Synesthesia

Today’s prompt: “Write from the point of view of a person who has synesthesia (a condition in which one type of sensory stimulation evokes a different sense, as when hearing a sound produces the visualization of a color).”

The first time Claudia realized that not everyone tastes certain words and sounds the way she does was after church one day when she was a little girl. When the service was done, she asked her mother why they always sang the chalky song. When her mom asked what she meant, she said, “You know. The one where they say ‘wretch.’” As baffling as it was for her mother to learn that the word “wretch” tasted like chalk to her daughter, it was just as baffling for Claudia to realize that she was the only one she knew who lived in a world where “merry” has the faint tang of boiled carrots, and “dachsund” tastes like split pea soup. Doctors diagnosed her with lexical-gustatory synesthesia, which was when she learned that “synesthesia” tastes like Swiss cheese.

Claudia really wishes you would stop making that horrible death rattle. It tastes like day-old coffee.