Baby’s first existential crisis

by Lisa Gaultier

My childhood memories are a place of nonsense. All the milestones, the betrayals, heartbreaks, losses, the stuff you tell your therapist, tend to be stored in the back of the store, employees only, not for my own eyes. A memory stew of repression I vaguely know the ingredients of. What I do remember is this little squashed bug. It's strange to think it's most likely no one else in the world remembers this horsefly. Gone is my first day of school, the best friend that moved away, my parents separating - this was when I realised that we had power of life and death. The life bit I enjoyed, the saving bugs bit. But I could also squash a bug, ruin a life, hit someone over the head with a frying pan if I wanted... and there wasn’t much to stop me but myself.

That stung (pun intended).

Lisa has a BA in Creative Writing and Film. She enjoys writing short stories as well as scripts, and drawing plays a significant role in her creative process. She writes wacky, colourful comedies, usually with a dose of absurdism and talking rats. She’s very interested in issues of representation and politics in mainstream film and TV, especially about women and LGBT+ issues.

Twitter: lisa_gaultier