dr. Mower

by goneril

i was going to marry my doctor. he only forshortened my legs a bit, the cracking of the bones was the worst piece. I could feel bits of bone flayed off my shins as if through a cheese grater. but now the brace had made me stand up straight, real straight. My neck was just squeezed together a bit, he told me only a few centimeters were shaved off the length. my knees were now leathery and strong, tough to shuffle over the concrete cracks. He liked oranges, that was important. I like to carry a plastic bag with a few oranges because it is lighter then a liter of water. Three was a good number, you had to keep filling it because when it dipped below two my balance was off. He had this yellow ceramic bowl glazed with two cherries on a long twig, and that's where he kept those sweet oranges. His hands smelled liked vaseline stretched before my nose tempting with one of those. He had good veins, too, plump, suckable. I know he wanted me, too, because I see has stethoscope swinging under his neck like a pendulum and then just, just when I taste his breath, my mother flies in on those air skates i want and with her coat tails spread out like these evil wings and stops so short that even her skin has to bounce back to the meat and bones to which it clings. I remember I was so ashamed because I left a wet spot on the white paper of the gurney. My mother snapped, "don't be bashful look dr. mower in eye and thank him, doll" and twirled out on her skates again. I hiccuped and cut my tongue on my third tooth to the right, the vampire one. One taste bud popped, I thought. I was obliged to follow her. Doctor lowered me to the floor from underneath my armpits. He peeled the white paper from off my crotch with a quiet rustle. I tried to twirl out like my mother, but fudged it. He patted my buttocks forward with his that fully cupped one side, "sweet child."

My mother was fussing with the nurse about the bill outside. She cawed that she wouldn't pay because I looked like I was patched together with tin foil and was now a runt. I wondered why she didn't tell my doctor that. The nurse clamped together her lips and they were silent as I goofed over. I wanted to tell my mother about this warm itch I had on the gurney with dr. Mower.