Metamorphosi

An account of awakening one morning having been transformed into an insect

So here I am, transformed into something though not quite sure into what, attempting to break through a sticky membrane that completely encases me and appears to be attached to the base of a long thin cable. Finally free to examine my unfamiliar form and surroundings, I discover to my amazement that I now have six legs clinging precariously to one of countless cables intertwined in a tangled mess above and about me.

Gasping for air and minus a normal nose, I find myself breathing through nostrils positioned all over my body in very odd places. Relieved to know that they function my thoughts turn to food and, instinctively piercing the crusty floor at the foot of the cable, I suck up a surfeit of warm, sticky sustenance swelling my innards to almost bursting.

Only now, feeling full and contented, does terror strike as ten, gigantic, sausage-like probes disentangle the mesh that conceals and protects me and someone, whose name sounds like Nora, screams, ‘Just as I thought! The waif is infested with nasty nits.’

What follows is nothing short of a deluge as foamy and foul-smelling liquid is worked by the same fat, frankfurter-feelers into every follicle and fibre. Awash with a sense of inevitable death, I abandon all hope of survival until a lone voice calls from a nearby cable, ‘Don’t worry mate, we’ve developed an immunity to this lousy lotion. Just join the clan and cling on to your roots!’