Epilepsy and the Electric Spirit

So I'm standing at a bus stop in East London.

It's a Saturday evening in November and I'm on my way to a friend's birthday party.

Sitting next to me is an enormous cheese plant bursting out of a plastic bag.

It's outgrown my flat and it needs a new home.

So today it's a birthday present.

The number 30 bus pulls up.

It opens its doors, but just as it does, the left side of my vision goes completely hazy and scrambled.

I know exactly what's going on.

I wave the bus on and I start power walking back to the safety of my flat and my girlfriend.

But when I get to the top of my road, I realise I won't make it home in time.

So I lie down on the pavement, put my jacket under my head, and call my girlfriend, who immediately sets off to find me.

I lie and wait for it.

First, it's a series of twitches in my foot.

Then electric shocks up and down my leg.

Slowly my body is being taken over by an energy completely out of my control.

It's not me.

It takes my foot.

Then it takes my leg.

Then it spreads to my abs.

It feels like one of those stick-on exercise machines pulsing through my muscles.

And then I pass out.

So I'm standing at a bus stop in East London.

It's a Saturday evening in November and I'm on my way to a friend's birthday party.

Sitting next to me is an enormous cheese plant bursting out of a plastic bag.

It's outgrown my flat and it needs a new home.

So today it's a birthday present.

The number 30 bus pulls up.

It opens its doors, but just as it does, the left side of my vision goes completely hazy and scrambled.

I know exactly what's going on.

I wave the bus on and I start power walking back to the safety of my flat and my girlfriend.

But when I get to the top of my road, I realise I won't make it home in time.

So I lie down on the pavement, put my jacket under my head, and call my girlfriend, who immediately sets off to find me.

I lie and wait for it.

First, it's a series of twitches in my foot.

Then electric shocks up and down my leg.

Slowly my body is being taken over by an energy completely out of my control.

It's not me.

It takes my foot.

Then it takes my leg.

Then it spreads to my abs.

It feels like one of those stick-on exercise machines pulsing through my muscles.

And then I pass out.