By Michelle Koubek
The metal fluctuated between hot and cold. It was never tepid so never desirable to touch. Which made me wonder why the humans constructed me out of it and then told me to belong. Humans were either sadistic psychopaths or idiots. You could never know your neighbors nowadays.
When your skin was metal like mine, no one cared if your insides were organic. They looked at you and saw a garbage can. In other words, they knew there were contents inside but would rather pretend those contents didn’t exist until the insides rotted and the odor infected the neighborhood.
I wouldn’t let them turn me rotten.
Admittedly, I did resemble a garbage can. Much like the sides of a garbage can which are assaulted by dripping gunk, the metal on my arms and legs was a murky silver and was ribbed. But on the inside, I was alive with hopes and ambitions. I hadn’t soured yet. For example, I dreamed of upgrading to a more colorful tin can. Like SamEL, my next-door neighbor and best friend.
SamEL was made of plastic and was more colorful than me. This garnered him more respect amongst humans who rode around in vehicles of various colors and loved to boast of their new, vibrant purchases like peacocks. If I could become bright green like SamEL, then the humans would stop treating me like a garbage can. He even got to ride on their car roofs some times when they took him on vacation. They called him their ‘pet’ and included him in family photos.
I was nobody’s pet; I was a gardener who powered down at night in the shadows between the shed and the cracked fence. But with a fresh coat of paint, I could be loved like SamEL. My owner would stop leaving me out in the rain like a rusty shovel.
I just had to kill one more squirrel, and I would have enough red to cover every inch of my metal exterior. Then, I would be as brilliant and interesting as SamEL, and everyone would see that my insides are beautiful.
Look, there’s one skittering by now.
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Michelle Koubek is a writer living in Florida with her husband and paw companion. She taught special education for several years in South Carolina before becoming a full-time writer. When she is not writing, she’s playing board games or painting. This is her debut.