She appeared to be literally navel-gazing on the downtown bus. Ignoring the phone in her hands, popping it in and out, innie outie innie outie, like she was deciding about one last piece of jewellery to wear.
She looked up, noting she had caught my eye – it registered too slowly for me to glance away. Her eyes took the look of just having asked a question. Her head leaned to the right, and her navel sunk in. To the left, it pushed out like a finger, more of an outie than i’d seen. Straitening, her abdominals flattened out like there was no navel there. Her eyes asked again, she repeated the demonstration.
I just sort of pulled back, unsure of how to answer that question. Her immediate response was a “well ok” look, and her whole abdomen started being sucked back somehow, making shorelines of first lower ribs, and then pelvis.
I thought i saw the outline of a spine forming on what was left of her belly. I think i leaned forward a bit, and she rolled her eyes – her lips silently reading “of course” – and her stomach immediately started to balloon outward – not even filling out to normal proportions first, just ballooning out from under her ribs until the curve met back up with her pelvis, then continuing outward – not like pregnancy, not quite, a different heft to it.
I could not help but be intentional now, hands on knees leaning forward to see if she could manage a further response.
She carefully propped up her phone in a position that made it completely obvious she had already been recording my reaction – sliding to the edge of her seat as she made a last check of the framing.
She made a bit of a show of breathing out – her belly still holding most of its awkward volume, then she… Curled backward? I saw the underside of her chin, and then it seemed to disappear behind her bust, and then her bust behind her belly. I think she might have faceplanted her seat, but it was obvious i was supposed to be paying attention to the belly – it didn’t quite reach the height the missing appendages did, but it thoroughly filled the seat, blocking any view of her bent bits.
I mean, it was a weird move, if it was “don’t do anything funny” – i could just take the phone. Or maybe i had already provided decent reaction footage.
After a moment, she seemed to be standing up – however that would work – but no, her head popped out between her kneed and her arms either side of her thighs, and her bottom half sat back down on her top half.
This was when she stopped really interacting – somehow managing to retrieve her phone – or maybe i just had no idea where to go with it on my end.
I think at that point she was waiting for me to get off. That’s what was supposed to happen. Maybe just to be sure nobody followed her to creep, maybe just so she could find another person to react as the bus continued on its route. Or maybe I should have had questions. Ooh and aahhed a bit more.
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