HELLO JELLO
Allison Elizabeth
After emptying the fridge of all of the macarons and teacakes he left behind, the only thing left was a cup of blue raspberry Miss Jello. The same flavor as the slurpee he bought me when I (from my fake job) visited him on his lunch break at his (real) job. I asked him if he also got one for the buttoned eyed girl who lives in my purse, and he flicked my forehead, so I stuck my tongue out at him. Huge mistake. “Did you lick a smurf?” I found out he wasn’t funny. A problem ignored easily enough, but eventually he realized it too. He didn’t need to be funny. I’m funny enough for at least eight people in one room, but the golden hour glow of the spotlight is enough to blind someone who can’t look away. Jellyousness is a slip-n-slide to hell. Now we’re both in the dark. Holding Miss Jello up she shines like stained glass in the summertime. Brighter than me now. I’ll bet she’s funnier too. With a sharpie I give her cat eye liner and kylie jenner challenge lips. Perform for me! Put on a show! Be someone else as you as best as you can until I think that other person is myself!
Graphic by Naliyah Grant
A tip, a tap, a flip, a flap. Flourish, flourish! Sparkle, sparkle! Here we go. Now introducing, MISS JELLO!
ME: Miss Jello?
JELLO: No. Jane Doe.
ME: Oh… HA! Hello. I have a confession. I lost my beau.
JELLO: Oh no.
ME: He said it was time to let go.
JELLO: Good riddance bro!
ME: My heart’s been trampled by a horse show.
JELLO: Try to be mellow.
ME: It’s okay. I need to grow.
JELLO: Find your glow.
ME: I don’t know how, though.
JELLO: Let’s put on a show.
ME: With my jiggly toes?
JELLO: This is no time to lay low.
ME: Wallow in the willows?
JELLO: You must follow the arc of the rainbow.
ME: Wander in the meadows
JELLO: You’ll learn to let go.
Hey diddle diddle, I like my donuts with jam in the middle! Pop, six, squish, uh-oh, Cicero, lipschitz. Step, kick, fosse, fosse, fosse. I am glowing blue. Who would’ve knew! How long can we stay like this? Until I fall asleep twirling? When I wake up will all I see be blue? Please please please! As long as I am blue at least I know what I am. The steps turn into tears. I am soaking wet. I have never been happier!
ME: Oh Miss Jello, I am so glad you said hello with your blue glow.
JELLO: My glow! That is the spotlight, don’t you know?
ME: The light from you to me flows.
JELLO: Quite hot, although.
ME: Another round! Let’s go!
JELLO: Oh…
ME: Oh?
JELLO: No.
Not until now do I realize I had never been crying. The heat of the movement and the lights had melted Miss Jello all over my face. I can’t look in the mirror for fear I look like a Smurf. I grab the buttoned eyed girl from my purse and set her on top of all the mess. I give her full permission to lick it up. She doesn’t. I think she’s shy.
ME: Goodbye, Miss Jello.
I’m unsure now of how to move with no beau, no spotlight, and no Miss Jello. If I sit and wait awhile in the stickiness, perhaps I will be brave enough to move again.
