CLAIRE DAVON

Excerpt

The bump stuck out above her shoulder bone, like a deer’s head when they were growing antlers. She must have picked up a tick without realizing it. She tried to recall what the insects were from her childhood back east. Chiggers, that was it. She was far from Revere Beach, but anything was possible.

Tanya wasn’t a big fan of gazing at herself, but her mother had drilled into her the necessity of regular breast exams. She’d been doing that activity when the strange protuberance caught her eye.

It must have happened when she went to the ocean. An out-of-town family had been one of the few sharing the beach with her that day, complete with weird kid and dog. The mutt could have shed mites on her. If she had an insect under her skin, she’d have to go to Urgent Care to get it removed. The one near her wasn’t too bad, if she went at off hours.

She reached to touch it and her hand encountered nothing. When she peered behind her, she was greeted by the same smooth flesh that had been there the day before. Her eyes and reflection were showing two different things.

She wore glasses, but her prescription wasn’t so high that she would see things that weren’t there. She took them off and stepped closer to the mirror. The apartment blurred, but her image was in sharp focus. Not that she had much to see in her one-bedroom place in Mar Vista. The place was affordable, as much as anything could be in the city.

The lump was still there. She shifted from side to side to determine if the image was some distortion of her full-length reflection, but the thing stayed as she moved.

She probed the spot again. The skin was warm under her fingers.