Catspeaksart

   “Turn that thing off Shell, it’s time to go to school!” Shell’s Dad called down the stairs to where she sat on the couch. Shell rolled her eyes to the back of her head, and lifted the remote to click the box off. She hefted herself up off the sofa, and grabbed her backpack on her way out the door to the bus stop. 

   “Hey Shell!” Shell’s friend Marisa called to her from the stop. 

   “Hey.” Shell waved a hand as she approached. 

   “So did you catch that show last night, the one about the team of ninjas undercover as supermodels?” Marisa asked at the bus screeched to a halt, and they climbed up the steps. 

   “Yeah.” Shell nodded. “It was so lame, I mean how did they even run in those high heels? Let alone kick butt.” 

   “The heels were used for weapons.” Marisa shrugged defensively. Shell shook her head, and relaxed against the black plastic bench. 

   “Well, are you going to watch the sequel that’s on tonight?” Marisa asked. 

   “Sure I guess so. There’s nothing else to do.” Shell shrugged. 

   The girls trudged through the school day with nothing more then the promise of relaxing in front of the TV to ease them through the work. This day was not unlike very many other days that they had spent together. 

   “I’ll see you tomorrow!” Marisa called over her shoulder as the friends parted at the bus stop. 

   “See you!” Shell returned the goodbye.

   “How was school?” Dad asked from the kitchen, where he was preparing dinner. 

   “Fine.” Shell said as she flopped down on the couch, dropping her backpack on the floor beside her. 

   “Did you learn anything new?” Dad continued the conversation as he pushed an onion off of a cutting board and into a skillet. 

   “Yeah.” Shell mumbled as she clicked on the TV. She surfed through the channels with a vacant stare, and stopped occasionally to watch a program as her Dad cooked in the kitchen. 

   ”Shell dinner!” He shouted to her a while later.

   “Okay, I’m coming god!” She said as Shell hoisted herself off of the sofa.

   “Well, I called you about twice Shell. Didn’t you hear me?” Her father asked as Shell, and her Mom sat down at the kitchen table. 

   “No.” She said. 

   “Okay, well turn the volume down next time.” Dad instructed as he scooped a load of pasta onto a plate. He passed it to Shell, and she glazed it with tomato sauce before scooping a forkful into her mouth. Shell chewed slowly, then set her fork down. 

   “Is there something weird about this spaghetti?” She asked aloud. Her parents each took a bite, and shook their heads. 

   “I don’t taste anything out of the ordinary.” Her Mom said around her mouthful of pasta. Shell took another bite, and scrutinized the flavor. 

   “It doesn’t taste like anything.” She concluded. Her Dad looked at the pot of homemade sauce and shrugged. 

   “Maybe you’re coming down with a cold.” He said. Shell shrugged again, and took another bite.

   “Yeah. I Guess.” She said. 

   After dinner, Shell returned to her spot in front of the TV to watch the sequel of the program that she and Marisa had discussed earlier. When the show ended, Shell straightened off of the couch, and climbed the stairs to get ready for bed. She stripped off in the bathroom, and turned the water on then waited for it to warm up. Shell waited for a few minutes, but the water still felt cool to the touch.  

   “Honey, are you almost done in there?” Shell’s Mom asked outside of the door. “I just need to get something real quick.”

   “Um, no.” Shell frowned at the stream of water. “I think there’s something wrong with the hot water.” 

   “What?” Her Mother asked. Shell wrapped herself in a towel, and opened the door. 

   “Look, I have it turned all the way to hot, but it still feels cold.” She described the problem. Shell’s Mom reached forwards at pushed her hand under the water. She jumped back a moment later with a yelp. 

   “What are you talking about, this water is boiling!” Mom said, running her hand under the cold water of the sink. Shell hesitantly dove her fingers into the stream of water again, and left it there without any sign of discomfort. 

   “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It feels like it’s two degrees below room temperature.” Shell shook her head in confusion. 

   “Well I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s going to get any hotter then that.” Shell’s Mom said with a shake of her head. Shell shrugged, and closed the door behind her mother as she exited. She took a shower under the mysteriously room-temperature water, and jumped slightly when she looked in the mirror. Her face and body were bright red. The water had burned her skin it was so hot. Shell turned her face from side to side, examining the damage. She hadn’t felt a thing under the faucet – how did this happen? Shell shrugged, and reached for the hairbrush. Maybe she had a reverse fever or something. 

   “Shell get up now!” Dad shook his daughter back and forth under the covers of her bed until her eyes blinked open. She looked around confusedly for the culprit that woke her before her alarm went off. 

   “What – what?” She rolled over on her mattress, and felt for her blankets. She stared around at the walls with her hand clutched at her throat until Shell found her fathers face, and she reached forwards to grab at his shirt. 

   “Dad, I can’t feel anything!” She shouted . “I can’t feel anything at all!” She rubbed her fingers over the fabric of his blue polo shirt, and stared openly at her fingers. 

   “What’s going on!” She screeched. 

   “Hold on, calm down!” Dad took her face in his hands, and rubbed his hand across her forehead. Feel this attempt to comfort her. 

   “Dad dad – help me!” She screeched again. Dad searched around wildly for something that could be of assistance. 

   “Just wait a second!” He said in a rush. “I’m going to call the doctor.” Shell nodded with fear evident in her eyes, and sat back against her pillow. Dad dashed out of the room, to return a few minutes later with a bowl of dry cereal in his hand. 

   “Eat while we drive to the doctor’s office.” He passed her the bowl of breakfast, and Shell slipped her sneakers on over her bare feet. She didn’t touch the cereal until they were in the car, and when she did Shell was startled into another screech. 

   “I can’t taste!” Dad veered to the side of the road as he whipped his head around to stare at his daughter. 

   ”Just wait.” He said to her, and put his hand on her shoulder. Dad drove ten miles over the speed limit as the car and the car sped down the road.

   Shell and her father ran through the process of finding the doctor, and waited impatiently for her to arrive in the secluded section of the sanitary hospital room. 

   “Hello.” The doctor said as she walked in, and turned to sit in her wheeled stool. 

   “So what seems to be the problem?” The doctor asked as she turned to face Shell.

   “She can’t taste anything.” Dad said with carefully measured calm. ”Or feel the table she’s sitting on.” He continued. “She can’t feel, or taste anything.” He said. 

   “Can she see?” The doctor asked. 

   “Yes.” Dad nodded. 

   “Smell?” Dad looked to Shell with a question mark in his eyes. She raised a hand to her nose, and sniffed for the familiar scent of her hand lotion. She shook her head with her brows pulled together in a worried expression.

   “Hm.” The doctor nodded. “Well, I’m going to put you through a basic physical examination, and then a blood test.” She said, as she scribbled a note in her book. Shell nodded her head, and slouched back on the examination table. 

   The doctor went through the process of Shell’s tests, and then turned with an apologetic shrug. 

   “I’m so sorry, but as far as my test results go, you’re completely healthy.” Shell and her father glanced back and forth anxiously, and Shell bit her lip to cry tears that she couldn’t feel. 

   “What should we do?” Shell’s father asked weakly. 

   “I really don’t know.” The doctor shook her head. “I’ve never dealt with anything like this. But, I suppose that she needs to rest for now, and don’t put any strain on her eyes. Since she can still see, and hear, there must be something curable about her condition.” Shell’s father nodded. 

   “And you need to alert me to any changes – any at all. I’ll get the blood test results to you as soon as they are available.” She added. Shell’s father nodded again, and looked to his daughter. Shell was crying in horrified sobs at this point – just imagining the life ahead of her – one lacking completely in any form of feeling. 

   When Shell and her father had returned home, she walked straight through the living room to the TV. What she felt like she needed right now was the comfort of not needing to feel anything. Dad went to the computer to do some research. He felt useless simply waiting for the test results, and wanted to do something on his own. He searched for hours – on a wild goose chase for any information on this condition that didn’t exist.

   Dad sighed and sat back in the computer chair. he could hear the TV on in the other room, and he remembered what the doctor had said about not putting any strain on Shell’s eyes. He stood up from the chair and walked straight to the bookshelf in the corner of the office. He pulled a book off of the shelf that he hadn’t held in a long time - The Princess Bride. He hadn’t read this book in a while, but he could still remember the thrill that traveled up his spine every time the characters were confronted with a difficult situation. He had always felt as though he weren’t simply holding the book, staring at the pages – he had felt like he were a part of the story. 

   “Shell?” He stood in front of his daughter with the book in his hands. Shell looked up with eyes glazed from watching the TV. He crossed the floor, and turned the box off. Shell didn’t know what her Dad was doing, but at this point she didn’t much care. 

   Dad sat down at the end of the couch and cracked the book open to the first page. He cleared his throat, and began reading to his daughter. 

   Shell quickly became attached to the characters, and would think their problems through with them, as they experienced the issues themselves. This was nothing like watching TV, she had to think about picturing the scenes in her head – had to imagine for herself what the characters would look like, and what their voices would sound like if they were actually talking. She made them into real people. 

   Shell’s eyes began to droop shut where she sat on the couch. Dad let the book slide shut, and pulled an afghan over her. She fell asleep dreaming about far away palaces, and enchanted royalty. 

   After her sleep, Shell’s eyes fluttered open and she turned her head to the side on the couch cushion. She squinted in the light, and smiled when she smelled Dad cooking dinner in the next room.

   “So are you going to watch that new show that’s on tonight – the one about the magic boxing gloves?” Marisa asked as she stood with Shell at the bus stop. 

   “No, I started this really good book that I want to finish.” Shell said.