Spawning

The first thing I remember was a bright light and the sound of a loud buzzing ringing in my ears, rattling my brain inside of my skull and giving me a massive headache. I fell forward, one leg instinctively jerking forward to catch me from falling on my face. My chest began to burn, and I didn't understand why, but my mouth opened and air rushed into my lungs and the pain began to fade. I didn't understand what breathing was at the time. I didn't understand much of anything.

The buzzing began to fade away, and was replaced by a scritching noise from pen on paper in the distance, the faint humming of people as they thought. I didn't know what was happening. One man, dressed in a long white coat, which was remarkably bright thanks to its cleanliness, stepped towards me and put a hand on my shoulder.

Reflexively, I tried to pull away, but his grip was much stronger than any part of me was, and I couldn't move. "Are you a boy or a girl?" His voice was loud and booming in my ears, and I winced away from him. But his words stuck in my brain. Boy? Girl? I didn't know what those things were. I looked down at myself, but despite what I saw, I couldn't make heads or tails of the question. What did anything mean?

"A girl?" I asked. I didn't realize that I knew how to speak. I was just repeating the sounds back at this person. My own voice was weak, with barely any sound to it, and at the time I couldn't take any details from it. It just was what it was. The man nodded his head and took down notes.

"Your name?"

What was a name? Did I have one? Was I supposed to? What could it even be? I racked my brain trying to think and understand, to find anything anywhere that might be a clue as to an answer for what this man was asking. But there was nothing. "Name?" I asked.

"What people call you. How you are to be recognized."

I still didn't understand. The words were utterly lost upon me. I didn't know what calling or recognizing was. Nothing made sense to me. I didn't know who I was, or where I was, or what I was. There was nothing to me.

"Meera?" I asked. The sound was strange. I didn't really know where it came from. I was just trying to make a noise.

"Meera it is."