The Cockroach Conundrum- Day 3 Prompt 1

Prose by Shayaan Bhimani

As I woke up feeling awfully tired today, I noticed that the clock had hit 1 already. This was extremely odd as I had gone to bed at 9 last night. Not only did I feel tired, I felt buried under my blanket. It felt as though I was being suffocated under the weight of my thin blanket. I felt small, as though my body had shrunk to the size of an insect. It was a dream, it just had to be.

However, as I moved my hand to pinch myself awake, nothing moved. I crawled out of my blanket and saw two lines sprouting from my face right in front of my eyes. And I realized why my hands refused to move earlier- I had 6 legs, not to mention two wings. Wings… I wondered what I had become. Something awful of course, but 6 legs meant I was an insect. No… it could not be. Yes, that's right… that awful, pointless being has no wings! At least I had avoided the worst case scenario… or so I thought. I had seen it. I had finally seen what I had turned into. A cockroach!

No way! What kind of sin had I committed to be punished to this extent? Surely, skipping one day of prayers could not have landed me this dreadful repercussion. This just had to be a dream. Because cockroaches did not have wings. Ah ha! I had cracked the code. But unfortunately for me, it was no dream.

Suddenly, I felt the need to grab a bite, anything would do. I was overcome with hunger. Except now that the shock of being a cockroach had made me fully conscious, I realized I had no idea how to use this new body that I had devolved into. Previously, I was only half awake, so I was able to traverse the terrain with ease. But now, there were several problems. First, I needed to know how to use this atrocious creature’s body to maximize its potential because I seemed to retain my human brain. Next, I needed to let my mom know that her beloved son had transformed into this ugly creature. And finally, I needed to figure out how to live as the nastiest organism in the universe. Well I had one thing going for me- I had not yet died to the insecticide sprayed around my room.

Over the next hour, I practice walking around my cabinet. It was surprisingly easy to walk with triple the amount of legs I was used to. I grew faster and faster to the point where I felt invincible. As a cockroach, I was able to comprehend the sheer volume of crumbs my human self had left on the carpet. No wonder there used to be cockroaches everywhere in my room. I felt ashamed at how quickly I had started to adapt to this abomination of a life form.

Next, I quickly learnt how to use my wings. It made sense why I had never seen a cockroach fly. My wings were more for gliding. So I decided to only use them whenever I needed to get from a high place to the ground to escape from humans or even other roaches.

Now then, I needed to figure out a way to inform my dear mother of this weird transformation. Surely, she is just going to have a gut feeling not to kill me. I mean mothers just have that weird intuition of theirs.

I made futile attempts at picking up human writing tools. At this point, I thought about using my own blood, but obviously that ended up being extremely painful. Here, I felt like giving up. But I just couldn’t. I just knew she would be worried sick if I just suddenly disappeared. And then I remembered… there was one thing I could do. After all, roaches were not the only insect that I saw everywhere in the house. Yes, there were ants. And like the wild beast that I had turned into, I decided my only option was to hunt.

I scurried all over the place, crushing ants under my relatively large legs. I laid their bodies to form tiny little letters on the paper towel that said- Me son. I used the least amount of words possible to keep my killing to a minimum. I even used their blood to extend their trails in the letters. Despite all that, I still had to end around 15 ants’ lives. I prayed for forgiveness from God, and just tried passing it off as a necessary sacrifice for the greater good.

So I waited and waited a bit more. I had to get this done before the sun set, or else, the ant trail would be almost impossible to see. I turned around to face the portrait of God’s messenger, closed my eyes, and engaged in deep prayer.

As I pulled my eyelids apart, I felt a huge shadow looming over me. My head dropped, and I was overwhelmed with grief. I guess it didn’t work out after all. I picked my head back up, and prepared to go to bed.

Huh? I-is that the sun? Wh-what? B-but then what was this shadow over me. As I looked up, I saw the sole of my own shoe coming crashing down towards me. I thought of running, but it was too late. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate. I didn’t even get to see who ended my pathetic life. How sad…

As I woke up feeling awfully tired today, I noticed that the clock had hit 1 already. This was extremely odd as I had gone to bed at 9 last night. Not only did I feel tired, I felt buried under my blanket. It felt as though I was being suffocated under the weight of my thin blanket. I felt small, as though my body had shrunk to the size of an insect. Wait… haven’t I experienced this before…