The antennae showed up first extruding from my head. They were little.
I started wearing hats, big floppy, lazy, sun-drenching hats, and on Sunday I wore the structured firm, white and pink hats fit for a day in church. For months the hats hid well the little bumps, but sitting in church one day I heard a tearing sound, so loud I thought the churchgoers' clothes had torn in half all around me. I heard their voices too, gossiping, “What a disgrace she is, coming too church in her Sunday best with snails on her head.” Touching the base of my head I felt snail slime and ran to the bathroom.
As I watched with fascination and horror, my face melted in front of the mirror. The cheek bones I’d prized for the sharp lines, the chin once noted as firm, I took as my stubborn will. In its place grew an iridescent surface. I saw rainbows on my face.
Walking proudly back to the family pew I sat down. My husband’s mouth hung open. Sally and Ally shrieked in their seats and slid down to the floor, cowering.
I called after them, “Come, come don’t be afraid. Look at the pretty little rainbows.”
Slinking on their bellies past me, standing up, they stared at me before running out the church door.
But I heard their inner fears without their mouths moving, “Our mother’s a slug. Is it contagious? How, how did this happen? Who’s going to tuck us in at night and read us bed time stories? Who’s going to make us lunch?”
I cooed, “Children, everything is still the same, I got my hands and brain. I can still be your mother.”
Their father, my husband, Walter rose from the floor. “No, Joyce, you’re on your own. The kids and I will get by just fine.”
I heard his inner voice, without his lips moving, “Now I can date the woman in the gym, Carol with the hot rack.”
I yelled, “No, I’ll slime her,” not knowing if I could or not.
Walking to the gym, my once slow trot fit; the extra pounds Walter had cursed about kept me ambling slowly. Fumbling in my purse for a compact, I watched the little rainbows form from my face to my feet. Kicking off the sandals, going barefoot, I marveled at the trails of rainbows forming on the sidewalk. The rays of purple, pink, blue, and green glowed in the sunlight. I’m all colors now, a prism of light, before I was just tan and white.
