After a while, I figured out what the problem was. I was trying too hard. I thought I had to work out where every bit went and manually move it there. But when you think about it, you don’t think about how to walk, or jump, or skip. “Lift leg, move leg, drop leg. Lift other leg, move…” No. You just…do it. The moment I stopped trying to unfold myself, and just thought, “You know, it’d be great if I could unfold,” I was standing on two feet before I finished thinking the word “could.” I was so shocked I nearly fell right over.

So I thought about being a car again, and I was. And standing up again, and I was. But it took a little time to work out exactly how to zen it flawlessly. I kept getting all self-conscious halfway through and ending up a tangle of car and body parts, and it took a little doing to straighten me back out again.

But at least I was learning. The body was seeming less alien to me by the moment.

Which was good, since right then was when I heard the motors coming up the road.