The sky was half covered with quilted clouds. Wedged in front, the black branches of the winter trees seemed in full bloom with fluffy cherry blossoms blowing from the ends in the wind. One of these mornings, crisp as an apple held between frozen fingers, they found the thing. I was sitting in front of the TV eating scrambled eggs bubbling in hot sauce when everything broke. But before that happened, a white bolt of force pierced me from the ground up. My body stretched from a sitting position to standing while I was still on the couch. With my head touching the back wall, I became a bridge between it and the floor, arching over the cushions. What I remembered most before the nothingness that followed was a heat so fierce and yet not burning, crawling up my spine. Apparently Emily chatted at my white bedside, you had a seizure. I was so worried. As you came around the corner, there you were, covered in vomit, eyes bulging. God, I almost peed my pants. I didn't know what to do. So I ran between the phone and you before I could stay still long enough to dial a number. She reached over my shoulder and pressed the red call button. They said to let them know if you wake up. They found a tumor on the first try. The CT images were lined up on the light panel like a series of in utero ultrasounds. And here is your baby, this alien thing, this skeletal fish, this patch of face growing inside you. But, said the young doctor with a pimple on his chin, we need to do exploratory surgery to determine if it's cancerous. He leaned closer to the black and white butterfly slices of my brain. It's intra-axillary and doesn't appear to have spread. I see roots here and there. He tapped the phone... middle of paper... with me please. Why no sir, I won't. Do you realize I'm the bomb? Did they tell you? The last thing you want to do is arrest me in a hall full of innocent people. He checked my eyes to see if I was serious or crazy. What he saw there changed his face, as if his now white blood was stopping his heart. Stepping back, he grabbed his radio. I stepped out between the glass slide and came upon a flock of sun-blinded pigeons who scattered outward when they realized who was among them. I remain untouchable as long as I share a bite of my food with the street dogs before eating it. For my safety, I laugh softly and drink from my own bottle. When I sleep in soot-covered underground passages, I fluff my long white hair in the darkness. They no longer dare to approach death now that it is free and wanders in the countryside. Even if they could find me, who knows what would set me off.