Once a upon a time....

My austere beginnings can be traced back to a time when I first noticed the erratically jerking limbs of mine. The yellowish liquid enveloping me blurred my vision, causing a chaotic sequence of unplanned motion of my limbs. Never had I noticed prior to this the hard substance encasing me within. The notion of being confined to such a miniscule region attacked my brain with such pain that I exerted my limbs - the identical two on the lower region of my abdomen- to free myself from the hard shell - I never before realised my limbs were in my control. Imagine, I was fragile, only now given the reins to my nerve system. One by one, things were unfolding at such rapid speeds-----I just needed to breakaway from this clautrophobic emotion.

The cracking of the shell - now I can hear - came after a few seconds after the sight of the actual crack. I was greeted by a light. With it came air,- I'M BREATHING- and with it came SPACE. Free to move, where ever I wanted, I twisted the entire lenght of my system to get on my fours...that achieved I....smelt, by repeated inhaling, a scent....My impluses grew wild, so wild, like the onrush of bees when ambushed by the giant, long,erect, always-on-twos-species. Traffic increased, vision blurred, my newly acquired command of my limbs failed me....I was back to my beginnings. Instantaneously, the smell, it unscrolled, revealing a long, scribbled,never ending code....deciphering....MOTHER...

I had to find mother, it was the only thing to do. What it was, where it was, - I had no difinitive idea. I just trusted something I inherited when I was encased in a shell....I turned my head, the rotation limited to the ability of my neck....Mother...she was right behind me. How many steps did I have to take - none. Energy conserved, mother told me later it was important and uppermost in the life of a cold-blooded.

After a few days, I grew - every part of me elongated, stretched. A member of my limb, grew out of my once humble perimeter. And believe me, it -wagged! It was a lot of fun to do. So much fun I almost lost it in one moment of exultation. Mother - she gave me a sounding, equivalent to the blasting of dynamite in a quarry. Never,never do it again.

"Only use it on this occasion : when in danger, exert with all your might and watch it fall. It might be disgraceful, no females will pay heed to you, but it saves your life, from the ever hungry predator".

Complying obligingly, it was always in my mind when I went for lonely walks along the hard surface of white, stone like surfaces. I was special, mother told me. I had the pleasure to play in a building that could pierce the heavenly blue of the sky with its long, stoic body.

My mission on that faithful day brought me to a square like space. Papers were stacked everywhere but the coziest one was inside - a file. I think that's what the two legged species calls it. This file, well, it was black, with metal rings and stacks of paper, on which was scribed pointless symbols and numbers accompanied with pictures of particles, planes, pulleys and weights, arrows-some two headed, and alphabets. It was warm, fuzzy, and I had the weirdest notion of not returning to mother and her messy nest. So, I stayed put, yes I did.

The next thing I knew, after being waken up by violent surges, was the light. The file was being opened. The two-legged species, incidentally wearing a blue t-shirt with her hair pulled back by a band made a noise - too high in the decibel scale, enough to make my tail pull off from its already weaken socket. There was a pause, in which, another of her species came to her. Appareantly, my ears are to be blocked forever, she practically blasted the dome of my gullibility. This creature, in red, screamed, and I mean SCREAMED. Then the whole place was reverberating with her voice. Worst, the walls itself was producing more noise. Then I realised, there were others in the room, and by god, there we all killing my ears, especially the bobby-soxers....butchering it with such savagery..I couldn't handle it anymore.

I froze. I didn't move, not one bit. Mother's advice wasn't going to be handy. How can I distract them with the falling of my tail? They are too many, just too many. The freezing of my limbs didn't last long, what not with the quick and weighty mobility of the Blue, she repeatedly dashed her fist on the table. The pressure was enough to move me a few feet of the surface. I took my chance, I did. I leaped, and what a mighty fall it was.

Enough. The fall was long and endless but I was safer on ground that above it, at least for now. I ran, as fast as my shaken limbs can take me to a darker region. Then, reality hit me, I was not to see mother again. Everything was new, my habitat evolved, nothing was to be the same anymore. I had no one.....