Where the Cancer Lives

"I can slice off a strip of my neck where the cancer lives." She
said.

He was eager to see it and touch it and eat it. He loved to push it in
and feel the bulge gurgle and slide around the muscles in her neck. He
gave his head a big up-down nod.

She pulled out the blade till it clicked. Swiss army red and silver
brought close to the bulged sight and she grasped his hand tightly.
"Hold me tight. It's going to hurt a lot." And with that she began
drawing the blade back and forth till it slit the skin and dropped in
her neck. She cried and gripped the boy in gritting silence.

The slab fell wet to the floor with a flop. The boy got some water from
the facet and poured it down onto the flap, till the water ran away
clear and clean. He could clearly see the light pink of the one sided
flesh. In the middle of it, in a circular shape, the flap became white,
firm and smooth, different than squashy pink flesh around the sides.
"Is this the cancer?" he asked, holding the flap between his fingers
and pointing to the white circle in the middle. She had a light green
towel pressed to the side of her neck and looked down.

"Yep, that's it."

The boy looked from her face to the flap and rotated it around,
inspecting the sides and its ribbed texture. Then he gave it a last
squeeze with his little fingers and, pinching it into a fold, bit into
the middle.

The only thing his teeth could cleanly go through was the white circle
in the middle, which made a pop when it was pierced. A line of clear
juice squirted through the air and splattered onto the stained floor.
He decided to bring the whole thing into his mouth and he chewed it for
a dozen minutes.

"How does it taste?" the girl asked.

"Like you." He gurgled out his full mouth with a smile and scrunched in
nose.