his skin began to bubble and peel. The hate was literally freeing itself from his physical body. All his heart ache and all his worries in the world were melting away. The skin made piles and piles and piles. First just one but then two, and three, and four and they continued. Tripled and quadrupled, all the way down the boulevard. As far as the eye could see.  These piles of crisp black pieces of skin formed around Artho’s feet until they picked him up. Swirling and tossing him around playfully in the air. The skies parted and the sun shined from behind him and he looked down at the girl. She smiled. It’s almost like these piles were trying to tell him something.

                “Go” the girl whispered to Artho.  

                So he ran. No, more like floated across these piles of skin. He laughed and danced through them, and after his foot left each one, they vanished from behind him. All his flaws and imperfections disappearing into thin air, never to be seen again. The start of something new.

Artho touched everything in sight, changing every dull and bland piece into bright and vibrant colors. He wanted the world to appear like how he felt. This indiscriminate little child had given him this breath of life and inspiration that he had been waiting on for years. How beautiful. He never wanted to come down from this. And so he fell off his high horse in the clouds and hit the ground running. And he ran and ran with such joy and liberty. He had to tell the world about his change. But in the midst of his excitement he stopped at a beautiful realization. She had helped him peel off his fake skins. This meant more than just being able to change physical characteristics of things. This meant that he could show the real him. Artho could be himself, the self he always wanted the people around him to see but couldn’t dare let free.  What this girl had done for him was more than give him superpowers. She had given him a second chance.             

Artho actually took pride in his appearance when he got dressed this morning. Waking up didn’t seem as “routine” as it did yesterday. No more going through the motions. The bus ride to work didn’t seem so agonizing and long, but instead he took an extra look at the flowers, looked out the window today and admired the sunshine for what it was.  It was time to start appreciating the small things.

Although his purpose for attending work today was not the same as it was yesterday, he still recited the same performance as he did every morning. Artho sat in computer chair, and opened up the files as though the editing process would begin. But instead, he deleted it. He opened up the next file, and deleted that one too. Every document deleted. Every program ever downloaded was deleted. Every porn video, every editing software gone. He had done what he came here intending on doing. There was no telling where Charlie was or how soon he would be coming back, but Artho wanted to be nowhere in sight when he came back around.

 He grabbed all the things out his desk, his coat and out the door Artho went. This would be the last time he would ever be seen in this building ever again. No goodbyes to his former co-workers, no one last glance to his desk. None of that. This job and what it stood for was behind him. What he did for a living was completely against everything he stood for now. He didn’t want to be responsible for hiding people behind fake edits anymore and even though the idea around it all was so ugly, it was what transpired such a wonderful new outlook for him. The world should know what it feels like to be free and from now on he promised himself no more walking around with his head down. Everything he would do from this point forward would be WITH HOPE. His mission was complete. He could sleep easy at night now knowing that the software that hid people’s true selves behind artificial revisions was lost in the cyber realm forever. With his things in his hands, Artho put his hat on and walked down the block. To moms for Easter it was.

Something to Drape Skin Over

Something to Drape Skin Over

Amanda Catalano

            The only things on Raven’s mind as she left the studio were a shower and the nonstop itching on her ankle where her high-top sneakers rubbed her skin raw. It wouldn’t scar. She never gave the skin a break or time to heal, always wearing high-tops.

            The shower was a bit more pressing. As soon as she got home, to her tiny apartment, she made a beeline for the bathroom. She never touched her kids after work without first blasting her skin with near-boiling hot water and practically scrubbing off the whole top layer. She always came out red and steaming, and after throwing on shorts and a t-shirt, crept silently into James and Anna’s room and pulled them into her, breathing in the pure scent of their baby skin. She kept dozens of pictures of them in her purse and showed them off to anyone who cared to see every chance she got. She needed the people at work to know that she was more than what they made her do.

            Her kids would never smell the way her skin did.  

            As she was holding them, her husband, Rob, would come in and wrap his arms around the three of them, kiss her on the forehead, and call her Julie. Her body buzzed with the sound of her real name.

            But something about tonight was off. On her way to the shower, she noticed Rob hadn’t left the bathroom light on for her the way he did every other night. Instead, a light shone from the kitchen down the hall. Curiosity overpowered her need to be clean. Her heavy sneakers were impossible to silence as she made her way down the hall, passing by her wedding pictures hanging on the wall, and the framed baby photos that were too big to fit in her purse. From the corner of her eyes, she and her family looked like nothing more than blobs of skin.

            Rob sat at the kitchen table facing her, but didn’t look up as she entered. He was usually in bed when she got home, not waking until the sound of the shower echoed through their bedroom wall. Julie’s ankle tingled, begging her to scratch, but she ignored it. She stayed standing in the doorway, refusing to touch anything when she could still feel the saliva and sweat and fluids of other people on her skin.

            “What are you doing up?” she asked, her voice soft with concern, a complete contrast from her demanding tones in front of the camera.

            Rob still didn’t look at her. Her heart beat heavy in her chest. She needed his loving gaze. His disregard of her presence ate at her.

            “Rob?” she said when he remained silent. She took a step closer, noticing the way the overhead light reflected off Rob’s thinning head the same way it did from the oiled pecs of the guys she worked with. The skin on her husband’s face sagged under his eyes and his beard cut through his skin like needles. She could see every pore in his cheeks and nose. Something was really wrong. She had never seen him like this before.

            “Who’d you work with tonight?”

            The question came out of nowhere, and his voice was so quiet, she had to take a moment to make sure she’d heard him right. He never asked her that. He never wanted to know. She didn’t know what to say other than, “What? Why?”

            Rob shrugged his shoulders, the material of his shirt stretching over them, held down by his arms held tight to his body. “Just curious, I guess.”

            It took her moment to find her voice before saying, “Tania again.”

            “Just Tania?”

            “And John.”

            He pulled his lips into his mouth and nodded. “Were you and Tania supposed to be sisters again? Did John come in as a long lost brother or something?”

            “What? Robert, what is wrong with you? How do you know anything about Tania and me? We never talk about work!”

            When they first started dating, Rob agreed to never watch her videos, and she agreed to never talk about work. Not that she would want to anyway. As soon as she left the studio, she did everything she could to forget about what she did there. She focused on the burn of the shower on her skin and the feeling of her ankle being rubbed by her shoes. Washing away Raven and grounding herself in Julie.

            “Someone said your name at work today,” Rob said, still not looking at her.

            “So what? It’s not like they don’t know you’re married.”

            “No. They said your other name. Raven. And they told me all about what you do at work. The assholes I work with have seen you do things with other people that you haven’t even done with me. Congratulations, I hope you’re happy.”

            He got up from the table and disappeared into their bedroom before she could think of anything to say. In her shower that night, it felt like her skin would melt right off her bones. She was almost disappointed when it didn’t.

            Julie took the bus to school every morning. Sitting in a classroom was supposed to be her salvation. What would soon get her out of that studio. But today, she was hyperaware of every glance sent her way. She couldn’t help but think that they saw her with her face between Tania’s legs. Something about the way her skin crawled every time she made eye contact with someone, the way she could make out every cell on the hand of the girl sitting next to her, tightened up her chest and made it hard to breathe. She needed fresh air.

            She couldn’t ignore the stares as she got up in the middle of class and walked out. The tingling on her ankle was hardly noticeable.

            Taking deep breaths of the cool Toronto air did nothing to calm her nerves. Her heart pounded and her skin prickled. She wanted to rip it all off steal someone else’s.

            “You look very familiar.”

            The voice made her jump. Standing next to her was a man with dark skin. Not dark like night. More like the coffee she drank every morning that always ended up being more milk than coffee. He carried a bag full of avocados, his forearm tattooed with a strange symbol she thought she might have seen before. Probably tattooed on some other guy. People always ended up getting the same things permanently etched into their skin without even thinking about it.

            The idea of needles in her skin made her shiver.

            “I don’t want to hear it,” Julie said. She made a move to step away from the man, but in an instant, he was on one knee, pulling aside the top of her shoe to take a look at her ankle. She screeched and kicked at his hand. “The fuck’s wrong with you? Don’t touch me!”

            “Just had to make sure,” he said calmly, standing up again. “I’ve photoshopped that thing off your ankle plenty of times. And that scar on your stomach from your c-section. And the birthmark off your left ass cheek.”

            “Who are you?” she gasped, horrified at the thought of him doing anything to her bare skin, knowing her body so intimately.

            “The name’s Artho. I work in web design. Tri-Ex Media.” He grinned at her as if it were nothing and held a hand out for her to shake.

            Julie looked from his hand to his face and couldn’t shake the dirty feeling crawling on top of her skin. Even in the cooler fall weather, she could see something oozing from the man’s pores.

            “Sorry,” she said after a moment. “It would feel weird shaking your hand, considering…”

            Artho held his hands up in surrender. “Understandable. I actually wanted to talk to you about something though.”

For a split second, Julie swore she saw a little girl with pigtails and thick glasses peak out from behind the man, but in the blink of an eye, she was gone. I’m losing it, she thought, putting a hand to her head.

“You don’t belong in those videos,” Artho continued. “You’re not like the others. You’re too real. I’m tired of making you not real.”

“What are you talking about? We’re all the same. We’re all trying to get out of it, but that’s easier said than done, ya know? What are the chances of me getting another job, even with a degree? People aren’t gonna want a known pornstar in their company.”

“What if I told you there was a way? Not just to get out of it, but to completely erase it from your history?”

“I’d call you crazy and get the hell away from you.”

“Well, there’s a way.”

“You’re crazy,” Julie said, and with that, she turned to walk away.

Artho reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing to the point where Julie heard an audible click. She yelped, thinking something in her hand had broken, but she felt no pain. Her entire body buzzed, and the man was gone. She held her hand to her chest, but something on her palm caught her eye. The symbol from the man’s tattoo was emblazoned into her skin, slowly fading, sinking into her hand.

Alarmed, Julie pulled out her phone to call Rob. A thought in the back of her mind stopped her. Her body buzzed again in response to it. Pulling up the internet on her phone, she typed in the address to the site all of her videos featured on. She searched her fake name. Where previously dozens of results had been displayed, no results were found.

With shaking hands, she dialed Tania’s phone number. The girl on the other end had no idea who she was. Her body still buzzing, she took the bus home, and her husband embraced her as if nothing had ever happened.

Short Story: [Something to attach Meat to] vol. 2: Close-minded Skin

By Maya Gadley

Early in the morning, at 0600 hours –January 14^th, 2012, Artho dressed in perky neon orange clads, laid face down on a cot, hands dangling from both sides. Artho understood his circumstances more than anyone. Yet he couldn’t find himself more uninterested in its tale. His existence had grown dull in the last decade. Artho felt the corners of his mouth curve upward. A New Year’s resolution seemed necessary given the circumstances. Yes, suicide seemed like the perfect resolution for a shitty decade.

                He had been incarcerated for more than a week now. Or was it a month? Artho no longer cared to recall the hour. He placed his head into the folds of his hands and was startled by the feeling of indifference they admitted. Ashy hands, he thought. Mum always told him to be weary of hands and face; “Don’t want ya walkin’ around looking like you done dipped ya body in flour.” she’d tell him every morning before school. “It ain’t cute.” In Artho’s opinion, cute was not an adjective to be associated with men. It was something to be partnered with babies and kittens. Shit like that.  

                “Are you unhappy?” Silence had become a great acquaintance in Artho’s new lifestyle. Silence listened. It didn’t question. It’s didn’t judge. Nor did silence complain. However, every blue moon emanated a nauseating voice from everyplace, everywhere. Some fucking place, Artho guessed. “Are you unhappy today?” Artho turned to watch Nancy twirl unstopping in the middle of the room. Her wiry black hair, now pulled into a back ponytail, looked to be unattached to her head.  Her hands flailing out like wings as she spun.  It made him dizzy. “I am…”

                “What do you want?” Artho asked, impatiently.

                “What do you want?” she replied mockingly.

                “Nancy?!”

                “Nancy?!” she sung, with laughter. “I am Nancy. You are Nancy. We are all Nancy!” The girl stopped “Are you unhappy with my gift?” Artho did not answer. “Daddy said you are unhappy – he said, maybe he was incorrect to give you the gift.” Artho pressed his palm against the bed rails, of the tired cot, and watched the Nkyin-Kyim symbol appear upon it. Artho cried out, once his body hit the floor. The rails of the cot now no more than a pile of jagged iron rocks. Nancy did another twirl, her bones clattered like dishes against the pavement. “I gave you change.”

“It’s fuckin’ curse!” Artho screamed, rolling his body off the debris. He let out another wail; this of mental agony. Aziman...when the last time he'd seen his brother? Did he hate him now, like his parents? Did the fear of public humilation prevented him from stepping past the thresholds of his apratment -"I..." said Artho. "regret 'changing' my brother..." Nancy cocked her head to the side in amusment; humans, they'll never learn. "He wasn't ready for the reality like I was. I overestimated him..."

Artho stared up at the ceiling. The entire world was against him. The old woman with the purse at the bus stop had been his first “change”, he’d shed her of her skin; transforming her into a chubby old woman with a hollow eye and no teeth. The guy who gave him cigarettes, he shed him of his skin as well. Then his ex-wife (that tit job he paid for was now long gone). After her he took to his landlord, to Charlie, to Tamara, then Glenn – Artho carried his “change” from Toronto Canada up to Hollywood Florida before he was apprehended. They called him a terrorist. And that was how he was to be tried in the coming month? Or was it a week?             

“I changed them…”Artho whispered more to himself than Nancy. “I unraveled their skin…” Artho glanced at Nancy who had stop twirling, but now engaged in building the iron rocks into some fucked up building thing. Artho grabbed Nancy’s foot and travelled the course of her legs to her behind. However, what he searched for, no longer remained. “Where are your other legs?” he asked. “Why do you hide your legs?”

“I do not like my legs.” Nancy objectively. “I told my Daddy, I did not like them. So I changed them – I like two – no more!”

Artho sat stunned. “But, you we’re the one gave me the gift of change!”

“Change?!” Nancy laughed. “Change! I am changing as I want.” Nancy wiry black curls fell straight, and cloaked the center of her back. She then pressed her head until the black became white. “Sometimes I get bored of being this or that.” Nancy became a spider, then a mouse, and finally an adult woman. She pressed her hands against her now developed breast and laughed. “You have not changed at all.” Nancy sang happily. “You want to change, see the change! But you not have begun to change.”

“If wasn’t supposed to change they things around me, why the hell did you give me the gift?” Artho crawled to his knees and pressed his hands against the cold ground. “A world without skin Nancy! This is what we wanted! The BONE! The sheer white BONE of the body. Such truth – so clean it is. A fucking utopia I want! A world without skin.”

Nancy smirked at Artho. “A foolish man you are.” Nancy pressed the tip of her fingers to Artho’s head. Artho felt the spot go warm. “You will learn to change.” Standing up, Nancy opened the door to the cell and watched Artho as he watched her leave. “Daddy said you need the Nkyin-Kyim symbol.”

“Yes and I –”

“Never did Daddy say it was needed upon others…” Nancy slammed the door closed just as Artho ran up to grab it. “You want to change everything else because you’re too afraid to change yourself…Not everyone wants to see the bone…I do not like you I think.” Nancy said, and then she disappeared.

Artho cleared his throat, stunned by Nancy’s statements. Who was she to say who he was? She was just like everyone else unwilling to change! To see the bone! The perfect world skinless people! Where we all walked around free from superficial ways! He knew he did not need to change! Not at all! He was already a skinless man! He was here to give the world what they need, a true utopia to all those willing to be free from plastic veils. And if they we’re not convinced he what would do it for them! Artho would make people understand how he saw the world, and why his world would be best.  Why they we’re wrong, why they we’re ignorant.

 Artho let out a yelp of satisfaction at the thought and threw hands in the air. Only to then notice the color of his skin had changed to a bright yellow. Unconvinced Artho began to shred his clothing from undergarments to his socks, only to find his whole body encoded with yellow. He let out a shriek. He was now worse off than had been, a freak of fuckin’ nature for all to see. “Nancy!” he screeched slamming himself against the door, what did you fucking do to me?!”

“You're too afraid to change yourself.” A voice echoed around him. “Saw now you see yourself as you are - Not Black or White.” she laughed. “You yellow!” she said with happiness. “Yellow like a coward.”

The End

New Friends

New Friends

"The Metamorphoses" and "Something to Hitch Meat Onto"

A man named Artho decides to go out for a drink after a long night at the office doing web design. When he gets to the bar he sees something very interesting: A cockroach sitting by himself having drinks. Artho was curious so he went and sat next to him and began a conversation.

Artho: "Hey, mind if I have a few drinks with you? It's been a long fucking day.

Gregor: "Of course not, I could use someone to talk to.

Artho:"Dude, we might have a little more in common than you think.

Gregor:"Why do you say that?"

Artho:"Well what the hell happened to you?"

Gregor:"I'm surprised that wasn't the first thing you asked me. Actually I'm surprised you even sat next to me. One day I just woke up like this. I lost my job, my family has disowned me and I have nowhere to go....so this is what I do, come here and get drunk. It's the only thing that takes my mind off of this horrible nightmare."

Artho: "Well why does being a cockroach have to be so bad? There's nothing you can do to change things so why not try and make the best of it. Shit, that's what I'm trying to do with my situation."

Gregor:"Easier said than done. What happened to you?"

Artho:"It's actually pretty bizarre. I was working late one night and this little girl named Nancy or aka Trickster showed up in my office without any parent, nothing, She asked me "If I like people making me not real". I said "No damnit" and then she hit me in the head with her spiderman knapsack and ran away. I thought my head was bleeding but it was leaking a liquid that seemed to glow. Then when I was leaving work I put my hand on the door knob and the nykin kyin symbol was there, then I touched it again and it was gone!"
Gregor:"Wait wait wait, whats a nykin kin symbol?"
Artho: "Oh yeah sorry, it's the West African Adinkra symbol for always changing onself."
Gregor: "Wow interesting, okay keep going."
Artho: "Ok so when I got outside Nancy appeared again. We talked for a few minutes and she said "changing things isn't your job. You're not changing things; that'll happen anyway. You're just helping them peel off the fake skins". So pretty much I see things for what they really are. Crazy huh?"

Gregor:"Wow, that story is crazy, much better than mine. That's a cool power to have. Do you think you could help me? I hate being this creepy cockroach that everyone is disgusted by."

Artho:"You're not just some creepy cockroach. I could try to help you. I'm still trying to figure this gift out. It usually happens after I touch something."

Gregor: "So try it, touch my arm or something. Lets see if anything happens."

Artho:"This is fucking weird dude.

Gregor: "Can you just try, please?"

Artho touches Gregors arm and he turns back into a man!

Gregor:"It worked!! I can't believe this!"

Artho:"I guess this doesn't really surprise me seeing you were a man before this."

Gregor:"Yeah. Now, hopefully my family will accept me again. I don't know how to thank you."

Artho:"No problem man, I'm glad I could help you out. If for whatever reason you can't live at home now, you're always welcome at my place."

Quest For Equality

Composed  from the short stories Something To Hitch Meat To and The Metamorphosis

Sean: A busy city on a late fall afternoon. There is a chill in the air. Two characters, Artho and Gregor, meet for the first time at a small, secluded coffee house. They conduct an interview based on the topic of transformation. Each one learns something about the other.

Artho: Hello. My name is Artho. You must be Gregor? (Extends hand)

Gregor: Yes I am. Pleasure to meet you Artho. (Shakes hand)

Artho: May we start the interview? I have a few things I would like to ask you.

Gregor: Yes please do. Whenever you feel most comfortable.

(Artho grabs his bag and takes out his recorder. Setting it up, he takes a few notes on the notepad in front of him and begins.)

Artho: Can you tell me about your transformation? How does it feel to be a bug?

Gregor: (Thinking) I woke up one morning, like every other morning. (Shaking his head in disgust) I work as a salesman, traveling the area. Anyways, I woke up and felt different. Something was off. I did not like what was going on. There was a feeling in my gut that I was not who I thought I was. I could not get out of bed without forcing myself off the edge onto the floor. I did not stand up once I hit the floor; I was on all my legs. That’s when I knew I was a bug. I had no head; well, I had a head but it was nothing like it used to be. My back was a giant lump. I felt helpless. I did not know what to do. I was worried that I could not work to pay off my parent’s debt. I let them down. It was the worst feeling in my life, worse than when my girlfriend Sandy broke up with me.

Artho: Interesting. My transformation was nothing like that.

Gregor: Seriously? You were transformed too? How so?

Artho: When I transformed I did not change my outer appearance. I gained powers on the inside. I know that may sound crazy, but it’s true. If you turned into a bug, then I can have powers. Anything is possible nowadays.

Gregor: (Taking it all in) Things like this are not supposed to happen. These things only happen on television or in books.

Artho: I know. But now they can happen in real life!

(The conversation has taken an interesting turn. There is silence for a moment.)

Gregor: May I fetch us some coffee? It will be my treat.

Artho: Please do.

(Gregor goes over to the counter to grab two coffees. He returns with a smile on his face.)

Gregor: (Placing the coffees and danishes on the table in front of them) Please, help yourself.

Artho: Thank you Gregor! (Takes a danish and sips his coffee. Gregor does the same.)

Artho: How does being a bug compare to being a human?

Gregor: Being a bug has put me in a helpless position. I cannot work anymore to pay off my parent’s debt. I have to rely on my sister for food and to bath me, if at all possible. I cannot deal with everyday life and little things like I used to. Going to the bathroom is much more difficult. Grooming is awful. Nothing is easy now. I wish I was still human. Everything was much simpler. My image has been misjudged. My family has disowned me because they do not like my newly found image. They do not want to be capably responsible for my actions anymore. I want to go back to work as a traveling salesman so bad. (Looks down with a sad pout on his face.)

Artho: My image has also been misjudged. People dislike my appearance as well. That is due to my transformation, as I have previously covered. As for my job…….I used to work with computers. People do not like the work I conduct, so I got fired. They let me go because of all the rumors that were spread about me. Now I have to interview people like myself in order to make money. With the interviews I conduct I am going to compile them into a giant article and read it off in front of a camera. Then I will be able to show the video I made to the world. One day they will understand that there are people out there that are different humans. Not everyone is the same. That is what I am out to prove.

Gregor: I like your way of thinking. May I join you?

Artho: Yes you may! But answer me this first.

Gregor: Anything. I want to prove to the world that we should not be an outcast due to our differences.

Artho: What about your family? What will you do about them? If you choose this way of life you will be leaving them behind. There’s a huge chance that you will never see them again.

Gregor: I do not have to worry about my family. They wanted me gone. I heard my father tell my mother and sister that he wanted me to leave the family and change my last name or else he would call an exterminator to kill me. So I faked my death in order to survive. That is why I am here under cover. If my family knew I was still breathing then they would have an exterminator hunt me down, spray me with a harmful chemical and I would be dead within seconds.

Artho: Oh my! I am sorry to hear about your family. That is an unfortunate incident, although that makes it easier to join me in my quest for equality. (Takes out a sheet of paper and a pen.) 

Gregor: What is that?

Artho: This is a contract I made. If you sign it, you agree to follow me on my quest, no matter what. This guarantees me that you will not take off on me. If you do I have permission to hunt you down any way that I can. Even if it harms you.

(Artho hands Gregor the contract and pen. Gregor reads it over and takes a minute to think about the final decision.)

Gregor: I agree with everything stated here. These are reasonable propositions. I promise to follow the rules and never leave your side, like Sam never left Mr. Frodo.

(Gregor signs the contract. The two characters shake hands. They leave the coffee house, discussing the next phase of their quest.)