Writing 101: Serially Lost

The challenge for today was to write about something or someone that was once part of my life, and isn’t anymore. I have faced losses that fall in varies places along the richter scale, however I prefer not to delve into the deep darkness of it all. Ever. I think I’m more of a suffer in silence type of gyal. The loss I’m writing about below is not deep or dark, and it didn’t change the way I view the world but it’s a huge loss nonetheless!

Remember the pterodactyl *side note who knew “pterodactyl” started with a P? I didn’t* from the movie The Land before Time, Petri? Well, that is the something that was part of my life, and isn’t anymore.  Let me explain. When I was a child, I got this amazing stuffed animal. He was a yellow/green color, was ohh so soft, and when you squeezed him, he made a noise. This stuffed animal was my dear Petri. I honestly don’t remember a time where I didn’t have him, like I don’t remember life before Petri. Everything started making sense once he came into my life. I was maybe three or four years old when he was gifted to me and from that day on, I only had eyes for him. No stuffed animal could hold a figurative candle to Petri. My mom told me that one time we were going out of town, and while in the car I yelled from the backseat, “Where’s Petri?” to which my father calmly responded “We must have left it at the house.” Who the fuck is it, you mean he? Anyway, I lost it. According to mi madre I started screaming, “WE GOTTA GET PETRI!!! WE GOTTA GET PETRI!!” and sure enough we turned around and headed back to get my beloved. As I said, I got him when I was about three or four years old and I saw him last when I was twenty. I have no idea what happened to him either, so there is no closer! He was a big deal people, huge! I sucked my thumb growing up and I also did something in conjunction to thumb sucking…pressing. I know a lot of people who sucked their thumb however I’ve never met anyone that pressed. Whenever I would mention pressing, they would hit me with the deer in the head lights look, so I’ll explain.  Pressing is really just that, pressing. I would press stuff literally, more specifically Petri, my fingers and my mother. Don’t judge my life. Every night it was Petri, my thumb, and I. I don’t know what happened to Petri, but I do know who happened to him. I believe he was violated although the where, why, and how remain a mystery. Scratch that, I know the why.

I’m legally an adult and I still wish I had him with me.

Michael Jackson said it best:

“Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight

Here one day, gone one night

Like a sunset dying with the rising of the moon

Gone too soon, gone too soon”

Petri meets Little Foot & Ducky