Window lizards

Sitting with my forehead against the oriel panes, my feverish breath fogged the air-conditioning chilled window. Lizards pranced across the hot bricks lining the front lawn, barely touching their vulnerable pads on the blistering concrete. I watched their acrobatics with muted amusement, but was too distracted to fully appreciate their performance.

This miserable ague had drained my energy. leaving me weak and lethargic. My eyelids, heavy from fatigue, drooped dangerously low. I drifted into a troubled sleep, the reptilian funambulists still in my mind.

A sudden jerk, and I’m awake again. Not in the sterile, white sanatorium, but beneath a garish circus tent watching the most bizarre aerial performance. The acrobats, clad in skin-tight green costumes, danced on tiptoe across a high wire. They leapt in synchronized precision, weaving intricate patterns choreographed to mimic courtship rituals.

Mesmerized by the grand theater, I didn’t notice the usher at my shoulder, demanding to see my ticket.

“Ma’am…”

“Ma’am?”

“Ma’am!”

I slowly came to myself, still sitting in the sunny bay window, with Carl, my day nurse, standing over me. All I saw was his green scrubs. It took me a few blinks to remember where I was.

Looking up, I stared into his keyhole irises. A smiled spread across his viridescent face as the tip of a pale tongue slipped between his lips, and licked his eye. Ever so slowly, he transmuted back to human.

“Ma’am?”