The first time it happened, I was just a child. Innocent to the realisation that I would become an experiment.

I did not understand that I was safest hidden away. I wanted to be free, to have fun and play with all the other children, despite how different I was from them.

Twenty years ago, my mother left the front door slightly ajar. Being just a child, I saw my opportunity for fun, ignorant to the consequences. Through the door I ran, not bothering with shoes.

Feeling my bare feet stamper through the meadow, just across from our home.

I ran so fast I didn’t notice the sparks I felt, the tingling sensation from the grass.

I was not alone in the meadow, other children with their families enjoying the sunshine of the beautiful springs day.

I stared up at the sky, the clouds forming with every second that went past. I remember, the uncontrollable urge to twirl, so I did.

Twirling around and around, faster and faster, I could not resist.

As if I knew what I was doing, I felt my arms reach to the sky, the sun calling to me.

“Clementine!” I heard my mothers stern voice in a distance, however felt so far away.

My skin felt hot, but not painful. The feeling of the sun absorbing into my skin was the first essence of ecstasy I recall.

I could almost ignore the screaming, children and parents staring and pointing.

Of course, I realised my skin was glowing uncontrollably. But I did not care.

That first time I felt the sun on my skin, in that beautiful meadow, was the first time I had confirmation I was not like anyone else.

Alas, that was years ago now, to everyone else, I am mundane. Every few months a new child is tested positive for Photosynthesis X.

Doctors call it a disease, but it’s so much more than that.

My theory? Human beings are evolving, no longer equipped with the typical five senses.

As the world becomes hotter, and the ice caps melt. We have formed a new mechanism to cope with the sun.

Unfortunately, before PHX was world recognised and accepted. I became property of the state, that fateful day in that fateful meadow. Funny isn’t it? Someone is murdered in a busy city and it takes the authorities hours to arrive. But a girl? Shining so bright, in a meadows in the middle of a small village, well of course armoured vehicles arrive within seconds.

Sometimes I wonder if it was all worth it, the time I spent in isolation, samples taken from all part of me. Individuals caring more to study me than see me as a developing person, a child. All of that torment, I can only hope that I contributed to the acceptance of this “disease”, that my pain was endured so that the children of today do not have to undergo such treatment.

Despite this, I cannot unsettle the slight doubt in my stomach, that the promises made by the so called government that they no longer experiment on the inflicted, are all lies.

Still, even now. Nobody knows how PHX came to. Conspiracy theorists believe it to be lab made. Naturists and so called anarchists believe it to be the Devine earth herself, helping us fight this long lasting war of man made destruction. Is that what I am? A naturist? That feels doubtful. An anarchist? Hardly.

I suppose it might be easier to not ask such questions. But one can’t help but wonder…