It was early in the morning, the sun was nearly peeking over the horizon and illuminating the world for everyone. A garbage truck chugged up the road, stopping at each house so the workers could collect all the bins. At a normal routine stop at a house no different than any other, one of the workers hopped off and headed towards the bin. He took the lid off, snatched up both bags and tossed them into the truck. They were already lost within the confines of all the other garbage. What the worker didn't know was that as he removed the bag, a small little prick of the inner can had tore a small hole in the bag. The garbage truck drove off and out of the neighborhood.

A short while later, a ratty beat up old car came up the street, and parked on the curb outside the same house. From the car stepped out an eighteen year old girl, wearing a generic band t-shirt, capris, and her favorite pair of converse chucks. She had streaks of red dyed in her wavy brown hair. She sauntered up the driveway while her eyes were glued to her phone. She was sending a text to her friend, saying she was here. The girl stopped just short of the stairs and stood near the layer of mulch where eventually there would be bushes but for now there was nothing. She got bored fast.

***

I was jostled back and forth within the confines of the bag. Waves of putrid garbage buried me before I was tossed back to the top, only to be buried again. There was absolutely zero light at all. You ever turn the lights off at night, and everything gets dark? There's still light, from the window, any electronics that produce light, it still exists. But inside this bag, there was no light at all. The black polyethylene plastic bag was blocking out so much light I couldn't see a single thing. I could certainly smell it though. With the bag sealed shut, the disgusting air was stagnant, swirling around inside the bag. The scent of rotting food stormed into my nostrils, and the constant movement stirred up the scents from long before. The smell along with the motion easily caused me to puke. As if the scent wasn't bad enough, my entire body was coated and covered in some disgusting substance. I had no idea what it was--nor did I want to know--but I was covered in sticky, sour gook. There was not a single dry spot on my body, even my hair was coated with the muck. Imagine coming out of the pool and being wet, but instead of water, it's unidentifiable garbage muck. And there's no towel, only more muck. I couldn't help but scream as I was tumbling about; I had been tossed away and sealed shut in trash, I think it's fair to scream. But that was a mistake. My mouth was opening as I was screaming, and me and the garbage were being mixed around. During one tumble my mouth was open in a yell, and I got a mouthful of some rotten mush. I spit it out, but the taste was left as another tidal wave buried me and knocked more mush into my nostrils, trapping the scent there. 

I felt something heavy smack my back, but couldn't give it a second thought as a greater force than before jolted through me and the bag. I was send forcefully into the edge of the bag, my face pressed again the plastic, as a falling feeling overtook me. I'm assuming Jess tossed the bag into the can, because I smacked into a hard place. Almost right afterwards, another weight pressed down, smushing me more beneath the garbage. It was over, as another force pushed down, multiple times. I was continually pressed and smashed beneath the garbage in complete darkness, covered in sticky muck. I still felt something on my back, but I had assumed it was just all of the filth above me. As luck had it, I was at the very bottom of the bin, with two bags of trash compressed on top of me. I was as low as you could get in the garbage hierarchy. I tried to move: my body, my head, an arm...anything. But I was stuck, unable to move at all. I was trapped here at the bottom of a garbage can for hours with no way out, and nobody knew I was here. 

I couldn't fall asleep. The smell was too atrocious for my brain to shut off.  I thought about my family, and what was going to happen. They would realize I wasn't actually in my little house, but what would they do then? Search the entire place for me I guess...they wouldn't find me there though. If they couldn't find me, they might start to wonder if one of them had...stepped on me. They wouldn't find any trace of me with that idea either. Even on the extremely small chance they figured out I was tossed out with the garbage...what would they do? Search the entire landfill for me? No...I would have been crushed in the truck before that. No, the only thing my family could do at that point is...they would have no other choice but...I would be assumed dead. I...might as well be dead at this point. The only chance I had at all was getting out of this predicament and getting someone's attention so I could explain to them what happened. If I couldn't do that, I was dead. It sounded impossible, after what my sisters had done to me today, I doubted I couldn't even get anyone's attention at all. Add in my current situation, and it was worse than impossible. What the heck was I supposed to do!?

Finally, there was movement. A weight lifted off of me, and shortly after I felt myself (well the trash bag) being lifted as well. It was at such speed that my immobile body nearly blacked out from the whiplash. Everything happened so quickly, I still don't exactly understand it. A sharp tearing sound pierced my ears and intense light blinded me instantly. I instinctively went to block my eyes with my hands only to remember my hands, and arms and literally every other part of my body, was immobilized by something sticky. When my eyes readjusted I opened them to find myself swirling wildly in the air, my vision switching between the dull greyish-blue sky above and the pitch black pavement of a driveway below. I opened the only thing I could still move, my mouth, and let out an inaudible scream as I crash landed onto the driveway with a tiny smack. 

All went dark as my face and body hit the rock hard, unforgiving driveway. The scent of asphalt was mixing with a lingering scent of fruit. Whatever was stuck on my back was still moist and squishy, probably due to the liquid in the garbage and the lack of air to dehydrate it. Lucky for me it absorbed most of the impact from the fall. I was still close enough to touch the ground, but I was saved from any damage. The fruity scent was familiar though, it reminded me of...Jess.

I remember a time a while back when Jess was taking care of me in my little house. My family would usually bring their head down to get face to face with me. It was a nice gesture but also being so directly in line with their mouth put me in direct pathway of their breath, sometimes it wasn't the best smelling. One time I caught whiff of Jess' breath and it had a fruity scent to it, the same that was in my nose now. It turns out it was because she was chewing a piece of gum that day. After I told her I liked the scent, she kept chewing it more and more often...

My back was stuck firmly inside Jess' old gum. I remember seeing her spit it out, I remember seeing it land below me in the trash. With all the movement that happened, it or me must have bumped into each other. And now, I was lodged inside of it, unable to move a single limb. Jess began chewing the gum because of me, and now it's become a prison. On the bright side, due to sheer chance I had been removed from the putrid garbage bag, seemingly at the last second, but now I found myself in a new predicament. I was left stranded on the driveway of our home, face down with my body adhered to a sticky piece of gum. Was it a better situation than the doomed fate of trash? Yes. Did I see any way out of this? No. There was only one thing I could do: struggle. With all my might I began pulling and yanking my limbs as hard as I could, doing anything to get them unstuck, but it seemed the weight of the garbage being smushed down had compacted me too much. Still, I tried. Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt like my arm was moving a mere millimeter each attempt...

There was tons of sounds going on around me. Wind rustling the grass and trees, terrifying bugs making terrifying sounds, and so much more. All of it sounded muffled beneath the layer of gum, but one sound rose above the rest. I had heard this sound before, lots of times actually. It was the sound of my sister's friend's car coming up the road. Jess's friend Abigail would pick her up for school five days a week, and I got used to hearing this abysmal sound of her car. Something on it was broken because it roared like a beast with every inch it took. The familiar sound meant one thing: Abigail had arrived to pick up Jess.

I've met Abigail a few times after my...shrinking situation. She was a pretty wild character. I doubt she ever would do anything to cause me harm, nor do I think Jess would let her, but that didn't stop her from teasing me about it. Sometimes she would say things like "do you think he floats? Let's toss him and see!" and "maybe we should just stretch him out?" Like I said, I think these were more playful suggests and she knew not to do them. She wouldn't hurt me. ...Not on purpose, at least.

The roar of her car stopped to signify she had arrived. It was truly frightening to be there in darkness under some gum and only be able to hear what was occurring. There was no way to confirm if what you heard was real or just your mind playing tricks. I hoped it was just playing tricks because the sound I heard was someone walking closer and closer to my position. I stayed there in fear, unsure of what was going on, when it happened. In an instant, an immense weight pressed down onto the gum and me, squashing it mercilessly into the grungy asphalt driveway.

I screamed in agony as my face was smushed against the rough asphalt for what felt like eternity. The gum that was absorbing the impact was effortlessly flattened and thus forced me to take more of the force. It was absorbed enough to not cause anything serious, but I certainly felt it. The crushing weight lasted for barely a second before I felt the intensity wane, but that was not the end of my horror. As the pressure lifted, so too did I feel myself lifting. Light blasted my eyes again as I looked down at the asphalt miles below me. It's like I was flying. After the initial ascent, I felt the wind increase as I was flown forward at immeasurable speeds. The ground below was blurred into incomprehensible mess as my eyes watered from the wind resistance dragging at me. In less than a second it all came to a stop as I felt a pit in my stomach increase. Dread filled my thoughts and I let out another piercing scream as I realized the rock hard asphalt driveway was approaching at extreme speeds. I instinctively tried to lift my arms up to defend myself but once again they were immobilized. I was completely and utterly helpless as my body was slammed down onto the unforgiving ground once more, only being saved any serious harm by the fruity squishy backpack of gum.

I'm not sure if it was my eyes watering from before or if they were my own tears from my horror but my face was wet. It was clear what happened: Abigail had stepped on the piece of gum which had adhered itself to the bottom of her shoe. I was now along for the ride. Soon she would realize she had stepped in some gum, right? Then she would look at her shoe, and hopefully see me there and I could get out of this nightmare. Even if she didn't see me she would have to get the gum off, which would suck but be a much better predicament than being beneath her shoe constantly. But she didn't look at her shoe, and instead just took another step. The familiar rising of her step meant another rush forward and another crushing blow as she stepped down. She never stopped to look at her shoe, I don't think she ever realized she stepped in anything. Instead, she just kept walking up our long driveway, mercilessly and brutually slamming my defenseless form into the rough and hard asphalt with each step. 

The torture didn't seem to end, and each step cemented me more and more inside the sticky gum, making sure there was no escape at all. After an eternity the black asphalt turned to white as Abigail took a step on the pathway. The smooth driveway became a rough and pointy path creating even more of a hellish environment for me. After the last step, I stayed in darkness for longer than

normal as Abigail kept her foot down. Despite the pressure it was a nice reprieve from the constant movement. The break didn't last long though as I felt myself rising again, but this time it was different. Abigail wasn't taking a step, but instead just lifting her foot from the heel. I realized with horror as I stayed stationary in the air above the rough path below that she was about to start tapping her foot. All of the sudden the ceiling dropped and I screamed as I plummeted to the ground before being smashed to the rough and bumpy concrete. I was there barely a fraction of a second before I rose again...and dropped. Again and again and again I was smashed into the ground as tears welled up and I sobbed hysterically from the torture I was enduring by my sister's friend. 

I was battered and bruised but even so I could tell Abigail shifted her foot a bit. I hung in the air awaiting the horrific drop once more as I saw that beneath me was no longer the rough pavement, but instead a bunch of mulch. Her shoe just hovered over the mulch, making me suffer in anticipation over the eventual impact. After some time, it came. I felt the pit in my stomach get flown upward as I crashed down onto the mulch below. Everything went dark and the earthy scent invaded my nostrils. I noticed the fruity scent I enjoyed was quickly fading and a scent of rubber and dirt took over. The light didn't return, as Abigail didn't lift her shoe up again. Instead, I felt myself pressed harder as she pushed down. I felt my body up against a piece of mulch get shoved into the hard wood. I think she began to twist her foot, playfully crushing the mulch beneath her shows unaware of the hell she was putting me through. If she did it was just another notch on the agony I was going through. After a lifetime of degradation, she lifted her foot and brought me smashing back down to the bumpy pavement.

***

Abigail stood outside waiting for Jess to come downstairs. Subconsciously, she started tapping her foot on the ground, hardly even aware of the motions she was making. Despite all the contact she was making with the floor, she never once noticed the small bit of sticky goop stuck to the sole. While looking at her phone she shifted her foot and bit and lightly pushed down on the mulch outside. She twisted a little bit just playfully pushing around the pieces without a care at all. 

"Yo," Jess said arriving outside. "Let's go."

Abigail and Jess heading back to the car, taking a detour through the grass covered in a fresh layer of dew. The two of them got in the car, buckled up, and drove away off to school, ready to began the 8 hour day of boring old classes.