A Skin Changers Complaint

Prompt: Write a story or poem about life imitating a video game.
Word count: 338

My life is a video game, specifically a roll playing game. I am skin changer, but the full moon doesn’t dictate my transformation either emotionally or physically. Someone else controls my life and I transform to meet the circumstances of survival on whatever level I find myself on today.

I’m not sure precisely when this truth dawned on me. Perhaps it was Thursday morning or last Monday afternoon. It’s become a palpable reality. Each passing day solidifies the issue and makes escape more difficulty to achieve.

I’m the sole caretaker of my brother’s youngest child. The son of his old age, the male heir he always wanted. He didn’t ask me if I wanted to be Leo’s guardian, I didn’t know Sam made me the child’s guardian until his will was read. Don’t get me wrong, I would have said yes if asked. I would have given it a great deal of thought and then said yes.

I’m irated at Sam for not asking. I’m irated at Leo’s mother for never picking her son up for visitations. If I call her, she says, “Yes, bring Leo over.” Fifty per cent of the time, she is home when I drop Leo off and fifty per cent of the time the maid tells me, “She just left; she’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I’ve learned never to leave Leo at his mother’s condo, unless she is on the premises. I remain with Leo until his mother returns. Sometimes she returns in an hour or two and sometimes in a day or two. I can’t get angry with Leo, because it’s not his fault his mother is irresponsible.

It’s not Leo’s fault, his father disappear in the Bermuda Triangle two years ago. It’s not Leo’s fault I’m no longer in control of my own life. It’s not Leo’s fault I’m his father, his mother, and his aunt. Leo is the one bright spot in my miserable existence, but the stress of being everything to a genius is taking its toll.