Zombies

"Hi. Remember me?"

I look up from my book and stare into Death's empty eye sockets...no, that's not correct- after a double-take I realize that I'm talking to a zombie- Death is a character in the book I am reading; this zombie is real, I think, although it's rather thin, even by undead standards.

The zombie is waiting for my reply.
Do I remember the zombie?

I've been waiting for this question for many years and I'm suddenly in no hurry to answer it.

"No."

"No?"

Unbelievably, there's what look like tears forming in the zombie's crater eyes. Zombies don't cry, they rot, so I tell myself that it must be pus, not tears, that I see running down it's cheek.

The zombie stammers out the name of a place that I used to go with someone else, someone who didn't leave a trail of maggots behind them as they shambled.

I can lie but my face can't.
I'm betrayed by recognition.
I give up a name.

"You do remember" , says the creature.

There's a lot of hesitation in this statement - there bloody well should be. Years of anger and resentment roll up from some hidden place, feelings I thought were long gone become enormous emotional waves that threaten to dash me against my protective wall of feigned indifference.

"Yes."

I remember. I remember the first morning spent with this creature when it was still alive and I recall thinking how beautiful it was, yet somehow knowing that it was already over.
I remember seeing the flesh vanish, the missing drugs, the missing human...I remember exploring it's body with my tongue and finding the wrong kind of bruises in the wrong places...I remember finding the syringes, stolen from the zombie's diabetic mother.

I remember waiting for my HIV test results from the free clinic- "call next Monday"- and how that was the longest week of my life, which I was certain was going to be much shorter than even I had anticipated.

Yes, I remember the zombie.

" I am sick", the zombie tells me, as if I were blind.

"I am not", I reply , and suddenly the anger is gone and there's nothing left but two zombies.

Zombies don't cry, but this one does.