Carnival of the Animals

As a child, her mother always warned her, “If you keep making that face, it will get stuck that way.” And now it appears her mom was right.

She’d always been a good mimic. Her first target was her brother, who was a big old crybaby. She would wail hysterically and pretend to tear her hair out. This made her brother cry even harder until he eventually ran out of steam and started laughing.

Throughout high school, she played leading roles in all the class plays - raucous laughter, pitiful wailing, bark like a dog – check, check, check. Whoever and whatever she saw became part of her face as she bounced from one character to the next without missing a beat.

Her mom was worried she might have Tourette’s, and she did enjoy the occasional outburst of screaming curse words in four different languages. But she always had control over her mimicry; it was never involuntary.

She'd also read about so-called “Tik Tok Tics,” where depressed young girls started Touretteing-up after watching Tik Tok influencers. “Woo-hoo!” they would repeat over and over. “Beans, beans, beans, beans!” Flying shark, flying shark, flying shark!” They would clap and point and bang body parts and curse and create a whole new disorder for psychologists to worry over. But that wasn’t her.
And finally, tonight is her chance to shine! She has practiced for over a year, hours every day - repeating a kaleidoscope of animal faces and sounds - until they were perfect - a visual and auditory symphony of the wild.

The lights are blinding when she walks on stage in her black tights. Simon, Sofia, Heidi, and Howie are hidden in the audience, ready to marvel at her “Carnival of the Animals”- her chance to win $1 million and play in Las Vegas.

“Hoo hoo hoo,” she begins. The chimp has spotted a viper. She looks back and forth between her imaginary partner and the snake, checking whether he has spotted it. She notices a leopard in the distance. “Krak” she starts to scream but modifies it to “boom-boom-krak” since the leopard is still far off and there’s no immediate need to escape.

She propels on at warp speed – from dog bark to cricket chirp to cow moo. Her face moves continuously as she imitates all 40 animals.

For the finale, she bares her teeth and emits a giant velociraptor roar. The crowd is on its feet, and the judges all hold their thumbs up. She tries to bow but is unable. Her body jerks and her face appears caught in a giant reptilian grimace. She feels as if smoke is drifting from her flared nostrils. Now in front of this audience of 9 million viewers, she suddenly realizes her face is indeed frozen and that her mother was right all those years ago.

— opelikakat