Green Present

The Green Present

This story is about a mother who rides the subway with her son named Connor on the way home from a baseball game. While on the subway, her son notices a college age girl sitting next to him holding a green present. Connor asks the girl if he can see what's inside the box and the girl happily agrees. She opens up the box and Connor takes a look inside. For the rest of the train ride, he doesn't say anything. When Connor and his mother get home, Connor's mother asks her son if he can put on his pajamas and brush his teeth. Connor immedietly complies and does what he is told. After he finishes, his mother puts him to bed and goes to her bedroom. It doesn't take her long for her to fall asleep. However, at around one in the morning, she hears Connor crying and goes to see what's up. When she asks Connor why he is crying. Connor points to his stomach and his mother comforts him for a bit before getting him some ginger ale and crackers. The next morning, she notices that Connor doesn't want to eat breakfast. His mother notices this and asks if his stomach is still bothering him, to which he nods his head up and down. His mother decides to keep him out of school that day and take care of him by giving him some Tylenol, along with some more crackers and ginger ale.

For the next two days, Connor still refuses to eat and cries at night. However, the cries become louder every night and he eventually starts banging on the bed and walls and falls out of his bed. When this happens, his mother decides to take him to the hospital, thinking that he has something seriously wrong with him. At the hospital, the doctors run a series of tests on him and tell his mother that there was nothing wrong with his stomach. Instead, he seems to have severe anxiety. His mother asks the doctors why this is and they say that Connor refused to talk about it with them. When Connor's mother asks her son why he's anxious, he says that he wants to tell her in private. She asks the doctor to leave the room, to which he complies. When Connor and his mother are alone, the mother says, "Ever since we got off of the subway three days ago, you've been acting different. I heard you talking to a girl with a green present. Could that have anything to do with it?" Connor says yes and admits to asking her what was inside. After that, he starts hugging his mother and breaks down crying. His mother asks what was inside the present and Connor describes seeing a black human stomach with holes in it that was covered in a rancid smelling slimy material with a note in front of it that read, "Stomach of a person who has eaten artificial food."