Issue 84- " Ups and Downs"

Words, Pics, Inks: Heath Parker Lail

Y'know, Sam's Journal really hit me tonight. I have possessed many items over the years, but only one thing came to mind when she talked about a person having a favorite object...the pillowcase my mother sewed me when I was a child. Brandon and I each had one, exactly the same. The only difference is now, he still has his, while mine has gone the way of the dodo. It was a silver sheen satin pillowcase, and I loved that stupid thing....I loved it so much that my folks had to destroy it one night while I was away at church so that I would not stop them. Over the years, I had used my pillow everywhere, much like Dustin with his pillow and Sam with her blanket. I don't think about it as much anymore, but I guess I was around 12 or 13 when it was destroyed. I used it every night, and it was now as old as I. It had small Coke stains on it, dusty as anything, and a hole was beginning to take parts of it away into nothingness. It was like the hole in the ozone layer...it just kept growing until...one night I was at church, and I returned to see a new pillowcase on my pillow. I looked everywhere for it and asked Mom and Dad. They finally told me that it died in the washing machine. They killed it intentionally of course, but they used the excuse that they were worried that I would roll my face into it one night and suffocate. I told them that was a chance I was willing to take, and I cried myself to sleep for a week after that episode. There ya go guys...I do have something in common with everyone else I guess. Later