Human Spines

Who Names Their Child Glen?

Emmeline

        There's a tall, buff black man with astonishingly green eyes sitting across from me. His hair's short, just a shadow of an afro. He wears a dark green button-down shirt and a baby. Well I guess he's not wearing the baby, but it's on him. Dressed in a tiny lavender dress, the baby's sitting on his lap, trying its hardest not to fall over. Her eyes are the second most amazing I've ever seen. Shiny black orbs I can see my reflection in. Dumaine's eyes are only better because of how wide he always opens them. Like right now, I can see the whites all around his irises. Oh, wait no, now he's grinning and instead of his eyes I can see his two big front teeth.

        "I hope you're hungry. We're in the dining car. Here." He passes me a menu. "Lochlan's bought us dinner."

       "See, no need to attack him... Who are they?" I whisper, keeping my eyes on my menu. We're squeezed into a booth, the two across from us sharing our table.

        "I have no clue," he whispers back. I read my food choices, trying to determine what to eat, but the orange, scaly arm poking from the wall keeps pointing at the one thing on the menu I don't want. My eyes wonder the train car and it's two rows of miniature booths filled with people. I peer up at the strangers. They seem nice enough.

        "Hello, my name is Emmeline, and this is my friend, Dumaine. Well I guess his name isn't actually Dumaine, but it's what I call him. This is my first train ride. Did you specifically try to match your shirt to your eyes when you got dressed?" I ask.

        "I'm sorry, I didn't catch all of that, but my name's Glen and this is my daughter, Malinda. We're on our way to New York to visit some family." His voice is low and calming. But his name is Glen. Who names their child Glen?

        "Malinda's a beautiful name! My father would approve. But Glen... who names their child Glen? Is there a reason your name's Glen? Did your parents secretly hate you? Were they aware of— Where's Lochlan?" I turn to Dumaine. I really have no idea how he disappeared.

        "You weren't even trying to be polite, were you?" Dumaine whispers. Was I? No, not really.

        "Where'd Lochlan go? How'd he disappear?"

        "I don't know, he was just gone." He twists back to Glen and Malinda. "Sorry about that. She gets carried away sometimes."

        "It's perfectly fine..." Glen's talking but I'm watching the scaly hand protruding from the wall. It's reaching past me, all the way to Dumaine's hand, nervously tapping songs on the table. The orange claws are curling into a fist. It's coming down on Dumaine's hand, about to smash it like a bug but I'm faster than the Demon. My hand darts out and snatches Dumaine's, dragging it under the table. The Demon's hand slams down on the plastic, putting a nice round dent where Dumaine's fingers had just been. I smirk and watch as the arm disappointedly slinks back into the wall.

        "Have ya'll decided what you'd like?" A waitress suddenly asks, standing at our booth. I completely forgot to pay attention to the menu. Too late. Glen's started ordering. Dumaine looks alarmed as he orders, his cheeks flush, like he forgot to pay attention, too. The scaly hand returns from the wall, pointing to what it wants from my menu. Fine.

        I brush my hair away from my face, lightly smile, slowly point to the Demon's choice and read it aloud, speaking clearly. I smile fully as she nods and leaves. Sometimes it's fun pretending to be an unpossessable human girl, others it's awkward because I'm doing it wrong.

        Glen's talking with Dumaine and I know half of my brain's listening to them but the more exciting half is dancing around the fact that Malinda's definitely attempting to communicate with Dumaine by reaching out with her stubby fingers, grasping, silently opening and closing her hand. She stares at him as he listens to her father. Her hand squeezing into a trembling fist then opening exaggeratedly, each chubby finger splayed for only a moment before crushing back into itself. What's she trying to say? I wasn't conscious while Dessie May was this young. Babies have always confused yet fascinated me.

        I watch Malinda's hand. Open, open. Open, open. Open, open. It has a rhythm to it. Like a heartbeat. Like the pulse I can feel in my left hand. The pulse I saved then forgot to let go of. In perfect synchronization, I feel and watch Dumaine's heartbeat as the baby broadcasts it for everyone to see. But just to be sure...

        I lean into Dumaine, whispering in his ear, "What would you do if I told you there's a Demon on your lap?" while watching Malinda's hand. It speeds up immediately, still in sync with the pulse in his wrist. This is amazing! How's she doing this?!

        I twist to tell Dumaine, but this time the Demon's faster.

Thank you for reading! Don't forget to vote and comment! What do you think's up with Malinda? Where do you think Lochlan went? What kind of person names their child Glen? (No offense to anyone named Glen, I actually quite like the name but Emmeline clearly doesn't)