37. Alan – Flesh
He's poking his abdomen to feel the hard muscles beneath. Yup, they're there. Then he pinches his skin and pulls, making a tent on his stomach. He lets it go and the skin snaps back into place.
Flesh is weird, Alan thinks as he pokes at himself again. Skin is a strange thing. Bodies are awesome.
Each of his brothers is different. Alan has never deliberately sat down and looked at his brothers' bodies but when he thinks about it, they're all unique.
Scott is long and lean and has the fluidity of a noodle. He's kind of, well, loosey-goosey, as Grandma might have said. Sometimes, Alan wonders if Scott is really Stretch Armstrong. All elastic and bouncy and impossible to break.
Virgil is all muscle. He's built like a brick sh- house and sturdy as an ox. He's kind of a cross between a grizzly bear and a toasted marshmallow. He's got the sort of build that Alan aspired to, for there would be nothing to be ashamed of with a body like that. Alan prodded his stomach again.
Gordon is something altogether special. He has that swimmer's build, all lean muscle and streamlined plains of tanned skin. He's short, compact – it seems as though there's not a part of him that's extraneous. Every ounce of skin and muscle is exactly as it should be.
John is suited to his environment. Living in weightlessness, he's almost become weightless himself. Just like Gordon, there's not a part of him that's extra, that's unnecessary.
And Alan? Quite what he is has not been set just yet. He's still growing, stretching, filling out his skin with flesh and bone. And however he ends up, he just hopes he'll be content.