Drifter

I am a soul.

I don't quite remember when I left my body. All I remember is becoming what I am. A floating soul, with no purpose. Yearning for a place to call my own. I've jumped from countless bodies but none of them seemed to fit. None of them seemed right.

I've been a soldier, I've been a high-school girl, I've been a business man, I've been a boy struggling to find himself. But I've never been me. Is there even a 'me?'

I'm... different from the other souls. I've seen others. They've floated by slowly, some white and translucent like I am. Others are pink, blue, yellow, purple, many colours. I passed a soul once that was multi-coloured, like a rainbow. That must have been a strong soul.

Some days I don't even search for myself. I like to observe humans, I love watching them and seeing how they solve day to day problems. I will never understand how they can smile even though the world seems dark and dismal.

I joined souls with a cat once. Joining souls is fun. You can share a body, and see how things are from their point of view. Sometimes the soul inside the body will leave shortly after you join, moving on to their next body, searching for their own purpose, the body that they were meant to be in.

Cats are interesting creatures. I liked my cat body, I could laze around in the sunlight, and I loved the feeling of capturing a mouse with my own two paws. Being in a cat's body allowed me to forget what I was searching for, and for nine years, until the cat died, I had simply forgotten my purpose.

When I was released from the cat's body, I spent a year just floating, watching the world from afar. I spent that year reflecting on my years as a soul, and wondering what was next. Wondering if I'd ever find a body to call my own, a new body, a body that had never touched a soul before.

I wanted a body that was mine, and mine alone. It seemed selfish, yes, but at the time I didn't matter. I suppose many souls want bodies for their own, bodies that are theirs and only theirs.

Perhaps it was only a myth. Perhaps that you were not supposed to find your own body, you were supposed to just jump from body to body, or aimlessly wander the earth. Perhaps that was the fate of a soul.

But there was a time when I could not join souls with a body. It was a human girl, around the age of 8, and when I tried to join souls, the soul inside was so strong, so bright, that it kicked me out.

Years later, sitting on a park bench, I found that very girl, and her soul was smaller, weaker, but I tried joining souls with her again and even though I was stronger than the soul inside, I still could not enter.

I was envious; why couldn't I have what that soul and it's body had? And I vowed to myself that I would search for my own body, from that day on.

I would continue searching for months, days, weeks, hours, minutes, seconds. I would search and search and one day, all that searching would pay off.

One day, that searching did pay off. I arrived at what the humans call a hospital, and there was a brand new body. A brand new body that no soul had ever touched. And as I touched the body, I felt a sense of belonging. I felt overwhelmed. It was me. My own body.

I had a place to call my own. If any soul had tried to join souls with me, they would get overwhelmed with my newly awakened power.

No, this body was mine alone.

I was finally home.