UPDATE: This won the 2010 Mckinney Prize

Mommy just moved me to a new world.

First I was awake. She lifted me when I started to cry. She always exists after I start to cry.

Then I ate. It wasn't good. Mom existed while I ate. She makes me eat when I don't want to. I don't like that.

She put me in the soft place, and replaced her arms around me with the arms of the soft place. They held me, even when I momentarily stopped thinking of them. Light flashes by. This happens sometimes when I'm put in the soft place. I think other Mommies exist in the light, but they pass by too fast. I hear a dull hum that changes pitch. I remember being in this soft place with this hum. This has existed before

I'm out of the soft place. Mommy's arms have replaced the soft place's arms. I feel intermittent cold on my face. My eyes hurt, but I'm not crying. They sting a little. They feel like my mouth when I cry for too long. They are dry.

Other Mommies exist. They exist here; some of them holding small Mommies. They have small Mommies! Am I a Mommy? No. Mommy doesn't cry. These are not small Mommies. They are me. They are like me, but are not me---

Mommy just moved me to a new world. It's moist on my legs. I see little bits of mud. No. It sparkles. It's sparkly mud. No. Mud is continuous. Mud does not feel rough. Mud is soft. This is not mud.

Mommy just moved me to a new world with sparkly non-mud. Mommy doesn't exist. I want to cry her into existence, but I should first figure out this sparkly non-mud. I am intrigued.

I reach for the non-mud. My face is better than my hand at knowing. I push the non-mud on my face. It is decidedly un-mud-like. I was correct to assume it was not mud. My mother exists.

Her arms brush off the non-mud. I don't mind. I now know the non-mud better than before I put it on my face. I can't know more from my face.

I see someone like me. They hold the sparkly non-mud, and then don't hold it. After doing this more than two times, the non-mud is tall. It is as tall as me. It behaves like blocks.

Sometimes mommy exists with my blocks. I like my blocks. They can be placed atop one another. Mud cannot be placed atop mud. Mud wants to be with more mud. It just becomes a flat piece of mud. I once put a block in mud. It didn't spread like the mud. It sat on the mud until mommy existed and made it not exist.

I don't understand this non-mud. It is everywhere, and feels like a block. It must be block-mud.

I think I understand the block-mud.

The one like me has a colorful cup. It is like the cups mommy makes me drink from, except it has no nipple. What good is a cup without a nipple?

This cup has nothing inside. The one like me tips the cup of colorless nothing. I don't understand. There is something, not nothing. It is a colorless something. It makes a tube. I am reminded of the bath. It must be a small amount of bath that is in a tube coming from the cup.

Then I am amazed.

The tube of bath touches the stack of block-mud, and it becomes MUD! I am scared. I do not understand.

It must be mud. I look with intense suspicion at the block-mud around me. Is it all mud in disguise?

I see the one like me hold some of what has now clearly exhibited the qualities of mud. The one like me releases the mud. It stacks. It is not mud. I am confused.

I don't understand. The block-mud is mud. This can't happen. It is not. I cry. Mommy exists. I feel good. She holds me. I feel good.

***

I don't know how long it has been. I feel warm. It is light. Mommy exists, and is holding me. I remember the ambiguous mud. It does not bother me as much. It does not exist.

Suddenly it does exist. I am in the ambiguous mud. Where is mommy? I want to cry. I am suddenly distracted by one like me. This one is filling a cup with ambiguous mud. I see the stack of ambiguous mud inside the cup. It is very block-like. I like my blocks.

The one like me turns the cup, and places it on the ground. The nipple-side (if it had a nipple like a normal cup) is down now. The one like me lifts the cup. There is now a cup-shaped block of ambiguous mud. I am amazed.

I first believe that the ambiguous mud from the ground has risen to fill the gap left by the cup. But the ambiguous mud in the cup does not exist anymore. I do not understand.

The stack of ambiguous mud stopped existing, and then the cup-shaped block of ambiguous mud existed. I do not understand. Did the ambiguous mud stack stay when the cup was lifted? Why would it not move with its cup?

Maybe the ambiguous mud stack likes to be with the rest of the ambiguous mud on the ground. If that is the case, then it must be mud. Mud likes to be with other mud. But the stack of ambiguous mud does not spread like mud. It stays in the shape of a cup. I do not understand.

The one like me moves his hands into the cup-shaped stack of ambiguous mud. It breaks. It becomes flatter. It is still above the ground. It is not, however, cup-shaped anymore. I do not understand.

I can stack my blocks. I can move my hand into the stack, and it stops existing and becomes blocks. This is similar to the behavior exhibited by the previously cup-shaped stack of ambiguous mud. I like mud.

It must be some sort of mud-block duality. Perhaps all mud is blocks or all blocks are mud. I can't be certain. I am never certain.

I am never certain.