The Last Human
There’s one human who still hasn’t heard any of this.
At your friend’s birthday, the stranger recognizes your name before you recognize theirs.
“Wait. Purple-house person?”
You turn slowly.
“What have you been telling them?”
“Accurate things.”
They pull out their phone. There’s the eggplant lamp, still having its medical emergency.
You laugh, and the noise gets out before you can ask why this picture has apparently been waiting for you.
“That’s the noise!”
“You demonstrated it?” you ask your friend.
“Badly.”
The whole table loses it. You’re laughing too hard to conduct an inquiry.
Four minutes after meeting, this stranger can already recognize your delight in the wild.
Halfway through explaining why the lamp needs a specialist, your fingers take over.
You catch the view from outside.
Across the table, your friend is watching your hands.
They’re smiling.
— Autistic Ang
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I love this. As you started reading the recording it sounded like I was listening to a short story on the New Yorker podcast - amazing!
Busy mind, busy hands, they go together!