After the acid had blinded me (and melted my body to the bone), I remember the world going dark and staying dark. It was different than going to sleep, as even while unconscious, you still feel. This sensation was more akin to being unplugged, where I couldn't see, hear, or even think for the longest time. In a delirious and ethereal state, I figured that this wasn't an afterlife, but the void where we exist before we are born. Nothingness.
And then suddenly, I was corn.
I can't tell how long I was in that void for, but I eventually became aware that I was no longer dead. It's hard to explain, but I could feel without really feeling. I had no nerves, no senses, yet I was privy to the fact that I was alive once again, consciousness intact. My experiences, the memories of my previous life. They were all there…yet frustratingly, I couldn't hear, see, or move.
"Is this a coma?" I thought to myself, confused over my current state of being. "Hello? Hello, hello? Can anybody hear me?"
My voice was all in my head, not a word of it actually audible. Panic began to set in as the helplessness of being unable to move became apparent, although I disturbingly did not detect any sort of racing heartbeat to coincide with my nervousness. Mind racing, I flipped through all the possibilities. I was aware of the accident, and figured that the truck and its contents had put me into a coma, caused significant brain damage, or worse…turned me into a vegetable. Oh, how unaware of how on-the-nose I was with that last one.
I was to remain trapped in that mental prison for what felt like years. Alone with my own thoughts, I eventually conjured imaginary people to converse with to help keep me sane. My favorite of these was Jesse, a busty, big-butted blonde woman who was always in a tight-fitting black bikini. I reimagined my parents, talked to them, imagined Jesse's parents, got permission to marry her. I lived a whole life there in my thoughts, but as I grew accustomed to my formless existence, the universe outside would eventually make itself know.
It started off like a faint whisper, a barely audible sound that one is aware of but cannot fully understand. Beyond my mind, I knew that "outside" was there, and the longer I listened, the more I became aware that everything in existence gave off a sort of energy, no matter how faint. Isolated in my own mind for what felt like years, I suppose my consciousness became a powerful thing. Thinking deeply and desperately about how I wanted to know what was going on, I ended up accidentally "scanning" myself.
A clear image suddenly popped into my mind, one that I certainly did not expect. Ripened to perfection and nearly a golden yellow, was a beautiful ear of corn. Approximately halfway up a 10-foot stalk, the cob glistened beneath an afternoon sun, while a gentle breeze rocked the rest of the plant to reveal thousands upon thousands of similar stalks behind it. A cornfield. My vision fixated on this one particular ear, however, and that's when it hit me.
"I-is that me?" I thought to myself as the mental image faded to darkness. "Am I corn?!"
It certainly would have made sense. I couldn't hear, see, or feel, yet I was alive. Concentrating, I attempted to scan myself once again, focusing my energy on the revelation of the world around me. It was no fluke, the energy that I could sense from everything was truly there, and letting my mind go silent and allowing myself to become immersed in this gently-pulsating energy, I could see the image of outside return.
There it was again, rocking gently in the warm breeze. The sun's rays bathing the bright-yellow kernels in its warm glow, that particular ear of corn was the view that I received in my mind, seemingly confirming the idea that I was stuck in the body of an actual vegetable. Naturally, I had many questions, like if this was reincarnation, then why did I keep my consciousness? It seemed like a cruel act of fate to take the mind of a human and put it into a motionless plant. As the potential-selfie of myself again faded from my view, I cycled through multiple stages of coping. Anger at the hand I'd been dealt with, grieving over my lost life, and in denial that I was even experiencing a strange post-death.
It took a while to get the hang of it, but after what felt like months, I was finally able to scan myself at will, to the point of it becoming no different to me than flexing my bicep in my old human body. These scans didn't do much, but they gave me a much-needed connection to the world outside, where I was offered nothing but a brief glimpse of that singular ear of corn hooked onto its stalk. Sometimes it was beneath the hot glow of the sun, and other times under the cool moonlight while a blanket of stars lit up a night sky over the cornfield.
I also became more proficient at sensing the energy that everything seemed to give off. My own energy appeared to be what allowed me to get glances at myself, and I could sense the faint traces of the other stalks of maize that surrounded me. This caused me to wonder if I could do anything else with this phenomena, where I prepared to focus and train my mind further. After all, I had nothing better to do. An objective was something that I needed to stay sane.
"Alright…so for whatever reason, I've been reincarnated as corn," I thought to myself, well aware of the absurdity, yet forced to accept it as reality. "I guess I've got to find a way to make this work. My training arc starts now!"
Scanning myself yet again, I saw the yellow kernels that supposedly made up my new body. The sun was setting behind the cornfield, causing me to wonder how many days it had been since I'd been reincarnated. Where was I even, was this the country I was from? Was I halfway around the world?
"Why did I become corn?" turned out to be only one of many, many questions that I needed answers for.