Ordinary Humans
Harry and Sally Scoffield are
ordinary humans. They live ordinary lives in an ordinary house and have an
ordinary son. No one really thinks much of them, except maybe that they are a
little on the boring side, but that is exactly what Harry and Sally want. They don’t
like to draw attention to themselves and make as few friends as possible, the
fewer friends, the fewer casualties. They have no desire for casualties, though
they are inevitable most of the time. Today was the day it was finally going to happen. They have
been on their particular block for six years now, studying, planning, and
learning everything about their neighbors, down to how many cups of coffee they
have each day. It is tedious work, but it would bring them glory in the end,
and that was all that mattered. They both only cared about the glory, the fame
this would bring to their people. Finally, they would have a voice as well.
Harry gets home from work,
sees Sally reading at the table and gives her a knowing smile when she looks
up. “Shower first?”
Sally smirks. “Obviously… you don’t want to get
this done looking like this, do you?” She gestures to herself and Harry laughs.
“No I suppose I don’t…”
Harry walks up to their second floor with Sally following behind. Sally sits
down on the bed, “I will let you enjoy it first.” She watches as he walks into
the bathroom and turns the water on, as hot as it can go, and the bathroom
steams up almost immediately. Sally returns to her book, not saying anything as
he enters the shower fully clothed.
In the shower, Harry lets
out a sigh of relief as the hot water soaks through his clothes. Sally hears
him say the word, “Finally…” and she smiles to herself. She can’t wait for her
turn. Harry has now been in the hot water for ten minutes and seams start to
appear along his skin. Once they appear, Harry starts tugging at his skin,
stretching it, making the seams widen. Underneath a blue glow starts to shine
through. Harry pulls desperately at the seams, as the skin starts to sag.
Finally the human skin is loose enough that Harry starts stripping it off,
revealing a bright blue translucent skin underneath. He is frantic to get the
human skin off, not wanting to feel it anymore and at last; the whole thing
comes off like a body suit. Harry lets the water soak into his blue skin for
another few minutes then turns off the water. He shakes out the human body suit
and hangs it up to dry.
Sally sees that he is done
and goes into the bathroom herself; repeating the same process he just went
through. Her skin has a slightly purple tint to it, but it is much brighter
than Harry’s; something she has always been proud of. Once Sally is out and has
hung up her human skin, she and Harry look at each other in their natural skin
and smile with what they have that passes for a mouth. Their faces can only be
described as inhuman; though the shape of their head is like a human’s (they have
to fit into the body suits after all) they don’t have lips, just rows of sharp
teeth that make up a mouth. Where a nose should be, there is just a smooth
surface (they do not have a necessity for air), and their eyes match their
skin, so it is hard to tell where their eyes actually are. Their skin is
translucent and bright. It is hard to look directly at them for if a human did,
they might lose their mind. The brightness of their skin matched with being
able to see what is inside is usually more than a human can handle. One would
be able to see all the muscles moving, all the blood flowing, even the thoughts
that these beings think. It is too much for anyone except others of their kind.
Their limbs are lanky and the only way to fit into most human body suits is for
them to shower in cold water. Cold water makes their skin shrink; hot water
makes it expand to it’s normal length.
Harry and Sally laugh,
their voices much deeper now that the human façade is gone. “Finally… it is
time. I am sick of these wretched humans and their skin. I hate having to wear
it.” No words come out of their “mouths”, everything spoken in their minds.
This is how they communicate.
“Oh Harry…” Harry growled. “I’m
sorry… I mean Quardnot… it’s not that bad! And some of these humans are nice…”
“You are starting to sound
more human every day, Scuaguat.” Quardnot growled again and Scuaguat backed
away from him.
“How dare you say that…
don’t you ever… I have been waiting for this too…” They look at each other;
ready for the old argument to start when they hear the front door open and
close. “Josh.” They say together.
They walk downstairs, the
argument forgotten, to greet their son and prepare him for the night’s glory.
They stop short; Josh has brought a friend. They all watch as Josh’s friend takes
one look at the brightly lit beings, his eyes roll back and they see the
whites, and then they watch him slump to the floor. “Guys! Why don’t you have
your human suits on?” Josh yells at them, not using his mind to add more
emphasis to his point.
“What are you doing
bringing a friend home without telling us, young man?” Quardnot yelling right
back at Josh. “You should always call when you are bringing someone over. It’s
not fair to your mother or I!” Scuaguat throws up her hands and walks toward
Josh’s friend.
“Your father is right! You
can’t keep doing this to us! Now what are we going to do with him?” She picks
him up and throws him over her shoulder as if he weighs nothing. “As your
parents, we have a right to know if someone is coming over!”
“Ugh! I am an adult! I
shouldn’t have to tell you everything! And we are getting ready to take over
this neighborhood anyways, so I didn’t think it mattered! He was a huge ass to
me at school today and I was sick of it and everything human. I was going to
make him my slave and make him help us, so I don’t care what you do with him… geez…”
Quardnot and Scuaguat look at each other and sigh.
“Well… not a bad idea
actually. The more the merrier! Just next time, tell us of your plan, please?
That way we can work it out together! Now hurry up and shower. Take that
disgusting body suit off and we can get this party started.” Josh rolls his eyes
at his dad’s use of the human phrase ‘get this party started’ and heads
upstairs. Josh can’t wait until he is on his own and can take over his own
neighborhood.
No comments:
Post a Comment