บท 3: Living A Lie
"Sweetie… Listen. You know how we said you're special?"
"Yeah?...", responds Goldie as she sits on the sofa between both her parents, facing her mother.
"Well… you're a little bit more special than we explained.
The reason you have no belly button… aaand why you probably have that growing out of your back is because you were born out of a golden egg!"
"..."
'What now?!...'
Goldie stares back at her mother frozen stiff, wondering if she had just heard right.
'Did she just say?…'
The words echo to Goldie's hearing, sinking gradually into her consciousness.
'...born out of a golden egg…
…Out of a golden egg.
…Golden EGG!'
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"Wha-?!..."
The question comes out of Goldie's mouth in a hushed tone as she tries to make sense of her mother's words, but fails miserably at it.
"Born out of a golden egg?!", exclaims Goldie.
Her mother's words made no sense. They sounded like absolute rubbish.
"Wha- What do you mean I was born out of a golden egg?
How could I be born out of a golden egg?... that's… that's crazy!", questions Goldie, stammering out of shock as she is too baffled to believe her mother's words, well, because…
'How could that be?!'
"Yes, it is crazy but true. You were hatched out of a golden egg. You were born differently from everyone else.", responds her mother.
"..."
Goldie stares back at her mother in speechless shock, trying to process the flood of new information reaching her.
"I was hatched..."
She asks with a blank expression, trying to understand exactly what her mother was saying.
Was she really saying she, a human being was literally hatched out of an egg or was she being hypothetical?
"Mhm…", her mother nods.
"I was hatched like a baby chick…", asks Goldie, gesturing with her hands.
"Yes, dear. Out of a beautiful golden egg.", responds her mother, Becky Markell, brandishing a beautiful smile.
"... out of an egg... ", murmurs Goldie.
"...An egg!", she exclaims louder, expressing the sheer ridiculousness of this story.
It was completely unbelievable.
"What, was I laid by a chicken or a golden goose or something?...hah!", she asks with a nervous chuckle.
"…is …is this like the 'Jack and the Bean stalk' story or what?... with the giant and the golden eggs…"
It was too ridiculous to even imagine
"Oh, I'm telling you the truth.", begins Goldie's mother as she starts reminiscing about the day her beautiful daughter, Goldie, hatched out of her golden egg.
"We were so surprised the day the golden egg, which we didn't even know was an egg, cracked open in the lab to reveal a beautiful little baby.
The most adorable in the world!
Your Dad and I always wanted one such adorable child… it was only natural that we keep you."
"What-?..."
Goldie is stunned beyond belief.
'Mom is being serious?... Are you kidding me?!'
"Hold on. Are you being serious right now? Are you really telling me that I actually was hatched… like a chick… out of a golden egg, and that was how I was born?!"
"Absolutely.", says her mother, Becky Markell in response.
"Yes", says her Dad simultaneously, nodding in affirmation as he supports his wife's words, leaving poor Goldie speechless and very confused.
"..."
'Dad's accenting to this too?!', questions Goldie within herself, completely baffled.
What her parents were saying was far too shocking. It couldn't be true. Yet, they both seemed like they were actually being serious!
"But… but that is not possible.", argues Goldie, airing her thoughts.
How could she, a human girl, have been laid as an egg?
"Not even a regular egg. A golden egg!... You only hear that in fairytales.
Am I a magical creature?... What?, am I one of Khaleesi's dragons now or what?"
As far as Goldie knew, she was human. She did not look like a chicken or a golden goose or any of Khaleesi/ Daenerys Targaryen's dragons from the epic "Game of Thrones" story…
That was simply impossible!
She always knew there was something different about her, being born without a belly button, but saying she hatched out of an egg was just plain ridiculous.
That was physically impossible. It just couldn't be. How could any human be hatched out of a golden egg?
Was she a magical creature or something??
"Well, you're growing wings now, aren't you? You could be something similar!", says her mother.
"Yes, something like that… you are similar to a magical creature!", adds her father, Franz Markell with a serious face.
"...!!?!!"
Now they were just being ridiculous. Telling her ridiculous tales… what, did they think she was five??!
A large anger sign crops up on the side of Goldie's forehead as she begins to grow impatient.
It sounded like her parents were just messing with her.
"Now you're just messing with me.
How do you expect me to believe that I came from an egg?... An EGG!!
That I was hatched like some magical creature…
You forget I know how babies are made, Mom! Dad… I mean, who laid the egg?... Did you?-"
Goldie questions, turning from her mother to her father, greatly confused as her thoughts soar to exaggerated extents.
She just couldn't imagine how her mother or father could have laid a golden egg… or how she could have been hatched from one such golden egg.
"What?!... Hahaha!", questions Goldie's mother, dying of laughter. Her daughter was truly hilarious, imagining such things as her parents laying eggs!
"A-hahaha!...", her husband and Goldie's father, Franz Markell, joins in with boisterous laughter.
"No, Goldie. I am a human male. I do not lay eggs, and neither does your mother. You have such an active imagination!", he says instantly spotting where Goldie is headed with her abrupt question, as both parents reel in laughter.
"Well then, my point exactly! Humans do not lay eggs!... Humans are not hatched out of an egg…"
"Yes, humans do not lay eggs. And humans are not hatched out of eggs. But believe it or not, you were hatched out of one.", responds her mother, calmly.
"You are one of a kind, sweetie.", she smiles at Goldie.
Her mother, Becky Markell could see clearly from Goldie's expression that the entire story was not sitting well with her daughter as she seemed to be finding it hard to believe. So she continues speaking, trying to make Goldie understand that she was being serious with more facts.
"You are of a unique origin. You are very different from others. The fact that you do not have a belly button should prove it to you.", she adds.
"You do not have a belly button because you did not have an umbilical cord… you were a hatchling, and therefore you naturally did not develop one, growing in an egg.
That made logical sense, but…
'No… it can't be!', Goldie reasons, shocked speechless and still highly doubtful.
If she indeed came from a golden egg, where did the egg come from? Was it a golden goose that laid the egg?
And if some bird laid the egg, how come she was human?
Hatchlings were birds or some sort of winged creature. She wasn't a golden goose, or a bird now, was she?...
She didn't look like one, but with the feathers growing behind her back, it was growing more and more difficult to tell.
Worse… what if she was transforming into a bird?
With the appearance of wings behind her back and this hatching from a golden egg story, everything was starting to grow shady.
"Am I going to transform into a bird?", Goldie suddenly asks her parents out of nowhere, starting to panic again.
"What?!...", both parents chorus, equally shocked to hear her sudden question.
"No, of course not, sweetie.", responds her mother immediately.
"Well… hopefully not.", she murmurs, rethinking the situation because the truth was, they did not really know, so they could not be sure.
"The golden egg was not from a bird, so no. We do not expect you to transform into one.", responds her father, giving a not-so-satisfactory answer.
"Not from a bird?...", Goldie was surprised to hear that.
"So, where did the golden egg come from?", asks Goldie with growing curiosity.
"If indeed, I came out of a golden egg… A golden egg which neither of you laid…
Where did the egg come from?", questions Goldie, intelligently.
"Well, that… hah!
It wasn't from anywhere around here, that's for sure.", responds her mother with a little chuckle.
"What does that mean?", Goldie narrows her eyes at her parents in suspicious contemplation.
They were scientists… they could have made her in a lab!
What if she was a flawed lab experiment made with human and bird eggs?!
And she was starting to transform into some weird bird creature?!
…
"Goldie, what your mother means is… you're not technically from here."
"Not from where?... Z State? You're not going to tell me you found my golden egg on a distant farm now, are you?...", asks Goldie with an arched eyebrow.
"Or that you made me by a lab experiment!...", she darts her angry eyes, narrowed in suspicion from one parent to the other once again.
"What? No!", responds her father in shock.
'What is she thinking?', he reasons in confusion, wondering where on Earth Goldie's creative mind had strayed.
"I mean not from around… hah…", he slaps his face, understanding what Goldie means.
Seeing her confusion and rapidly escalating ridiculous thoughts, her father intervenes, trying to explain in more understandable words.
"You were not a lab experiment. Who is crazy enough to do that sort of thing?!...
Your golden egg was not an engineered project. As far as we know, it was formed naturally.
Of course, it was also not laid by any human. You were just born naturally that way because you are not from here... Earth."
"Earth?... I'm not human??", Goldie's eyes pop a bit wider in shock.
"Are you saying I am not human?!", questions Goldie, raising her voice with each sentence as she grows increasingly agitated by the second.
"Ah…no, technically not. Not biologically."
"What does that mean?!... I-", she begins before her father cuts her off, speaking in clearer, more direct terms.
"No, you are not human."
His tone is serious, and so is his facial expression. Indicating that he meant what he was saying.
Goldie was not human.
"..."
Goldie's mouth hangs agape as she stares in shock at her father, speechless.
"I- I'm not human?!!"
"That's even worse than being found on a faraway farm!"
Imagine being told by your parents one day that you aren't human. You would probably freak out. Just like Goldie.
Indeed, being found on a faraway farm would have been a more acceptable response.
But now, Goldie was discovering that she was not even human at all.
Her whole life… her entire identity as a human teenage girl…
It was all a lie!
This whole time, she had been living a lie!
___
No wonder her parents had warned her to never show her stomach in public. They knew she wasn't human this whole time, and they kept it a secret, even from her!
They had tried so hard to convince her that she was normal when she was actually a freak!
A freak without a belly button, who was also starting to grow wings!
"Oh… my… God!", baffled, Goldie cups her hand over her mouth, frozen in shock.
Just then, another question props into Goldie's mind:
"Wait… if- if I'm not human, then, what AM I?"
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