A Surreal Encounter on the Planet of True Being

Short Fiction

A flower was growing out of her cheek, I thought that was odd, but not impossible.

I stepped towards her and asked,

“Do you have any idea what time the train is to arrive?”

She looked at me as though I was a tiger after her baby,

well, maybe not a tiger after her baby,

more like I was a monkey after her purse.

Why a monkey?

Because I felt mischievous and simian at the same time,

 not quite human, ya know?

Anyways, she looks at me strange and then plucks a petal from the flower that is growing out of her cheek and places it in the palm of my hand.

I close my hand and feel a squirming, 

When I open it again, there are 3 baby mice all pink and blind and hairless.

She picks the mice out of my hand one by one and flicks them into her mouth,

catching them with a forked reptilian tongue.

I hear a screeching and hissing coming from up the track,

a train is pulling into the station at a very high rate of speed.

The front of the train is jet black with a giant buffalo head for a grill.

Long flowing black ribbons glide all along the length of the train and they take on the undulating form of a black, glistening river.

The train stops and immediately turns into a series of giant glass blocks.

Ghostly spirits are moving about in these glass blocks and sounds of ancient voices emanate from inside.

The lady with the flower in her cheek turns to me and says,

“Tell me about your dreams”.

I think for a moment, open my mouth to respond

and a tiny bird with a head like a fox flies out.

“Very interesting. . .” she says.

“Very interesting indeed”