Christmas and Ants
Do you remember the exact moment your brain decided to keep memories?
One day you’re just playing in a sandbox, and something clicks inside your head. Like the sound your grandpa’s cassette made when he wanted to listen to real music. You look around, and you know that you’re going to remember this exact day. Well, not the exact day, because you could barely tell the time or know the difference between Tuesday and Thursday. But you remember what you wore, who you were with, and what the other person was doing.
I had that moment when I was around five years old. I remember looking up from where I was sitting and seeing how the boy I was playing with had dried snot on his face. We were playing house, and he was supposed to be the dad. He always wore a white shirt. He didn’t mind that he got dirty. At that moment, he tried wiping the sweat off his forehead with the ends of his shirt.
“I can only cook eggs for now, don’t ask for a divorce,” he said. His eyebrows were furrowed as he tried to flip a leaf we put on one of the plastic pans I brought with me.
“What’s a divorce?” I asked him. He shrugged and patted his hands on his lap as he placed a plate with the omelet on it in front of me.
“It’s when you get two Christmases, and two birthdays, and two allow ants.”
I frowned. My parents would never allow ants.
“At least that’s what my dad told me,” he continued.
“Must be nice,” I said as I pretended to eat the withered leaf from the plate.
He sighed and took the plate from my hands.
“I guess. But I can only stay at one house at a time.”
My eyes widened. “You get to have two houses?!”
He grinned, his two front teeth missing.
After a while, he was picked up by a woman I have never seen before and his toothless grin disappeared from his face. The park was near my home, just across the street. My parents could see me from our kitchen window. Parents weren’t so careful back then and everyone knew who the neighborhood creep was.
When I got home, I saw my dad making a sandwich. He looked at me and smiled. He was a pretty laid back guy but he never sat in front of the TV for too long. When he was home, he tried to play with me as much as he could. He drove a truck and wasn’t around that much.
The rest of that day was a bit hazy. After all, it was only my first day of remembering things. I do remember asking my parents if they ever had two birthdays before. When I told them what the boy told me, they looked at each other and held each other’s hand. They promised me that I’ll only get one of everything. As for my ‘allowed ants,’ I was told I could get some if I did some chores around the house. Realizing I would only get one present for my birthday, I felt a bit sad.
