FREAKY FLASH FRIDAY: The Teeth of a Lover by Deepa Rajan

During long cold winters, I only have two things on my mind – food and sex – until one morning brought a third interest to the forefront: sewing. While strolling around the neighborhood, I happened upon an abstract artist working in his front yard, threading extravagant elastic strings into geometric shapes. After several failed attempts to catch his attention, I coyly walked closer and realized in relief that I had confused his myopia with disinterest. I complimented the patterning and then the shy artist took me on a tour of his impressive fabric collection. Newly emboldened, I asked him about what other talents he possessed, and he graced me with a dance, starting slow and soon whirling with alacrity towards the bullseye target design at the center of his patchwork quilt. I chased after him. Unable to contain ourselves and feeling especially deprived during this gloomy season, we leapt into a cavorting embrace, consecrating his fabrics with our love within the privacy of the garden fence.

The brief afterglow left an intense, primal hunger in its wake, for food is scarce during the winter. I faced a profound question: which do I value more, love or life? In a decision of agonizing practicality, I sunk my teeth into my lover’s side to savor his body in a way that nourished my stomach rather than my heart. I honored his memory by making a new home for myself in his silver tapestry, where my eight legs fit quite nicely.

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Deepa Rajan is a scientist and writer living in San Francisco. She is interested in the origins of intelligence, and studies how single cells make memories. Researching intelligence in strange creatures has taken Deepa to habitats across the world, from the Himalayas to the Amazon rainforest - with each field site providing plenty of source material for her writing.

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Photo by Wix