flash fiction friday #1: "remember back in 2020 when black people..."

05 Jun 2020

all over the planet remembered anansi? and remembered our indigeneity and our power?

i was sitting cross-legged on the grass in my backyard eating a yummy spinach and pomegrante seed salad. i felt something tickle the back of my left hand. as i turned my hand over, i saw the cutest little black spiders working their way from my wrist to my knuckles.

at first i was amused. how did they get there without me noticing?

next thing i knew, my whole hand was covered in spider silk. it’s like it was exploding from them. my hand started to throb from the tightness of the threads. i reached over to try and pull it off and found my other hand was also being covered by spider’s silk. then my forearms. my feet. my legs. everywhere.

i thought i was going to suffocate as the silk spread to my head. heart racing, i took a deep breath, not knowing if it would be my last.

mummified, tight, and holding my breath, i closed my eyes. and then, in my mind’s eye, a friend i had forgotten about was staring at me with all eight of his coal black eyes.

“are you ready to be home?”

i nodded voraciously. whether anansi meant death or something else, i was ready for this to be over. my panicked heart hurt.

“good. it’s right here…” he pointed one of his front legs to the center of my chest. “…always. your blood and your bones are of our land. no matter so thin and invisible the threads may appear, they are there. all you must do is slow down enough to see them. pull on them. they have never left. only your mind has left. never allow the oppressor to let you forget. though he may forget his people, your power lies in your remembrance of your bones and your blood.

weave yourself back together, little one. i have given you enough thread for you and many others. our people have done this for longer than you can know. good luck…”

anansi vanished from my mind as the threads melted into each other and then my skin.

i looked down at my hands and turned them over…

a story spawned from the black imgntn study group

words / writing / post-processing
367w / 15min / 5min