inch worm (white yellow red)
PG-13. 11/25/2004.

Sasha has been chained down forever. He thinks he almost escaped once, in high desert with nothing but lizards, a coat hanger and a gallon jug.

Lizards taste like rattlesnakes.

Sasha likes being a snake. Maybe he's a snake. Or maybe a worm, inching across the white sea of the floor. His skin does not come off. He checked, before his arms stopped moving, and it is very tight.

His skin is white. When he had arms, he was good at hiding. Deserts are yellow, like his hair. He can't see his hair but he thinks it is still yellow. It is much harder to hide in a white room. He tried to burrow deep down like in sand, but he didn't fit. Sometimes white stuff falls from his head, so maybe it worked a little.

Sasha's mother could see inside heads. Like snow-globes, maybe. He couldn't see her chains, but they chafed just as much. Chafed until he bled red. Everybody bleeds red, even mothers. His mother had red hair. Do all mothers have red hair? He doesn't know any more.

When someone with red hair visits him, he tries to ask. "Mother? Mother?" he says, over and over. But she doesn't seem to understand. So maybe he is a snake, or he is hiding, or maybe she is just a mother after all.

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