Brenda Basnett
Leek u3a
West Midlands region
The Journey
I was conceived at three minutes and 20 seconds after 8.
There were no big fireworks, just a gentle meeting of the strongest, and I knew he was mine. We met, embraced, and became one. This would be our making. Together forever as one.
It was a bit of a journey after that. I caught the tube and had the ride of my life for 3 days, Travelling through oviductal districts, dense with a damp nothingness, with lots of bumps and bends.
I didn’t know where I was going, so I just closed my eyes and went with the flow. Until it finally came to a halt to let me off at my new home.
It felt strange at first this new place. But the light warm duvet was soon enveloping me and making me feel it’s where I should be.
When I awoke, I looked around. There was lots of space to grow and move. I was already attached to this place and fully expected that I would be happy here.
So, I set about making it my own. There was a nothing view, but after a while I would get used to that, and the obscure noises that infiltrated the walls. I quite liked those.
But after a period, I came to realise the landlords did not like me very much. Did they even know I lived in here! I guess not.
It seemed week after week they were doing their best to evict me. With smoke, by flood or with a strange substance they sent through the place. The one that always made me sick.
But I am resilient, and I am growing. Even though the mealtimes are inadequate and scarce. My only job is to just hang on, for the long months of my stay here.
I have my own warm pool to swim in every day and night, with my air chamber and safety cord. I am learning more every day.
I am discovering a lot on my journey. That I love loud rowdy music and am usually still moving to it at 2am in the morning. Then just sleep the rest of the day.
That I detest the hot stuff, which makes me burn and the fizzy air which gives me the hiccups. And I like to lie awake in the night.
And I adore the sugar because it gives me my energy to move around. But the room is getting smaller now, and the opaque walls seems to be closing in on me.
Sometimes, I feel lonesome, and I try and kick the door. Waiting for the return knock of a resting hand, but it never comes. It never did.
I am thin, but my heart is so strong. It beats for a life I want. I take the nourishment when I can. And so, I will stay cocooned in my sheltered world for the next few weeks or so.
But now, suddenly there is storm come, in my home. Buffering and bruising, rocking, breaking the water and taking the air. And I feel afraid. As I am not ready to leave just yet.
But my place is gone now, and I can live here no more. There is nowhere left to go but out the door and into the storm. And that’s when the warm rain came.
I was born at one minute and 10 seconds after four.
My mother was just 15 and I guess I was the most unexpected thing to happen in her life.