Writing from the stemistry lab
In utero
by Beverley Addy
There she was waiting, hanging around in her scarlet cavern. Minding her own business doing everything as ‘everything’ had told hers he should, unsure, anticipating, excited, a little nervous, worried she would be one of those discarded, un-chosen. There was something going on in her surroundings today that made it different from the past 48 hours. Her regulated abode was washing this way and that. And before she knew it she could hear them bursting into her padded cell of security, babbling, yattering, fighting, jostling, noisy — ferocious even. In the darkness she became aware of their movement, determined, frenetic. Then suddenly one was upon her; burrowing deep into her very existence; its head melding, merging with her; a wriggling appendage still writhing loose outside herself. This symbiosis theft her shocked and strangely changed. She was no longer herself and the two were no longer separate entities. As their beings separated into each other the disorientation eased. Slowly the new being meshed itself into the ruby cushioning which swallowed it up at first; swathing the soreness, comforting the anxiety, as slowly the new form began to become itself, Happy now in its existence, keen to no longer be one, pleased to share its uniqueness with the world, it divided and was no longer alone.