The Reincarnation of Sam: Part 1 – The Samlet

How long had it been?  Days?  Weeks?  Sam could no longer remember.  But he thought that he had worked out the story thus far.  One moment, he was a a 24 year old Australian male in the prime of his life.  The next, a furball floating in filth, eating handouts from the local old guy and an occasional group of kids.

Sam sniffed at a piece of grass.  Or was it pecked? He wasn’t sure of anything anymore, what senses he had.  He just knew that he was hungry and the kids that usually showed up in the park wouldn’t be around for days.  Probably a weekend thing.  They had the best stuff; at least it was something he could eat.  Something human.  His “mother” had offered him a grisly worm at some point, which he had initially rejected, but after getting told off (his mother sure could hiss) he had a nibble.  If he closed his eyes, it was almost as if it was an oyster.  Which he would have enjoyed, if he’d ever enjoyed oysters.  Now, only if he could find some bacon…

“Oi, eat something, kid!” said mother.  “Petrus-Johannes!  Are you listening to me?”

“Yes, mother,” he said, eating some grass, “mmm, good, grass, so lekker!”

For some reason, his little patch of pond was in Amsterdam (and his name was Petrus-Johannes).  Initially, his mother seemed terribly confused as to why he could speak English, so he kept his mouth shut.  After hearing his fellow cygnets shouting “ohhh so lekker!” all the time whilst eating their disgusting worms he just carried on and repeated the daily line.  But, it seemed to work with the kids as well.  When they threw him bits of crackers and bread, they seemed to ask “something something lekker?” and he would reply with the usual phrasing which would give them such a thrill, and would usually result in more bread.  Swimming in circles didn’t seem to hurt either.

His mother seemed pleased that he’d eaten some grass and moved off the shoreline and tended to the rest of her non-remembering reincarnated flock.  How did this happen? What had he done to deserve this? How could he become human again? Sam had been reincarnated into the body of a swan and had remembered everything.

Everything.

Part 2…