A young girl’s story about perception
By a young Lyssa Myska Allen
What is this?
Why have I never noticed this?
My mouth is getting wet.
The liquid is building up.
I am going to drown.
What’s wrong with me?
Maybe I can spit it all out. All this excess liquid. I’ve never noticed it before.
Something must be wrong with me. Look how clean the wood floors are. They’re pretty. Longer planks are in my parents’ room. That’s where Daddy socks and shoes me every morning. It’s my favorite part of getting dressed. I bring my socks and shoes to Daddy, and we put them on together.
“One sock for you,” he says as I wiggle my toes into a white sock.
“One sock for me,” he says, and tries to put on my sock!
“No! No! No!” Silly Daddy! I always have to tell him not to wear my socks!
He laughs and says, “Okay, okay,” and pulls his own colored sock onto his big foot.
Daddy’s socks are almost always blue. Not just dark blue, but with little designs. Other colors are on some socks, like red and blue.
When we finish with the socks, it’s “One shoe for you… one shoe for me…” and he tries to put on my shoe!
“No! No! No!” I squeal again, laughing. That silly Daddy!
Ppppthh. I have to spit again to get rid of this liquid in my mouth. What is it doing?
I have to do something. I can’t spit on the bedspread anymore, it’ll get too wet.
This cup will work. Ppppthh. Ppppthh. Ppppthh. What’s going on? I want my Mommy. But I might have something wrong with me. There’s an air conditioning duct in the closet …
Mommy is here!
“What are you doing, baby?”
I spit again.
“Something is wrong with me! My mouth is all watery, but only a little bit each time, but as soon as I spit, it comes back again!”
Mommy strokes my hair with her gentle hands. She explains to me how people salivate and that you swallow spit, then it comes back, then you swallow it again. This goes on your whole life!
I’m going to be spitting for a very long time.
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