Human Hatchling
She dives off the pontoon into the springs. The water icy on her sun heated skin, pulling breath from her lungs.
Gators greet her, circling slowly until the rumbling boat fades away. They lead her to an area tourists don’t visit. Their nest. Hatchlings wade in the moss with other broken young girls.
They float around together, counting scars and bruises. The adult gators bring back game, pitying the flat rows of teeth decorating the girls’ mouths. She tries thanking them, but only a hiss escapes. They speak the same language here.
Other girls gain their scales, their teeth sharpen. She waits impatiently for her own transformation. She’s the last to join the congregation, the last to morph.
On night three her teeth fall. Gums throb as sharper ones poke through. The fuzzy hair on her body flakes off and sinks below the surface.
On night four her skin tugs on itself. Drying, crinkling. Finally, her scales are forming.
On night five a pack of park rangers search the shore with flashlights. Her father is among them. She never thought he’d actually look for her. The other girls and gators hiss, scaring them away. She can’t be seen until her body is complete.
Her father was too drunk to notice her leap from the pontoon. She thought he was going to hurt her. Kill her. He had never suggested a trip like that before: a father/daughter getaway. He hardly treated her like a daughter at all. Always yelling, taking his belt or bat or hand to parts of her body hidden by clothes. Nothing she did pleased him.
On night seven her father is here again. She barely recognizes him, only a strange familiar feeling when he yells a name that might’ve been hers. She crawls from the moss, fresh claws gripping the soggy earth. Other girls follow. They’re all unrecognizable now. The father stumbles and falls back when they get close. Her new teeth ease into his flesh as she drags him into the springs for supper.
Courtney McEunn is a writer from southwest Oklahoma. Her work has appeared in X-R-A-Y, Red Rock Review, Route 7 Review, and others. Read more at courtneymceunn.com.