Analog Creatures

 The greatest lies are the ephemeral ones instilled in ourselves from external stimuli.

 

Alexis Bunker is about to learn this. As a child going through hormone treatment by supportive parents she lived a solitary life but a blissful one. Being homeschooled after ridicule from the peers of her small town… She mainly played video games to escape the cruel nature of reality. To much her distress her bourgeoise paradise came to a standstill when her parents car slide into a fatal crash on their way home due to the ice on the road. Alexis’s family largely disdained her since her transition. Her father’s proud reform Jewish dad whom lost his wife to cancer was the only one to auction for custody.

 

Alexis loved her grandfather who would instill her with a love for Judaic values. She was taught that she had a purpose to bring joy and happiness to all jews and goyim alike. Her grandfather would play video games with her and make her feel like she mattered in the world… Unfortunately much akin to her former world shattering experience her grandpa developed pneumonia. The doctors tried to treat his disease but Ralph Stein ultimately passed away at the age on 87.

 

Living off life insurance money she never passed the test to qualify for a degree or GED. She tried to get odd jobs here and there but was ridiculed and called a freak. She felt either ignored or scorned. As her financial world came crumbling down she couldn’t afford her treatment and to keep her video games. 

Faced with the terminal decision for her to give up her means of escape from a world destined to prove its cruelty to her and what kept her from feeling like a stranger in her own body she began to tear up. As the streams of saline came cascading down her cheeks she grabbed what remained of her medicine (two bottles) and engulfed the supply contrary to directions of one pill a day.

She decided to play a game… As she played and played the world began to spin. What was once the seemingly harmless stream of clear liquid became emblazoned as her mouth spewed a dark red volcano of blood. 

No visible person there to ask for help, but would they even assist her. She grasped her Star of David necklace contemplating if she even wanted a life let alone an afterlife. It would be okay if it all ended here.

 

That is not her story though, “Analog Creatures” is her story set in 1999 Pennsylvania.