The Frightening Ordinary

She sits with the hideous gremlin who only grows larger with time. Soon, the gremlin is larger than her. They stare in the mirror all the time but refuse to look each other in the eye.

She’s afraid that she’s become the gremlin now, with pointy ears and yellowish-teeth.

“It’s all the caffeine.”

She’d learnt that you can brush past insecurities with a smile. If you bring them up first, no one can beat you to it.

The gremlin picks its nose. She refuses to look at it. There’s no way to rebuke it.

“One has to pick their nose at some point, right?”

Her chuckles echo through the room. She chuckles all day. But when she looks in the mirror, she’s not chuckling at all.

When it’s half past seven, it’s time to leave for the station. The gremlin goes with her. She’s learnt that everyone travels with their gremlins but it’s polite to never mention them. We should act as if they never were there. She’s tried her best not to let it show. But sometimes she can’t help but notice.

The man next to her sits with a rather fat gremlin. It was hard to adjust. She couldn’t help but stare how he was not so different from the gremlin himself. She kept staring even though it was rude. There must be some distinguishing features he had from his gremlin.

The man gave her a glare that seemed to say, “It’s rude to stare you know?”

She was glad to get out of the bus. For she wanted to run from her gremlin. The gremlin was chasing after her. Well, not so much chasing. He was tied to her you know?

In a way, it was her.

Who am I aside from my gremlin?

Can two people’s gremlin love each other?

When will she learn to accept her gremlin?

She puts a charming smile and gets inside a lift for the Boring Factory. She knew there were many gremlins here but people were skilled in making them disappear and she’d learnt some tricks up her sleeve as well.

With every smile thrown at her way, it was an affirmation.

I am more than the ugly creature with me.

With every compliment, it solidified.

I have become more visible than my gremlin.

With every endearment, came the faith.

One day someone would love my gremlin.

After every successful day, she comes back to the glass house at night and strokes the gremlin. When the gremlin smiles, it almost looks humane. She’s filled with hope.

But in the morning, she must hide away the ugly thing and go about her day. She must try again and pretend it was never there. She hopes for a miracle to reach her, to let her know that she too could be extraordinary, knowing well that she was no different from all the people in the bus.

All the people wanting to evade the mundane, to stop at the fairytale station that takes them in a land filled with fairies and pixies, to be told their gremlins are quite magical. Instead they find themselves stuck in the land of the frightening ordinary.