The Uncensored Word

My Aunt Maggie and I were the only ones home. She was sitting on the bed beside her suitcase, packing her things. I was standing in the doorway, watching my aunt pack. My three aunts had come to visit for a couple of weeks, and today was their last day. She volunteered to stay home with me while the rest of the family went out. I’d been sick for most of their visit and had just started feeling a little better.

I was almost seven years old and always sick. I didn’t feel sorry for myself about being sick all the time because this was how it had always been; it’s hard to be upset about something when you don’t know any different.

My aunt did not speak a word after my parents left. She went about her business as usual, and I just stood there watching her pack her suitcase. Everything had been fine, normal, until now. I felt the pressure of something squeezing into my back. Something or someone was trying to share the exact space I held. This thing, this person, this entity was inside me, inside my body with me.

The sound of laughter immediately filled the room. I was laughing hysterically, but it wasn’t me laughing. This entity was using me to laugh.

Aunt Maggie, folded clothes forgotten in her hands, stared at me. She squinted her normally smiling blue eyes with concern. The more concerned she looked, the louder I was forced to laugh. I sensed this entity was an immature male and somehow familiar with Aunt Maggie. The more concerned she appeared, the louder I would laugh. I was amused by the situation. It was like becoming tickled over something that would only make someone laugh if they were there in the moment. Now, hearing my hilarious laughter, I was in the moment. It was funny.

My aunt’s silence was broken when she asked, “What’s so funny?”...