The snake

 

Picture by @zoiageliki

The rain suddenly stops. It’s so hot. The cathedral’s golden bell resists calmly on top of the tower over the huge flat pool. Now the sweet rainwater is mixed with the sea, some mountains remain from afar I can’t believe this. There’s a blue bus sailing in the distance. My house is now water, my room is now water, water soaks my clothes that stick to my skin and today the sky is clearer than ever, and I still hear Max’s voice telling me you know what, they say drowning is the worst death apart from torture because you’ll always breathe and when the water fills your lungs they say it burns but you still breathe. I say the worst death’s dying alone or with the company of some floating corpses that peacefully slide through the water with a scream in their faces but I guess everyone dies that way like auntie Maudie she just fell and hit her head with the corner of the washing machine and there she rested. I see four dark little fish that swim and I envy them, maybe if I cut my throat with my nails I’ll have gills. There isn’t even a breeze of wind, not even a little wave it’s almost beautiful, far away the infinite glitter shines on the surface of this immense raft. Swallows fly in circles, they seem happy. It softly rains again, soon the water will slowly reach my rooftop, what a kind way. I used to love summer rain and the lullaby that said when it rains and it’s sunny, the witches comb their hair. When it rains and it’s sunny, the witches carry mourning. The worst torture must surely be the Chinese water torture, chained on a chair and the drops of water falling one by one until you go insane and bystanders watch, mock and laugh at you. It’s so hot. The little drops hit the water and make circles inside circles but all waters flatten in the end and this is the end. Will I leave any circles? A rainbow appears in the middle of the sky with all its colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet and a sweat drop slides down my forehead, the water will boil, bubbles will come up like furious jellyfish. After all I like this rooftop, I can still smell some drunken sweaty summer night when the earth was dry and we’d drink beer and we were teenagers and we all kissed each other because we were bored. First kiss in the school playground wall hidden corner and our friends are watching, one, two, three, we peck and then you run. How many liters are needed to cover all humans, I’m sure we’ve drunk and peed this amount of water in our whole life altogether now it’s just returning to kill us, really love that palm tree that’s still standing, it keeps me company. Thanks plastic chair for keeping me company as well I think I’ll go for a lil swim now. Just kidding. I wish all the things in my room were glued to the floor so I could just swim down and get inside the somehow dry blankets of my warm bed and just die there, they told us in the news that everything was going to shit and it was our fault.

My back itches under the soaked shirt and I take it off, and now I feel the fresh air and my cheeks are salty. I have a strip of dry dead skin on my finger so I peel it slowly and under it there’s shinier flesh, I keep peeling up my hand, the dry layer has the shape of my five fingers, then I get rid of my crusty left elbow and keep going, it tickles me and it’s fun and I peel my arm off, it’s such a relief. The heavy limb falls to the ground it looks like someone else’s. Now i’m scratching my chest with my remaining hand, everything’s dead skin it annoys me. My mom said don’t bite your nails, I said it’s not the nails it’s the skin. My body’s fresher now and cleaner, this giant lake that surrounds me is pretty fucking beautiful mom smelled of Coca-Cola. I bring my legs together I press them real hard until they hurt and I fall to the floor. I’m old and my skin is cold. My humid yellowish legs now intertwine with freedom, an acid apple candy flavor makes my tongue tremble, I feel the tiles cracks under my belly. I’m light and soft and I slither away.