"Thanks for picking up my keys." I said it loudly, hoping to shake her back to herself, the person, whoever that was. Instead, she started to stand, and so I stood with her, straightening my spine slowly to regale her with my humanness. We rose evenly past the kneecaps and hips of the people who had to step around us to take care of their bookstore business or to walk out into the unconditioned air. But there was no doubt that, when we reached our full height, she was standing several hands higher than I was.
I was mostly human now, but it was too late. She already knew she had me, that I was trapped, that her animalness had trumped mine and my humanity as well, because I was stuck between. I didn't know where to look. Her bangs hung like a forelock in front of her eyes, and when she shook her head slightly to clear them, I could see her mane along the back of her neck. I knew I should continue to meet her gaze, but my eyes wanted to dart down and check her feet, to watch that her hooves didn't close in on my toes. Livestock always make me nervous; my farming forebears would be ashamed.
© 2000 E.V. Hobbs