In a queue, adjusting my coat, to hide my neck, don’t want the horns I grow near my ears to be seen.
The horns keep coming back, I cut them off every few weeks. I am tired, not of them, of being so unable to be unaware of them. I want them gone. In the train I saw an ad, humans don’t have horns it said, only the ones who haven’t made it out of the jungle yet.
I looked around, it’s only me with my horns, but I am a city human, why do I have the body of a jungle dweller. I call the number on the ad, they say I should come urgently.
I enter the white box they call the city-human transition center. It’s cold and shiny. I don’t need to explain what I want, the horns are all it takes for them to know.
They sit me down in a room with infinite light and mirrors on all six sides. There are horns in more places than I could have seen. The kind city-human from the phone call comes, explains to me what needs to get done. It will be painful, but we all did it and once you do it, you feel so free, free from your jungle identity.
Do you have any questions?
When will I be free?
Two months and twenty days, but this is step one, transitioning to a city human requires a few more things. After the horns are gone, we will seal your ears and sew your mouth, then will come the plaster with a built in smile. The plaster will stay for a few more months, during this time you will be a little stunt but when we hammer the plaster, under it you’ll find a whole new mind, fit for the city, free of the jungle worries.
What if someday I find myself back in the jungle?
Jungle is only to get lost, finding yourself is a city phenomenon.
What if I want to go back to the jungle?
You can’t. The jungle dwellers would kill you for being different than them.
But the city dwellers didn’t kill me.
City humans are evolved. They don’t need to kill you, only your identity.