When I was a sophomore in high school, the mother of a friend of mine came home with a box of plastic bendable bugs. The reason why is still unclear. This particular friend had a very squeaky laugh, so I called her Squeaky Bird for most of the time I knew her.
Squeaky Bird brought one of the plastic bugs to school. I have always been very easily distracted, and I spent hours playing with the bug, which I decided was a boy and named Margaret.
Squeaky Bird eventually got tired of me borrowing Margaret day after day, and she eventually brought me a bendable plastic bug of my own. I was thrilled! I named him Abigail and carried him everywhere with me in my backpack.
I had another friend who had a math class with me. This friend was a percussionist, but she and I would spend our math hour blatantly not paying attention to the teacher and pretending to perform various surgeries on Abigail. Abigail had multiple health problems and needed numerous lobotomies and liver transplants.
Percussionist is now applying to medical school.
I don't know what happened to Abigail. He seems to have disappeared in the move from my home to my college dorm several years ago. I do recall bringing him to the dorm with me, but I haven't seen him since.
Whenever anyone asked me why the bug's name was Abigail when I had made it clear that Abigail was a boy, I would shrug and say, "That's just the way he is."
I felt a very deep connection to Abigail.
No comments:
Post a Comment