3 Transformations
Extract (from “Strungballs”)
A naked, ten year old boy called Alex lies on his back on a white bed in the centre of a cubic white room. A square hatch in the centre of the ceiling opens. A white cube (thirty centimetres by thirty centimetres by thirty centimetres), with a red cross on each of its sides, emerges from the open hatch and slowly descends. The cube is a robot-nurse.
“I won’t cry, I won’t cry, I won’t cry…” Alex whispers to himself.
The robot-nurse lands on Alex’s chest.
“I won’t cry, I won’t cry, I won’t cry…” Alex whispers, then a pain that is stronger than his resolution forces tears from his eyes.
The robot-nurse ascends back into the hatch in the ceiling. The hatch closes.
Alex’s chest now has a square hole in its centre (five centimetres by five centimetres by five centimetres).
Each of the hole’s five sides has been cauterised. Alex lifts his head from the soft white pillow and peers down at the square hole in his chest. He sees the hole and panics, hyperventilating. He lets his head fall back onto the pillow and closes his eyes. His fingers grip the bed. His breathing slows. He raises his head again, slowly, and peers at the hole, breathing steadily. Now he raises a hand and pokes a finger into the hole, into the space where once his flesh and bone had been. He tentatively touches one of the hole’s sides, winces and withdraws his hand.
Alex sits up and wipes the tears from his face. He stands, walks to the door in the far wall and opens it, revealing his parents. Alex’s parents are both wearing white gowns. Their gowns each have twelve strings hanging from them in various places, each emerging from a small hole in the fabric. (Each of the strings is twenty centimetres long.) A string hangs from the centre of their chests, from the centre of their stomachs, from each of their upper and lower arms, from their upper and lower backs, from each of their thighs and each of their shins. The strings are of various colours.
“I didn’t cry!” Alex says, smiling.
Alex’s parents look at one another then turn back to face him and say in unison:
“We’re so happy, son!”
TO BE CONTINUED...