Day 393

Something strange had moved into the area and nobody could find it.
They'd all seen it, news spread fast around the estate.
No legs some said, hands for legs said others.
The general consensus as that it had no eyes and a gaping mouth.

Its difficult to get a single image from people who have all seen different sides of one creature.
Nobody quite knew what it looked like until they themselves saw it.
I saw it clearest when I was practising a gymnastics routine late at night.
Sherrie the landlady had a proper gym built near the laundrette, great gal she is, our Sherrie.

So there I was flipping and such, trying to get my routine set before the local competition.
I hear the door open and I assume its just one of the lads out for crunching some night.
The music felt louder with someone else in the room so being considerate I turn it down.
This weird gargled whimper came from near the door, I turn and its there.

Just sitting there by the door all hunched and somehow sad looking.
Well as sad as a creature with a giant mouth for a face can get.
It was a lot smaller than everyone kept saying and they'd missed a key feature - no arms.
Had this kind of one arm thing like you get by looping yours through a sleeve.

They got the legs right, it just had podgy stumps with widely spaced out fingers.
I tried to talk to it but I don't think it knew how to talk so I just turned up the music.
Kept my eyes on it and saw it wiggle about like a toddler dancing about.
In a strange way it was actually cute.

With the competition date coming closer I spread it around that nights at the gym were mine.
Most people accepted it, they were quite proud of me getting in you know.
It meant that I'd get 100% peace to practice with no distractions bar my one-person audience.
I got quite fond of the little fella, it just liked the music and I like its dancing.

Sometimes I'd toss an energy bar to it and it'd pick it up half in the handfeet and half bent down.
It liked honey grain and hated chocolate, was very vocal about that - let out such a whine!
Reminded me of my little cousin Jamie when he fell over, sad for show not for reals.
Made me proper laugh which made the poor thing jump about a foot!

The night before the competition I didn't go to the gym and I didn't go back for a week.
When I did I heard it whining in one of the equipment cupboards, tucked right at the back.
It had no eyes but it was actually crying, tears and everything.
Jumped right out when it noticed me, tried to hug me with its arm thing.

I can't believe it had missed me so much, had it been here the whole time?
I patted it on the head, I'd never seen it so close before.
It seemed to settle after a few minutes, breath settling so slow I thought it was asleep.
Tried to gently move it back only for it to fall to pieces.

It was like one of those old stretch dolls, its skin was almost melting on the floor.
Began to smell proper bad, like the hallway was full of mouldy eggs.
It was smiling though, this tiny satisfied little grin gradually melting like the rest of it.
By the time someone else came down it was nothing more than a wrinkled beige puddle.