I woke up in the school parking lot with a headache. It was dark and the street lights above me illuminated parallel parking lines all across the floor, glistening with beads of dusk’s early sweat. It was foggy, the lights above the doors of the large brick building appeared as cushions of warm light. I got up and walked to one of the doors but they wouldn’t open. I pressed my face to the glass and tried to see if anyone was inside but all I saw were the dark shades of lockers that lined the halls.

I walked away from the building and checked my pockets. I had two keys and a car clicker. I checked the parking lot and saw a single car that loomed on the edge of visibility. I tried clicking the button to see if it was mine and got no response. I walked closer to see if the clicker was just a little too far but the car wouldn’t respond.

I looked around back at the school. It went left and right pretty far in both directions and the fog made it impossible to see where it ended. I decided the car was still my best bet. I couldn’t see the end of the parking lot either. The closer I got to the car the further it went back and no matter how much I walked out, the school still stared back at me. It was only one floor. Brown, multicolored brick lined the sides of the building and the roof made it look to be almost like a castle or fort. I passed a sign that said Calypso Elementary in bold black letters. The white sign turned almost green over the years and the grass at the base was overgrown and rotten.

The car was a white sedan with no logos on it. There was duck tape on the bumper and the left tail light was smashed. I walked up slowly to the car. I peeked in and jumped back when I saw the woman wrapped in winter clothes, shivering, staring right back at me.

I just stood outside of the car. I didn’t run away and I didn’t walk back to the window. She looked so cold and so scared. Her eyes were as wide as the moon but her pupils trained exactly on me. I saw her slowly rise to the window to watch. She pulled down her scarf to show her face. I saw her shivering. She raised her hand and removed the mitten with her teeth and spit it out onto the floor of the car. She raised her bony finger to her lips to shush me, I guess I was breathing heavy or making some sort of noise but it shut me up. I held my breath so tight I thought my lungs were going to pop. She leaned into the window and fogged it up. She wrote with her bony finger “Don’t” and then pointed to the school. I gestured to myself and then toward her, asking if she’d let me in the car. She shook her head no.

I approached the school cautiously, wanting to walk along the side oof the building until I reached some sort of end point on the property. I figured I’d hit a fence or see some sort of way out of the parking lot. I kept walking and walking, running my hand across the brick wall; feeling the cracks and running a finger through the line in the brick before I got to a door. I’d always stop to peek and see nothing but the lockers or occasionally a larger intersection of halls.

I stumbled across a flag pole from time to time and found the flag to be unrecognizable; a couple stripes and a star or two but the colors were all wrong. I kept walking.

Eventually I came to an open field with a playground. I heard the creaking of the swingset and saw it move in blurry strokes in the fog. I heard the patter of footsteps and faint whispers. Little giggles and childish sounds radiated from the area.

I didn’t know if I should approach. I didn’t belong on a playground, there comes a time when one is banished from that space and I was long there. But I needed to know how to leave. Maybe they knew. I took a breath and walked to the playground.

As I approached the sounds began to die off. I saw them as shadows dancing in their palace. They all had abandoned whatever they were doing and took position in the tower. I couldn’t make them out but I could tell they were looking at me.

“Hello?”

“What are you doing here?” They said.

“Just looking for the way out.”

They just stared.

“Can you help me?”

They began to approach.

A few slid down the tube slide and formed a wall and others climbed down the tiny rock wall or ladder or fire pole. They were all eventually aligned in an interlocked wall of bodies.

They walked forward and I walked back. They began to run so I did too. I ran the way I came and I kept turning to watch them get closer and closer. I got to the car and I tried to get in. One jumped onto my back, bringing me down to the floor. As they piled on and rained torment on me the sky opened up and the fog disappeared and I saw the lady in the back of the car with her hand up to the glass. I think she was crying for me.

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The phone rang yet again. Jay paced back and forth in front of it, he figured it was the same person who called the last 5 times it rang this morning. Jay would pick up and hear nothing but breathing, gargling and crunching, just little sounds to let him know there was someone listening to him on the other end. Jay contemplated picking it up, he knew it was probably just a bunch of punks playing a prank on him. Jay used to do the same thing when he was a kid. He knew anger was what they wanted, he didn’t want to feed them. The phone stopped ringing and Jay breathed a sigh of relief but nearly ripped the phone out of the wall when it rang again.

Jay answered with the anger he promised he wouldn’t show. “Alright, you’ve had your fun. Leave me alone! I swear, you must leave me alone or I’ll-”

“Jay?” The voice on the other end revealed itself. The voice sounded like a woman’s, a soft spoken one. Jay was stunned. “Can you hear me Jay?” Jay weighed the options on who this woman could be: the redhead waitress at the diner around the corner with the thick rimmed glasses? The brunette from the office? That beautiful blonde he gave his number to when he went to that dive bar all those months ago? Or was it just a cousin he hadn’t heard from with some bad news? He hoped it was the blonde.

“Yes. I’m here. I can hear you,”

“Thanks for finally answering dummy, I’m calling to let you know we’re on the way! I can’t wait to see you!” She sounded so enthusiastic and all Jay could think was what for?

“I don’t – who are you? I’m not expecting company,” He decided to be up front. If this was still a joke, why would they tell him she was coming over? And if he did know her, she should have no problem telling him her name. He was forgetful, he knew that and anyone calling him like this should know that too.

“Jay, don’t be silly. We’ve had these plans for weeks. You know who I am,” She said playfully.

“N-no I don’t know you! Why are you calling me?” He snapped back.

“Because silly, I’m coming over,”

“Listen, I’m not going to have a stranger come over. Tell me who you are,”

“Silly, I’m no stranger. I’m leaving for the subway now, it’ll only be 20 minutes,” She hung up. Jay put his phone down, dumbfounded. He was sure he’d remember if he had plans, especially with a lady. He usually spent his time sitting comfortably cramped and alone in his studio apartment. He had a small T.V perfectly placed on his nightstand at perfect eye level. He stayed up watching whatever: police procedurals, kids cartoons, “adult” cartoons most enjoyed by middle school boys, game shows he never knew the rules of and old 50’s horror movies that played on the public access channel with the geriatric host dressed like Dracula. His favorite were the music documentaries about those one hit wonders he liked as a kid. He liked seeing that they were up to nothing nowadays. Jay passively watched most of the time keeping his mind occupied with dreams, delusions and desires.

He paced around the tiny table 10 feet from his bed in the kitchen corner of his apartment, the one that had bags of takeout and dirty dishes that couldn’t fit into the sink piled up in towers taller than Jay. It had to be a joke. He had spent the last few minutes thinking of the last time he had spoken to a girl. She said they had these plans for weeks but the last time he spoke to a girl was the nurse when he visited his mother last month and they didn’t make any plans. He remembered how red he got when she asked him how he was doing. He’d rather her remain professional; Jay didn’t want to talk about anything with the nurse except his mother while she was in the room and couldn’t think of a strategy to get her in a room alone. He doesn’t even know what he would talk about. He’d been able to work from home with special arrangements since his mother got sick. He just couldn’t bear to be in the office. He didn’t like it there to begin with. The men scared him and the women just made him so nervous. He stayed in his cubicle and did his work. He didn’t really need to talk to anybody.

He thought about that time Frank asked him to go to the bars with a few of the guys. Frank always tried to include Jay but they all repulsed him. When Jay declined after his pestering, Frank just called him a pussy and stopped his efforts. Now, the office sends someone to his apartment twice a week: on Monday to drop off his work and on Friday to pick it up. Jay liked this system. He’d bring his stack of papers to the little desk in the corner by the bathroom and get everything done by the end of Monday. He was faster without the constant anxiety of approach and he didn’t mind sitting there until everything was done. It gave him six straight days of solace. He left every Wednesday to get his groceries and spend a bit of time in the park. He liked to linger around the trees and try to find the highest points in the park where he could look over everything. He’d never been in the woods but figured this was as close as he could get in the city. He appreciated the clean air of the park. The streets were full of wildly different smells and didn’t relieve him of the stuffy, stinky smells of his apartment. The rest of his days were spent in bed watching television, getting up only to make popcorn, buttered noodles or use the bathroom.

When Jay left his apartment on Wednesdays and walked the crowded city sidewalks he didn’t stare straight ahead like most people. He insisted on making eye contact with as many people as he could, savoring any bit of forced human connection he could muster. Most people made faces at him which Jay found strange; he wasn’t ugly though he wouldn’t consider himself attractive either. At the grocery store he would shop quickly and leave as fast as he could. He would go to the same cashier everytime. Her name tag said Mary. She reminded him of his mother. He would smile and she would smile back without having to exchange the word. She seemed nice but outside of Jay’s world. He didn’t think it was her that was calling.

The phone rang again. He checked the clock. It had been 20 minutes. He answered.

“Jay! I’m here! Y’know, I forgot what apartment you lived in. Let me know which one and buzz us up!”

Jay hesitated. Was he just going to let this stranger up to his apartment? He still didn’t know who she was or what she wanted. And did she say “us”?

“Jay? Hello? Are you there, silly?” Jay wandered over to his window with the phone still to his ear, silent. He looked outside and saw the usual specters floating around to wherever they needed to be. “Jay, honey? Helloooooo…”

“Where are you,” Jay responded.

“Don’t be silly, I’m here.”

“But where. Please.”

“At the phone booth on the corner. I’ll wave”

Jay immediately looked to the phone booth and saw her. He saw her top half, waving toward his building. She wasn’t looking right at him and Jay didn’t have the best vision but he knew he didn’t recognize her. She had long dark hair and a pale complexion. She found him and met his gaze and Jay felt as if she was staring right through him. He froze on her, he couldn’t get a word out.

“I see you Jay! Why don’t you let us up? You know I can’t stand for too long,”

His eyes moved past her and to the strange woman wobbling in circles next to the phone booth. She walked almost like a chicken, putting emphasis on extending her leg forward to place her foot when she walked. The strange woman stopped and started staring at something on the ground, cocking her head like a bird.

“Jay! Come on,” The girl on the phone pouted, holding on the ‘N’. “Please just let us up! I need to see you,” Well, she was cute Jay thought and he was in no position to be turning away any cute girls from his apartment. He didn’t even have to do anything. He didn’t see the harm in just seeing what she wanted.

“Well you know my place isn’t the neatest right now…”

“It’s ok silly! Your place is never neat. Just buzz us up!”

“Ok, head to the door,”

“Thank you silly! I’ll see you in a minute,” She hung up and looked right at Jay, smiling. He put his phone down and watched her to see her move from the booth to the building. Really get a good look at her. But she wouldn’t move. Anytime Jay looked like he was going to avert his gaze or step away from the window, he’d notice the slightest motion away from him. She looked at him like a predator that’s been spotted by its prey. And she kept smiling. Eventually Jay realized this was a contest he’d lose and he stepped away from the window. Almost immediately from stepping away from the window he heard the buzz of his door. Jay buzzed her up. He began to pace around his apartment. He felt his heart begin to race and his heart begin to thump. He imagined this going well, he imagined a future in which he could stop being alone. He imagined walking with her hand in hand, showing everybody that Jay was not by himself. He was happy that this being had called upon him. Happy to be important to someone. She seemed into him and Jay decided that it would be best to go play along. She didn’t seem malicious and if she was, Jay has made no commitment thus far. He could simply just scream at her to leave him alone and she would. Women don’t like to be screamed at.

Jay looked around his room and compulsively began to clear the clutter. He was running around, garbage bin in hand, tossing plastic trays, cups and cutlery with half eaten chicken tenders and hamburgers. He always forgot how much his place smelled. He only had to smell it once a week when he came back from his errands on Wednesday. He’d walk through that door and immediately be hit with the must and mold of his domain. He opened a window to try and get most of it out. He reset the throw pillows on the small couch and neatened the pile of papers that sat on the table in front of it. One look into his bedroom made him realize he couldn’t make that presentable in time so he just shut the door. After all, they had the couch to sit on. He looked around and felt a puny pride over his apartment. It looked presentable, lived in. The kitchen was a bit of a mess, dishes in the sink and what not, but what kitchen didn’t have some grime.

Jay stood in front of the door, eagerly awaiting a knock. He felt as if he’d been standing for ages, it had been at least 10 minutes since he buzzed her up. He began to tap his foot when he heard the door do the same. Jay jumped at the door handle, preemptively unlocking it, opening it right away. He caught her eyes immediately. She went from blank to animated quickly, like his eyes flipped a switch. They looked at each other in uninterrupted silence before she spoke.

“Well, silly? Aren’t you going to let us in?” It was then Jay realized what was in front of him. His eyes moved down from her eyes and got caught on her midsection. She had a bulbous belly, and the white crop top shirt didn’t hide it, but pointed a direct light to her pregnancy. He couldn’t respond. He heard a thumping behind her and saw the bird-like lady from outside bobbing her way down the hallway. She was old, her wrinkled skin flowed with her jerking movements as she stumbled towards him. Her eyes never looked at him but they moved like they were taking everything in.

“Mother, slow down!” The woman said to the bird-like lady as they walked past Jay into his apartment. Jay closed the door and turned around still speechless. He stammered but was interrupted by the woman. “Well? Aren’t you going to introduce yourself, Jay?” She said to him, hands on her hips, extenuating her pulsing belly. She nodded and looked at the bird-like lady then back at me.

Jay awkwardly conformed and approached her with the woman following behind. Jay extended his hand towards the woman whose head was still rapidly surveying its surroundings. When she noticed the hand her head jerked right at Jay’s eye level. She reached out and slapped his hand before turning around and making a short guttural chirp. Jay turned to the woman behind him and shook her head disapprovingly.

“You’re usually such a good host, Jay,”

“I don’t know what’s going on! Who are you?” Jay stammered.

“We’ve had this planned for weeks now, silly! Who am I? Not funny,” She said, touching her belly. Mother let out a trill.

“This is ridiculous! I don’t know you! I don’t know what you want from me!” Jay yelled.

She looked at him, disappointed. Mother screeched. “You’re not being silly, Jay. We’re getting married and I wanted you to meet my mother before we were official,” She said calmly. “Don’t get shaky on me now that we’re expecting,”

Jay took a step back. His eyes darted between the woman, her belly and her mother. They stepped forward. “I can’t be getting married to you and I am not the father! Who put you up to this? Why are you doing this to me?”

“Calm down, Jay. I only want us to be together. You want this,” She smiled ear to ear and the cadence of her sentence was off, she left too many spaces in between her words. Not like she was talking slowly, but there was this speed up and wind down that persisted in her speech.

Jay quickly squirmed around them, placing his back to his bedroom door. “Please, give me a second to breathe,” He said before shutting himself inside his room, locking the door behind him. Jay rested his back on the door trying to catch his breath before he began to pace in circles in front of his bed surrounded by half filled water cups and empty, dirty plates.

Was this a joke being played on him? It must be the guys from the office. They must’ve remembered he existed and discussed the best way to make him feel that much more alone. Show him exactly what he didn’t have. They knew of his aversion to women; Jay never told them specifically but it was obvious. The way he used to enter the building through the side door despite everyone using the front just so he didn’t have to see the woman at the front desk. He never came off as a weirdo when he was forced to speak to women, he kept things strictly professional. Jay never wanted to come off as a flirt or a creep so he remained neutral. He often found that men fell into one of these categories so he decided to choose neither. It was these two categories that made Jay avoid the guys at work, they wanted him to decide. The product of this outcome is invariably a child so this was their way of telling him that he was missing out. This must be it.

But Jay figured he was giving them too much credit. They were too brutish to come up with something of this convoluted. Maybe this woman just wanted someone to pin this baby on. She would have slept around not knowing who the father was and staked Jay out due to his financial stability. Sure, Jay doesn’t have the most money but he lives well below his means and has been sitting on money. She must’ve seen Jay go to his office to drop off the work he was assigned and realized the firm he worked for was pretty upscale. She could’ve chosen him as the ideal target since in his position, he is not in any position to reject any potential increases to his quality of life. But Jay saw through this. Jay wouldn’t let himself get used for his money to finance this woman and this bastard child. Jay snickered to himself. Did she think he was stupid? What a joke.

With his hand on the knob, Jay was ready to barge through the door and demand they leave his home with his new found courage. As he opened the door, he was met with a scream. He saw the woman laying on the floor, legs up in the air, spread open. The bird-like lady circled the woman, head facing the ceiling, shrieking into the moldy styrofoam sky. Jay looked into the opening between her legs. A bright orange mucus excreted from the crevice and a fleshy tube began to reveal itself in the opening. The tube began to pulse at the same rhythm of Jay’s heart. He felt the sweat begin to form on his brow as he watched the scene occur in front of him. The woman noticed Jay staring.

“Are you just going to stand and stare? Or are you going to lend a hand?” She screamed.

Jay ran over quickly, crouching in front of the opening. The bird-like lady kept circling and squealing, bumping into Jay every time she passed him. He kept his eye on the opening, as if it was instinct, to see what would emerge from this amber mess. The woman screamed louder as he watched the pulsing speed up. The bird-like lady began to scream synchronously with the crevice creating a machine gun spray of sound.

“It’s coming!” The woman screamed.

“It’s coming!” The bird-like lady parroted.

Jay watched the tip of a fluorescent orange glob enter the fleshy tube. Jay held his hands closer to catch whatever would come out.

“It’s coming!” The woman screamed.

“It’s coming!” The bird-like lady repeated, sounding more unnatural than the last time.

The tube pumped and pumped, moving the glob through the tract. She screamed again. The bird-like lady stopped moving, jerking her head to watch the birth. The blob finally fell out into Jay’s hands, revealing it as a shell-less orange yolk. In Jay’s hand, the yolk broke, spilling its yellow ooze all onto the floor. In his hand was a small creature that had the anatomy of a bird with the features of a human baby. Its eyes were big black and solid in color, piercing through the amber ooze that fell off of its body revealing its soft pink skin. The eyes darted around the room taking life in for the first time. It looked remarkably calm, not uttering a sound. Its mouth was small but Jay could make out tiny serrated teeth hidden behind beaked lips. The body was coated in the slimy, glowing orange mucus from the crevice but Jay could make out the tiny holes in its skin where feathers would grow. It had three fingers and three toes with long arms that had flaps for wings still rolled up like curtains hanging on the underside of the limbs. It shrieked a guttural and grating screech and the woman stood up next to the bird-like lady, looking down at Jay and the offspring.

She reached down and touched Jay on the cheek. “Thank you, Jay,” She said without him looking back at her. She turned and walked out of the room, guiding the bird-like lady out of Jay’s apartment, closing the door behind them.

Jay was stuck, looking at the crying abomination in his hands. He knew the only way to shut it up would be to put his hands on its skull and squeeze and to break off the beak but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.