Memento Mori?

Grimm's Cat

Who really knows what their earliest memory is?   After all, we have such a little selection to decide from when it comes to our early recollections.  I think it was a tree.  I was in a car seat, maybe, and I was looking at wet tree bark, and it was cloudy.  I remember absolutely loving the rich pattern of the bark and the blue-green moss that clung to it.

Everything after that is total crap.

Once, my mom didn’t come upstairs to read to me.  I waited, all tucked into bed, with the book sitting on my dresser beside me.  After waiting and waiting I couldn’t wait anymore so I grabbed the book and tried to read it to myself.  I was maybe 4.  I’ve loved challenging my brain ever since. 

Once, it was dusk and I was playing with a friend, a little girl my age.  I wanted to play on her wheelie, which was in the back yard.  We were almost to the gate, and then these guys were going past.  Thinking back on it, they were smoking and had grungy T-shirts on.  They called out to us, saying something about bubblegum in their pockets.  Bubblegum?  My friend turned to listen.  Oh yes, a whole pile of bubblegum, but it was at their house, so come on we'll show it to you- and she was gone.  This part is blank.  I remember going to the backyard and sitting down on the wheelie.  Only then did I realize how dark it was getting, past the time when your parents would be calling you inside.  I ran home.  The strangest part is, I don’t remember hearing anything about her after that.  Granted, it was a military housing complex- people moved out and in and out again often.  But it still drives me crazy that I don’t remember.  Did she ever come back?