Serene: The Green Eyed Monster
By Darcy Fisher
The monster hides in the closet waiting for my lights to turn off because, at that time, it is not seen. Only felt in the winds of darkness, its green eyes peak through the slats defending its status and staring at me when I sleep. Its big teeth bearing, sharp, as it rubs its bloated Buddha belly growling for my attention.
The monster was first sighted at the market hiding in the aisles of oranges in peak season. The apples stared violently, while customers picked the oranges over them. “I was always chosen!” said the apples. “We were chosen over any other since the beginning of man!” the apples muttered. “Now I am the apple of their eye,” the oranges said with condescension and winked at the apples. The apples pouted, thick-skinned, wakened and bruised. The monster hid in the dark corner of the mom and pop fruit stand on Fu Min Lu laughing, and then vanished in the misty air of morning.
As the sun settled in the afternoon, the monster was seen again browsing the park at People’s Square. Its transformable body stuck to bright red and pink floral posters advertising single young men and women looking for partners. The monster found it funny how the mothers and fathers swarmed the park greeting other parents who had the same mission which was to marry off my child so they can breed a grandson. The monster’s foreign face intrigued the grandmother from her busy match making and she invited it for a glass of Jasmine Tea. They sat on the hard wood benches facing north of the wall of profiles of young bachelors. The grandmother analyzed the monster’s full abrasive beard prickling from its soft green complexion.
To break the ice, the monster held out its whimsical hand “I am Serene, What is your name?” The grandmother’s eyes stared uncomfortably as she consciously moved her hand to meet the monster. “I am Xaio Ming.” The monster shook her frail hand and firmly looked into her milky gray eyes, “It is a pleasure to meet you.” They engaged in small talk. The monster dug for personal information about her life choices and how longevity is built through her children’s success. The Grandmother saw through the devious gesture. She pointed her bony erect finger and belligerently scolded the monster, correcting its ethics and judgment and ridiculed it out of the park.
On the first day of the new school term the monster was the first into the classroom. It looked around the room at the new student blazing with a fire- like charm shining silver in the neon overhead lights beating down on her shoulders and hair, blending into the ebony blackboard. It leaped and clenched its long piano fingers onto the young girl’s long fibrous locks swaying in the moving air circulating from breath of the teacher’s patronizing monologue, echoing in the back row making the naughty boys nervous. Girls in the middle sat at a distance and looked at the new girl up and down, pacing her face and figure preparing to pounce, as she maliciously whispered rumors.
The leader of the pack opened her notebook and wrote down criticism aimed to tarnish the new girl’s reputation. She carefully ripped the note from the notebook and folded it in four even squares and passed under the desk to the next girl who carefully unfolded and read it, shielding the letter with her left hand. She then took a black ball point pen from her Hello Kittie pencil case and wrote a response looking up at the teacher and pretended to take notes. Then she folded the note back into the four sections and placed it into her sweaty palm and passed it under the desk to her friend.
The monster’s devious curiosity was overwhelming it had to know what lied inside the folded secret circulating in the classroom. The monster waited patiently to the letter to be passed and leaped through the spacious classroom and landed on the letter. Then it tucked itself into the folds of the worn threads of the notebook paper feeding off the juicy gossip. Its body expanded as it feasted on the jealous epidemic passed through the classroom. One girl after another girl read and passed the note to each intrigued hand until it was tossed into tossed the trash bin where the monster rested in a pillow of secrets.
At this time, the community became nervous and journalists were interested in who this creature was and who was infecting the community with cynicism. The binoculars came out and the community’s radar for the new fad. The internet was slow from all the school children trying to break down firewalls to read the blog posts that China has blocked.
This phenomenon was now air born and spread across the country infecting every living organism with curiosity. They were thirsty for more and felt that they were lacking credibility if they were not up to date with the status of who is the green monster was? Where was it hiding and who will it attack next? An outbreak of fear filled the hazy skies of Shanghai, burning the monsters ears giving it the pain it was craving for. It watched the world as it become infected by a fantasy of finding the truth of the creature who dominated the social spotlight. It watched and fed off human insights. It watched their eyes as they dilated with jealousy and smiled at its successful attempt to turn the world into an image of itself.
