THE WORM

A friend forwarded me this nugget a while back. It's a long, but well written story (simultaneously humorous and horrifying) about one man's battle with a tapeworm. I always thought having a tapeworm would be cool because supposedly, with a worm, you can eat all you want and never get fat. But after reading this story, I changed my mind about that dream. Here's a particularly hair-raising excerpt from the part of the story which describes the death of the worm:

"There was a shifting inside my guts. Then there was a more sudden, thrashing movement. And that's when I realized my tapeworm was going through its death throes. It squirmed and twisted, spasming – and why didn't the doctor tell me about this part, the bastard? My guts cramped and churned. This went on for five, ten minutes, until, just as suddenly, it subsided. It was over. My tapeworm was at peace."

Check out the entire story here (if you dare). Click on the linked text at the end of each page to move to the next page. The "best" part comes later, in a bathroom stall, when our subject finally passes his parasitic friend. I'm not sure what the moral of this story is, other than I never ever ever ever want a tapeworm.