Henning Koch: The Maggot People

Possibly he slept for a while. He was unsure what the time was; his watch had no luminous dials and the room was so dark that only by closing his eyes could he ward off a sense of panic. Even the air was a dusty maelstrom reluctantly drawn into one’s lungs.

“Oh good, you’re back,” Ariel whispered. “I had a dream: you and me were standing on a mountain looking down on a huge city. It filled the whole valley; there were roads and lights and buildings climbing almost the whole way up to the summit. Then a wave washed in from the sea. At first I thought, oh look, what a big wave. But it kept growing. It picked things up and carried them away. Boats, cars, buildings. People as well; they linked arms in the water and they were singing as the waters carried them along. The water kept rising, one couldn’t see anything except the water rising. It was sliding by at an incredible speed. I remember there were clouds overhead also passing quite swiftly across the sky, but in the opposite direction. It was a frightening illusion; I mean it wasn’t really an illusion, it was actually happening. All the earth and sky were just water and air rushing by while we stood there on a tiny piece of rock. I kept wanting to climb higher, but you kept touching my arm and telling me there was nowhere higher than this, there was nowhere else to climb to. The water was tugging at our ankles. I was terrified. Then it started receding; there was nothing left beneath. As it sank away I only saw black earth, bare wet earth with nothing alive on it, not so much as an earthworm wriggling or a fish left in a hollow; there weren’t even any hollows or rocks. Everything was swept clean.”

“Then what happened?”

When he woke, a limpid sea breeze had cooled the land. A big crustaceous moon was cranking itself up from behind the dunes, appearing momentarily in the gap of the broken blind. He raised himself onto his elbow to look at Ariel, who was sleeping deeply. Her body seemed to be churning from inside, as if having an epileptic seizure. Muscles under her skin were tensing, rippling across her face and body in tight spasms.

He watched for a while, wondering what he should do.

Without warning, the seizure stopped and she opened her eyes and said, very brightly: “Oh, what a lovely sleep.”

“What was that? Are you epileptic or something?”

“Don’t worry; it’s normal. It only happens at night.”

“It looked painful.” He paused, then added: “It never happened to me, that’s for sure.”

“How can you know?” she said, with a smile. “I mean… if you’re asleep?” She lit a candle and sat there in silence, scrutinizing him again. “Can I tell you something? Your health isn’t as good as you think. You have a small tumor growing on your liver.”

“Any other defects?”

“I’m quite serious. You should listen to me.”

“All women say that.”

“I’m not really a woman in the proper sense of the word.”

“I don’t know how you can say that.”

“No. You don’t.”

A few big breakers came in; he heard them churning against the sandbar. The sound was ominous — the distant music of a dream where anything could happen.

“Yesterday,” said Ariel, “when I asked you to take me for an ice cream, I thought I’d give you the chance of deciding what you really thought of me.”

“I knew that before we even spoke.”

“I wouldn’t have minded if you didn’t like me. I’m not petty like that. If people don’t like me, that’s up to them.”

He shrugged, slightly puzzled, then put his arm round her as if to reassure her. She snuggled close and they slept until sunrise. But as soon as he opened his eyes, the conversation continued where it had left off. Ariel was already there, waiting for him.

“You’re one of us now. You do realize that?” she whispered.

“One of who?”

“Last night when I said your world would change, I really meant it. Literally. It’s changed already. As I was saying, there’s a tumor on your liver. You probably wouldn’t have noticed it for another eight or nine months. By then it would have been too late, cancers are very aggressive nowadays. Humans are poisoning their world and they don’t realize they are also poisoning themselves. Anyway. By this time next week the tumor will be gone. In fact, you won’t have a liver at all.”

Michael felt himself grow heavy as he looked at Ariel, her soft intimate eyes, her tumbling hair spilling over her shoulders.

“Oh, dear God,” he said, sitting up abruptly. “I’ve been such an idiot.”

“Why?”

He looked at her. “I’m going to tell you the story of my family. Okay? It’s a very sad story so I’ll keep it short. Dwelling on it won’t improve things, I mean. Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Suicide. Arsenic. Disinheritance. Obsession with money. Financial ruin. Broken hearts. Mad people spreading unhappiness all round them.”

“Sounds like any other family to me,” said Ariel chirpily. “And? What’s your point?”

“And I want to finish with the whole thing. That’s all.”

Smooth as a snake, she sat up, slowly uncoiling her limbs and eyeing him with an expanding smile as if she meant to swallow him whole. He thought: you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, but you’re mad, mad, mad. And I should have seen it; I should have avoided it!

“I’m not mad,” she said.

Michael got out of bed and started getting dressed.

Ariel was watching him, her face analytical. “As you’re leaving anyway, I’ll tell you.”

His movements grew hasty; he fiddled with his socks, desperate to be gone. She launched into her personal myth. “Because we’ve slept together, you’re going to turn into someone like me. A maggot person.”

He gave her a tense grin. “My God, Ariel,” he said. “What’s a maggot person?”

“It’s someone whose body has been taken over by maggots. Invaded and conquered. The maggots eat your organs, they take over the functions of those organs, and they’re much more efficient than you ever were. They eat everything in your body. The only thing they don’t touch is your brain. You may find this unbelievable, but I’m actually solid maggot.” She stood up in the bed, quite naked, and twirled for him, like a ballerina.

With resignation, Michael said: “Who would ever have thought it?”

“My dear man, you can pity me but later you’ll know I was telling you the truth all along.” She glared, then continued: “There’s even a group of specialized maggots that eat your bones and form a hard core inside the rest of the maggots. The maggots pass oxygen to your brain. The maggots synchronize their movements, they work like muscles so you can walk and do whatever you like. Some of the best athletes in the world are actually maggots. People call it doping, but it’s actually just maggots. Remember that World Cup final when Cristiano Ronaldo went strange? He was just having a few problems with his maggots. You see?”

“Aha.” He was lacing up his shoes now.

“You know when you saw my skin churning?”

“Yes.”

“That’s when the maggots change places so they can all have some of the food a person has eaten.”

“Okay.”

“The maggots control all your bodily functions. Only about once a week will you need to excrete any waste products. And it will be a very small amount. Like bird droppings.”

“Look, Ariel. I’m so sorry. But I’m going now.”

“You’re going to miss me terribly, because from now on you won’t be like other people. In about a week you’ll start realizing the maggots are taking over your body. You’ll be in a lot of pain and no painkillers will be of any use because the maggots will eat the painkillers.”