Peach Pit

I have a peach pit in my belly. Momma told me it’ll grow into a tree and sprout out of my mouth, she said it serves me right. She said I shouldn’t go around swallowing peach pits, but she said I shouldn’t spit ‘em out either. I don't argue with Momma.

I can feel it in my stomach; out of the pit, itty bitty roots have wriggled their way out. Whatever I eat it takes a little bit too. I ate extra chocolate pudding at lunch when Momma wasn’t looking so it’ll grow big and strong. When I’m in bed all alone and my room looks the same with my eyes shut and with them open I can feel it growing, little by little, inside of me.

On grey days when the sky is like Momma’s French onion soup and the rain whispers secrets to the pavement, the tree outside my window says hello. Swish, swish, pit, pat, swish, swish. I think that maybe I could understand what it’s saying now that I have a tree of my own inside me, but it isn’t a peach tree and I don’t think it’s talking to me. When I lay real flat I can feel a thump thump like my heart is beating in my tummy, I’m worried my peach tree is gonna try and grow out of my belly button. Tommy said I’m stupid, but he doesn’t talk to me much anymore. So I listen to my trees.

Miss Day said my peach pit is the size of a fist. That didn’t sound too big but I thought I could feel the branches creeping up my throat. Those little sticks scratched against the back of my throat and I coughed and coughed until Miss Day said that maybe I should come back a week from now. Momma didn’t say anything to me on the drive back home. The branches stayed.

I don’t go to school now but Lara Drummond saw me when I was with Tommy buying doughnuts at the big mall in the city. She waved at me but her Momma dragged her away before I could say hello. I know Lara likes doughnuts with pink icing just like me so I bought her one just in case I saw her again. The doughnut man looked at me funny, he must think I can’t eat two doughnuts all by myself. I tried to tell him that I was only eating one of them but Tommy walked away too quickly and I had to run to catch up.

I think my peach tree is getting too big. I feel heavy walking around like I’ve got a weight on my back and my front and each step is gonna crack the pavement. I used to be able to run like a rabbit and now I walk as slow as Momma. She said it’s a good thing so I can’t run off and leave her sight. Sometimes I wish I could just run and run and run and never stop.

When I look in the mirror I think about how my peach pit tree has taken up all of my insides. My bones are branches and my heart is filled up with leaves and my tree trunk stomach is too big for me. Maybe I'll grow roots out of my feet so I'm stuck in the ground and I'll never stop growing until the whole world is just my wood and bark. I think about how if I was that big I'd be strong and nothing could hurt me, not even Tommy when he kicks my shins when Momma isn't looking.

I was supposed to see Miss Day today but Momma took me to a different man called “call me Richard sweetheart”. He looked me up and down and shook his head and clucked like a chicken and I wish I could move but my tree limbs are stiff as a board. Momma's voice was all high and screechy when she talked to him and she barely even looked at me, not even when I was tugging on her shirt to tell her I needed to go to the toilet real bad. I just held it all in until Momma sighed and came with me.

Today is the day. They’re gonna cut my peach tree right out of me. I was scared at first but Momma said it’ll be a whole lot worse if they don’t and I won’t feel a thing. I got to wear a funny gown with little blue flowers and get wheeled around. Tommy pushed me on that chair so fast I thought I’d throw up laughing but Momma whacked him and said to stop or he had another thing comin’. She wheeled to me to a cold little room and I got all hooked up to machines like I was a cyborg in a movie. Momma said that they pumped me so fullah' pain killers that I wouldn’t feel it if she shot me right in the leg.

Those doctor people talk like you can’t hear them, I wanted to get angry but I couldn’t get my tongue to dance out the words and my head felt stuffed with cotton balls anyway. I was gonna just wave my arms around like a mad man but instead, my eyes stopped seeing and I was fast asleep.

All they said was, “here she is”. Dropped right into my arms a peach with all its flesh grown in around the pit and screaming and screaming. I couldn’t bear it, all that crying and wailing and so I shouted SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP and a nurse came and took it away from me. Every time I look at it, it looks like it’s rotting and dying and I can’t stand it. I just wanted Tommy but he never came into the room. Momma cooed and clucked at it like she couldn’t smell it dying and I closed my eyes. I couldn’t sleep but I kept my eyes closed. I decided I was never opening them again.

My peach pit escaped my belly. Momma said it serves me right. I don’t argue with Momma.