Writing for Fun
July 2017
Déjà Vu - Jan Norman
Slowly I returned to full consciousness. Before gaining full sight I sensed changes happening within and around the entity that was me. I began to feel sensations in a body I previously had not been aware of, feel that it was a vibrant, sensitive body. A soft light was penetrating the amber translucency of my prison and warmth was seeping into the core of my being. I felt alive – yes that was the word – as if I had been asleep for eons but how could this be?
I was now aware that I was head down, suspended by I know not what, anchored to my cell by tight bonds that swaddled my feet.
Instinctively I wriggled violently trying to relieve the cramping in my limbs and to burst out of this unnatural confining space. Suddenly the wall above my head split with a sharp snapping sound and my senses were overwhelmed with an avalanche of sensory experiences not felt so far in this lifetime. I sensed rather than saw raw sunlight and breathed clean fresh air.
Joy surged through me as the way of escape loomed and I renewed my efforts to chafe cold once immobile limbs into action and escape as soon as possible.
I thrust my head through the opening and scrabbled to gain purchase on the broken edge with my front limbs. Gripping tightly to the outside of my suspended goal I hauled my entire body through and hung swinging in the warm air far above the ground.
Trembling with the sheer effort and trying to process the flood of sensory perceptions bombarding me like physical darts I crawled up over the plastic like shell that had held me for so long until I reached the very pinnacle of its being and could grasp the hard rough wood.
Here I clung with both front limbs around the pole until I found sufficient strength to find footholds for my lower limbs. Once safely anchored I relaxed and began analysing my situation, trying to make sense of things.
Basking in the warm air I was gaining strength by the minute and could feel my blood coursing through my body giving me form and energy.
Why was I here? What was the purpose of my existence? Why had I got the strange feeling that I had been here before but not as I am now?
My senses told me that I had experienced the same sights, sounds and feelings a long while ago but something was different.
Thoughts or racial memories skittered around the edge of my understanding but truth eluded me.
Suddenly I realised that I had other more compelling urges to be satiated. Hunger tore at my innards. The smell of sweet nectar wafted across my antenna. Pheromones called enticingly; many potential mates were calling.
I flexed my now fully inflated wings, iridescent in the noon sunlight and launched myself skyward. I had a new life to live.