Short Story.
Reborn
It was noisy inside the birth canal. Ezra Ndima was lying upside down cradled in his mother’s pelvis. He stretched out his leg, flexing new muscles, kicking up against the roof, when something tore beneath him. His serene dwelling drained of it’s fluid, in one swift gush. All around him, his mother’s body responded. The rapid thumping of her beating heart sent tremors across Ezra’s eardrums. Each breath she took roared through her bloodstream, hissed through the umbilical cord and surged into each of his extremities. The marrow of her hipbones squeeched with strain, a series of low pops crackled down her spine, every organ in the house creeked in regular waves of cacophony.
Ezra kept his eyes tightly shut. The last thing he saw was the walls of his room convulsing toward him. My beautiful room, he thought, I will miss it terribly. Immediate nostalgia washed over him. I don’t know what’s on the other side of this squeezing but I know I won’t be back. He makes a mental note to return in his dreams.
Before this momentous morning, he spent most of his days sleeping. In his dreamtime he lived a life. A former life; a future life? Perhaps. It didn’t matter here, he felt. In this life he had a job, a house. A wife. And a red car, which they would take up the Garden Route to the winelands on weekends.
“In his dreamtime he lived a life. A former life; a future life? Perhaps. It didn’t matter here.”
Ezra’s eyes started to move rapidly from side to side under his eyelids as a series of images flashed before them: A streak of yellow flower fields, motion blurred; the sweet scent of which crowded his nostrils - and Her - in the passenger seat, a tangle of curls, a dazzle of crooked teeth, framed by a half moon smile. His own hands on the steering wheel, golden band gleaming from a ring finger. On the dashboard he sees a postcard, secured with tape - an art print of an Escher woodcut, which transforms from left to right. It shows a black and white chequerboard morphing into a pattern of interlocking salamanders, these gradually change into hexagonal shapes, forming a honeycomb housing eggs, which change into larvae, from which bees take flight… Ezra’s eyes fluttered open.
“and Her - in the passenger seat, a tangle of curls, a dazzle of crooked teeth, framed by a half moon smile”
Space had shrunk. Muscly pink walls enfolded around him like rolling tongues thrusting him downward. He felt mounting pressure. Organ industry thundered around his ears. His knees, elbows, nose, toes, all scrunched up in the same circular space. What is the meaning of this squashing, he thought as every last thing around him contracted and a downward sensation overwhelmed him.
His nose was wedged in between the fleshy ridges of the birth canal. Eyes closed, he saw a brown leather seat up against his face. Black smoke in the car. Mangled red metal in his peripheral vision. A tangle of curls flopping out from a mess of limbs – arms, feet, neck, all bent at awkward angles. In the distance the sound of wailing sirens came closer and closer as his lungs, liver and heart strained with compounded force. He heard muffled voices. Over here, he pleaded, get us out out!
It was then that the roar came, resounding through the shuddering cavity of his beloved home, and with it he was propelled further down. As his head pushed passed the last ridges, his skull softened, plates shifting to take the shape of the passage. He felt his mother’s body twist, like a cloth being wrung out for its liquid – he became the liquid, and flowed out into cold spaciousness.
It was over-bright. Sounds were booming. She must be here, he hoped, this must be the other side. Suddenly, a soft pasture rolled out before him. A field of skin, with rounded hills, enfolding arms and a familiar rhythmic beating just beneath the surface. He burrowed in toward it. His nose in between folds of neck and chin. She shielded his eyes from the bright light. The sweet scent of her hand crowded his nostrils. A blur of yellow flower fields crossed his vision. Clinging to Her…he remembered… opened his mouth and let out a mighty cry.
Xx
