Aging Beyond Decrepitude

Image via Flickr by _Fidelio_

10 minute flash fiction

Prompt: Long ago I was getting old

Long ago I was getting old. I still remember the feeling. Lines tracing over my once handsome face, my bones weakening, my back stooping. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was a damn sight better than I am now.

You see, I never stopped aging, “getting old” stopped being sufficient language to describe my condition. Long ago I was getting old, then I was working on becoming ancient, and by now I’m a far beyond decrepit. As I aged my whole body shrank, getting smaller and smaller.

Now, I’m a cricket. My former lover, a goddess if you don’t mind an old cricket tooting his own horn, keeps me in a box. It’s her fault I’m like this. I should have died centuries ago, but she asked her papa to grant me eternal life. Life mind, not eternal youth.

You didn’t know that when men grow old enough they turn into crickets, did you? Now you do. Maybe that’ll teach you to be nicer to insects.