Eli was standing in the sun. He’d been in the lab for hours. There were no windows, it was too cold, and he thought he might go crazy if he heard one more mouse shriek. A slight breeze blew, chasing the scent of mouse piss and wood chips from his nostrils. Leaves rustled in the trees. It was warm. He pushed up his sleeves and closed his eyes, imagining being rooted to the spot, just growing. Nothing more complicated than that. His scientist’s brain started to argue that actually, a tree’s growth was pretty complicated, but he took a deep breath and shut off the voice. He was just flesh, standing in the sun. And it felt so good.
Something tickled his hand and he looked down, thinking it might be a bug. It wasn’t a bug though, somehow a dandelion seed had stuck to him, its little bit of fluff waving in the breeze. He pinched the fluff and pulled, but it was really stuck. Bringing his hand up to his face he could see that the seed had somehow embedded in his skin. Was this a thing dandelions did? It couldn’t be. He tried to remember if he knew anyone in the botany department. In the meantime, he pulled harder. His skin tented up, but the seed didn’t come loose. It didn’t even budge. As he stood there, perplexed, the breeze picked up again. A cloud of dandelion seeds floated around him, he batted at them frantically before remembering he wasn’t a tree, he could run.
So he did. Back inside the building’s lobby he lifted his hand to his face. Now a cluster of seeds sprouted from his hand and partway up his arm.
“Shit!” He brushed at them, but they were already embedded. Adrenaline pumped through him and he pulled hard on a seed stuck in his forearm. The seed popped from his flesh, a little root already sprouting from its shell. Eli felt woozy and dropped to an overstuffed chair nearby. This could not happen. It didn’t make any sense. He began frantically pulling out the seeds in his arm. Blood began to ooze from the wounds and he ran to the bathroom where he wrapped his arm in paper towels as he weeded his own arm. Finally he came to the first seed, he pulled. It wouldn’t budge. A little harder and the seed wriggled free of his skin, a plump white root ran from the seed into his hand. He pulled harder. More of the root slid out of the wound, but it didn’t end. He pulled more, realizing he could feel it tugging from inside his arm, like an internal itch.
How deep did the root go? Panic welled inside him. He had to get to help. He had to get back to lab. He wasn’t thinking clearly, but Jenny and Sung always thought clearly. He turned to leave the bathroom and the world went black. Then bright. He saw the sun again, its light muted through green leaves. A wrinkled hand came into view. It held a dandelion, a pure white fluff ball.
“I wish for vitality.” The voice filled his head, filled every cell in his body.
And Eli’s world went black, for the final time.
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