🍔 The Hamburger Boy

"Hey! Look! The Hamburger Boy!" This nickname followed me around school every day. It wasn't because I was from Hamburg, looked like a burger or even liked them.

I just loved bending my back so far backward that my body folded over itself, resembling a tightly packed burger more than any other shape.

Every day, I spent hours practicing at home, pushing my spine further and further, trying to get my butt squishing even harder against my shoulder blades.

With each push, I felt an incredible rush of euphoria. That feeling of flexibility and freedom intensified by the thumping basslines pumping through my headphones.

But no matter how tight I bent, my body yearned for more, driving me to squeeze my body harder each day.

The teach allowed me to do my own thing during PE class. While others ran laps or played basketball, I warmed up with deep stretches, pulling as hard as I could, getting ready for those last 10 minutes reserved specially for me alone.

In those final minutes of class, my classmates would take turns climbing onto my pelvis, pressing down with all their weight as I held my breath and tightened every muscle in my core.

Everyone watched in awe, amazed by the sight of a boy almost completely separated in two halves, stacked one on top of another and squished flat together like human pancakes.

"Wow! He looks sooo broken!" they still couldn't believe it sometimes, despite seeing it 3-4 times a week.

"Oh my god, he's going to break his back one day," some girl could never resist shaking her head every time she stepped on top of me. "I don't want to just stand here and watch him getting in a wheelchair! Please say you can still feel your legs," she pleaded worriedly.

Smiling reassuringly, I gave her a thumbs up and wiggled my toes as proof of life. "Feeling great! But please step off my nuts, it actually hurts a bit."

Everyone laughed, feeling relieved that I could still make jokes while having such a fatty standing on my balls with all her weight.

But I was too used to it now; developmentally delayed students often made the same mistake thinking it was my butt on the top, so I already got used to them standing on my balls all the time. Even to getting slapped hard on what they thought was my butt!

"Out of life's school of war: what doesn't kill us makes us stronger," I remembered hearing once in the history class. Then I chuckled at myself, wondering how else I could push my limits more?

I really needed to find fresh new challenges if I wanted to keep folding further each day. Maybe I should talk to my friend Sally, she is super smart and good at making all sorts of contraptions; maybe she can come up with something to help me squish my body even tighter than ever before!