Oyster
There was a week that pulled my body into turmoil. It felt as though my blood was trying to escape my body by pushing against the inside of my skin. The ache was relentless. The cold that I felt, caused my neck and shoulders to crunch together and shrink in size. The fatigue that overcame my body made opening my shivering jaw nearly impossible. In less than hour, I was reduced to a trembling, thoughtless, and incoherent breathing animal that was as cold on the inside as it was hot on the outside.
In a feverish state, I tried to understand how I had become a clamped shut and gooey human oyster. Was it the fact that my sister was tricked into giving her identity away to someone on Craigslist? Was it the number of times the lack of hair on my head was casually brought up at work? Was it the attempt to play tennis for the first time this year and not hold back when I should have? Was it that although it happened over the ocean, my grandpa’s death had affected me more than I had thought it would? Or was it just the idea that my mom’s dad had died? Or was it the 14 drops of Eucalyptus oil that I mixed into my bubble bath?
…When do I start my period? I wondered.
I never pinned down the culprit. However, I learned that there were quite a few things tangled up and floating around behind my eyes. It wasn’t until I was forced to stay still under an Everest of blankets that I realized how…
