“So it’s done now?” I asked eagerly as I trailed behind the stumbling Sally. Jack was behind me, walking with his usual spider-like grace.
“Of course it’s done!” Dr. Finklestein snapped back, jerking his wheelchair over to the finished product I had been looking forward to for a long time. Or it felt like a long time. “Do you think I would just call you here for idle chatter? I hate you, remember?”
“Now, now, doctor…” Jack waved a long hand to calm everybody down. “Why don’t you show us the fruit of your genius?”
“Oh really, it isn’t much. Like I said, a simple job,” croaked the scientist modestly, but his smile revealed that Jack’s flattery was filling his ego again. He grabbed the coarse sacks that were so recently sown together and pulled it out with a flourish, as if about to show a crowd a wonderful new invention underneath, but this time, the cloth was what he was flourishing. Being so close to the ground, the brown material settled on the stone floor.
It really wasn’t very impressive looking. I stared at it critically and then stared at Finkelstein with all the air of a person raising a quizzical and hypothetical eyebrow.
“It ain’t much, alright.” I blurted out. Jack nudged me, which was a big mistake since his elbow, for a few seconds, was actually inside me and more bugs fell out, and walked up and held the thing that was supposed to hold me together. With the skeleton’s height, the thing easily dangled a few inches above the ground.
“You slip in through here,” the doctor indicated the spot with a gloved finger, “and then I sew it up and your problem is solved. No falling apart. Even if you do relax your grip, the bugs can’t go anywhere and you can still stay standing.”
“Yeah, but what if I wanna get out of it again? Doethn’t look like something I’d wanna stay in fer a long time.” I looked at the burlap sack in disgust
“Squirm out of the mouth-hole or something. What do I care? Not my problem. Just go in so I can finish it and kick you out.” Finkelstein waved impatiently at the bag thing, and I sighed, realizing that this is what someone got for haste and slithered into the large hole.
As I let my bugs fill all gaps, I realized grudgingly that it was much easier to move around arms now that I didn’t actually have to form them. I moved the new appendages experimentally as the doctor sewed the back side up. I also noticed the man even got the eye and mouth-holes in the right places. It was actually a pretty nicely done job.
Instead of a compliment, I said, “It’s tight.”
“It has to be! If it wasn’t, then when you get into one of those little…I dunno, bug puddle things, then the whole thing would start to sag!” Yes, sagging would look silly, I realized.
“But it’ll break when I grow,” I retorted anyways.
“You grow?” asked Jack. Man, what an interesting friend I had! Or sort of had.
“Of course! I can gather even more bugs if I wanted to, which would make me grow, and bugs reproduce all the time too.”
“Y-you mean…” Sally would have giggled if she wasn’t so scared of me. “…You have eggs all over your…body…?” Dr. Finkelstein did not miss a chance at poking fun at the boy he hated so.
“Ha! If you can make eggs, then you’re technically a girl!” He did not hesitate to laugh loudly and shamelessly and point at me. Alright, that's it, I'm definitely was going to exact revenge on the stupid short man.
“Um…but…” Sally wanted to point out that I was a boy. But it was too late. Jack was slightly bewildered for what was probably the umpteenth time and made a pose not unlike the Thinker, only standing.
“I really came to you with all intention of making friends with the assumption that you were a guy…” Jack said bewildered. I gasped
“I am!” I replied hotly, feeling very wounded by Jack’s doubt even though I still didn’t particularly consider him a friend.
“Yes, yes, well, I’d better not detain you because of…recent ah…inquiries about gender…your business is done now, so leave…ha…if you please.” Finkelstein sneered. It made him look even uglier. His lips curled up over his teeth and revealed his gums, which were black. But I wasn’t going to just leave now, not after being treated like this. I was going to make a fuss, at least. Raise the roof. Or something.
“Oh no, not yet. I don’t like the way thisss looksss either.” I, the now clothed bug boy crossed my arms. Oh, it felt so satisfying to do that! I glared down at the paralyzed man.
“I pride myself on how scary I look. Creepy, at least. And bugs in a sack, in my book, does not. Make. Creepy.” I had rather liked the effect with the separated words in their own sentences kind of thing. It sounded sinister and threatening. Kind of like a ‘take that’ quality, maybe. And it was a nice surprise when I leaned down in what I hoped was a threatening manner, my snake tongue poked out to hiss menacingly and almost nip the doctor in front of me.
“Well…I think it’s creepy…” Sally piped up.
“See? No need to worry. It’s creepy. Now off you go.” The old man wanted me to leave so badly.
“It’s only Sally! She’s the type to be creeped out by anything!” Well, it was true that I did not know her well, but she seemed like the type. Always talking quietly and shaking every once in a while and those big eyes always looking worried. Ugh, it made me sick!
"I think it’s sorta creepy too,” Jack piped up from where he was examining weird green substances in vials. He managed to sound polite and distracted at the same time.
“You’re just saying that,” I shot back as Dr. Finkelstein rolled over to jerk the beaker away from Jack’s bony hands. “I don’t like embarrassing myself, old man, so I don’t want to-“
“…It’s creepy with the way it seems your…skin is moving…your bugs keep moving around and it shows and worms and stuff keep moving around in your mouth when you open it and it’s creepy…” The scientist replied. I looked down. And sure enough, my ‘skin’ was moving in accordance to the bugs, making it look like my ‘flesh’ was crawling. Or something like that. It was mildly satisfying, but now I had no other reason to complain. At least I felt I had some of my dignity back.
“Now will you leave?” asked Dr. Finkelstein. His large brow furrowed as he glared viciously at me while setting the beaker filled with mysterious fluid down and pushing Jack away from his counters. “I’m very busy, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, and slithered my usual way towards the elevator.
Or at least, I tried to. Instead, I found himself getting closer to the stone floor much too quickly for comfort. And then my face met the stone. And then I said, “Ow.”
Jack was at my side immediately. You had to help your almost-friends, after all.
“Are you okay?” Sally had also teetered a little closer, but just stood back a bit, as if unsure what to do.
“Oh, what now?” Finkelstein did not have a generous amount of patience and with me, his tolerance shrank remarkably. The scientist also rolled towards me and jerked to a stop besides Jack. I rolled over on my back and noticed for the first time something else. I didn’t know how I never realized it before.
“I have legs,” I said simply.
“Really, I hadn’t noticed.” The sarcasm was very harsh. I could feel the remains of my dignity that I had gathered disintegrate into nothingness. “Did you think I wouldn’t make legs? What kind of genius do you think I am?”
“Not a very observant one! I’ve never had legs before! Just a base…sort of thing!” I complained.
Honestly, I was not sure how I had moved around. I had just found a way. The bugs just moved me where I wanted to go. It was a system that worked. And though I liked the thought of not having to fall apart every few hours, the movements of my bugs were limited now. I realized I couldn’t flow like I used to, or grow taller or sink lower to the ground or anything. Now I had to worry about breaking seams and not sagging. I could probably let some bugs out only one at a time to do…whatever. Spying, maybe, at the most.
“I’ve never actually walked!” I admitted to the old man.
“Then learn. I’ve done my end, you have to do the rest on your own. Really, Sally learned basic movement almost immediately. She learned how to walk only a few hours after I breathed life into her.” Sally involuntarily shuddered at the image that brought up. I sighed and walked out the door as Jack stayed to look at the lab.
