Touch

Who or what I am, I don't know. I've been isolated in this senseless world for a length of time, I know not. I know there are others, but their presence is only known by the movement of my body which I myself did not create. The movement they create is minimal, so I often think myself to be alone. But then something tipped my head to the side. It barreled into my chest. Sensation flared across my entire body.

I feel hot, cold, pain, pleasure, and pressure before everything surrounding me seemed to penetrate my very core. I felt part of me flail wildly before I could grasp the thing that was still against my chest. I felt something prickly and course. Whatever pressed against me moved. It lifted my hands as the sensations circled my body again. This time an awareness of my shape filled my mind before the feelings anchored in my core once more.

My individual fingers dug into the course, prickly hair. My chest heaved with uncertainty about these new sensations. One more wave passed over me, much less intense than the other two. The ground thumped several times beneath me as an itching spread across the top of my head. Then the hair pulled out of my fingers and the thumping faded into the distance. I continued to sit, breathing hard. I was puzzled. I was…

A hand like mine, roughly, lifted me to my feet. I felt pressure as I was pulled into a place. It felt different than where I had been, yet strangely familiar. A different set of hands touched me as well. I received a lot of information from the two sets of hands. They didn't touch me longer than was necessary for any given task they guided me through. When they no longer touched me, I slowly and carefully explored my surroundings. I touched everything I could. There were so many textures, varying temperatures, and firmness.

The hands guided me differently the more I explored. And they were harsher in feel when they had to repeat the process. I understood I was being expected to do more to take care of myself. When I was laid down and covered, I felt the contours of my body. I had rough, short, coarse hair on my head that felt like the thing that had pressed against my chest. The rest of me was smooth. Easy curves and rolls to follow. I couldn't feel the hole that liquid escaped from, but I definitely found the one where the firmer, more solid stuff came out. Did the hands that guided me have a body like mine?

The two sets of hands continued to guide me for a time, until they covered my body with more than normal layers of soft stuff. They had me walk to a specific spot. We stopped for only a moment before something slammed into my middle and legs, knocking me on my butt. A warm, rough, wet something assaulted my hands and face as a similar energy flooded my body and penetrated to my core. This happened twice more in rapid succession. I felt like my head was going to explode. The warm, rough, wet thing scraped against my ears. There was a soft pop and the pressure in my head disappeared. A high pitched noise made the attack stop.

"Sorry about that," a very deep voice said.

I furrowed my brow.

"My dog gets a bit excited when she sees new people," the voice continued.

There was a loud crunching and grating close by. I covered my ears. The sounds were loud and made my head throb. Clicking and scraping followed more crunching and grating, but it was much quieter than before.

"What's going on?" A higher, but still deep voice asked.

"My dog jumped on your son and startled him," the first voice replied. "I was trying to apologize."

Silence followed a moment.

"I'm Johann," the deepest voice said. "I moved in about a week ago."

"Bodrai," the other deep voice said. "And my wife, Shirhar."

"Pleasure to meet you."

"Indeed," a much higher voice added.

"And your son's name?" Johann asked.

"Um…," Bodrai said.

"We haven't named… him yet," Shirhar replied. "If you will excuse us, we're late for an appointment."

"Sure."

The big, rough hands I had felt time and again raised me to my feet. They pushed me to step onto the crunching, grinding stuff. I grimaced. They manipulated my movements to lift my leg high enough to climb onto a squishy seat. A loud metallic clang left my left ear aching. I felt liquid slide down my cheeks. What were the noises and why did the loud ones hurt? I covered my ears, rocking, as the loud crunching and grinding resumed—slightly muffled, but not by much. The seat I was in jostled. It seemed like it took forever for the grinding and crunching to stop.

But it was only replaced by a high pitched whistle that was only slightly less grating on my freshly opened ears. The whistling continued much longer, only lessening when I was jostled more. Then the chair stopped moving. The clicking, grinding, and metallic slamming happened again. The hands touched me again and I climbed down from the chair. We walked in several directions until they pushed me into another seat. There were different sounds here, much softer. Crinkling, coughing, slight tapping or clicking. There were no voices here.

"Piflor," a medium toned voice called.

There was some shuffling before the mostly silence returned.

"Sententia?" the same voice called some time later.

The smaller set of hands lifted my arm so I knew to stand and walk to another place. Here metal scraped against metal before all the layers that had been put on me came off. Only a single layer was put back on. Then I was laid down and only partially covered. The hands stopped touching me, but the feel of this place was different than where I had been laid down before, so I didn't explore. Metal scraping metal came again.

"Mr. and Mrs. Sententia," a monotone voice droned.

"Doctor," Bodrai said.

"I see hair has finally started to grow in."

"Yes."

"Anything else you've noticed in the last few months?" the monotone voice asked, sounding closer.

"We've finally managed potty training and self feeding."

A soft click came on my right side before a couple fingers grabbed my wrist. It didn't feel like the other hands that touched me. I reached for the hand and felt something slick, yet sticky.

"And we have a response to touch." The hand released my wrist.

"Yes," Shirhar said. "It came the day the hair appeared. There's been a lot of exploring this last month."

"I'm sure."

The slick, sticky hand lifted mine before I felt pain in the tip of my first finger. I tried to pull away but the hand's grip became tighter and my fingertip felt like it was getting bigger. A soft sound left my mouth as I tried once more to pull my finger away, but the grip only hardened.

"Now, now. That won't do. We can't have you squirming for the other tests."

The hand let go of mine and I put the finger in my mouth. It made my finger sting, so I took it out again. My hand was grabbed once more and something cold and wet wiped my fingertip off. Something was then wrapped around it. There was another poke in my right arm. I started to reach for it, but the cold, wet thing crossed the same spot, making my hand drop. I couldn't move anymore, but I could still hear and feel.

The covering I had on was partially removed. Then the sticky, slick hands returned. They pressed all over my body, similar to my own explorations, but these were much, much deeper in some places. It didn't feel good, but I could do nothing to stop them.

"Any developing behavioral changes?" the monotone voice asked.

"None," Shirhar responded.

The hands continued to feel. "I'd like to do a scan to see if any internal structures have changed in the last year."

"Sure."

Silence returned before something pinched my skin and put quite a bit of pressure on my arm. Another noise left my mouth before several things were stuck into my arm. The tight, pinchy thing was taken off. Something was put on my head and covered my ears and then the thing I laid on moved. Moved to a place where my unmovable body was placed on something cold. A whirring vibration moved my body. Waves, unlike those I had felt from the things close to home, bounced through my body. All of my insides contracted, and I felt a little ill.

The whirring vibrations came again once the bouncing waves stopped. The thing was taken off my head and the sharp things came out of my arm. My arm was wrapped and I was put back onto the softer, warmer place I had been. I cried and tried to make myself smaller so they would stop, but I still couldn't move. Everything around me was silent as the bed came to a stop. Metal scraped against metal. I whined. Don't make me do this again. Please don't make me do this again.

A hand rested on my shoulder. "Nothing out of the ordinary," the monotone voice said.

The hand patted my shoulder before the two sets of hands I was familiar with touched me. The single layer was removed before they bundled me again in the many layers. I was set in a chair and pushed in many directions. Then the scraping and grinding came. I was lifted onto the soft seat before slamming joined the other two sounds. I swayed so my right and mostly lay down. When the seat started moving and jostling me a little, I felt okay to close my eyes and try to forget the horrors I had just passed through.