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03-13-2000 Back to all Archives Back to 2000: January - March Archives Back to Current Entry list |
I was chatting with a friend recently, who was telling about another friend of his, and somehow it came up that he (the friend being discussed) was married to a cat. No, it was that he was married to the microwave and having an affair with the cat. I don't have the full details of this myself, but he was using this as a method of explaining weirdness. And I said that I'm used to weird. Because after all I come from a family that names most household appliances (including microwaves - single or otherwise romantically attached), and we have a troll in the hall closet. Yes, I said troll. I don't remember what brought about the presence of the troll. He has been there for as long as I can remember. My dad was military, so we did more than our fair share of moving around. And each time we would move, someone would have to remember to put a box in the closet for the troll to climb into. When we got to the new place, the box would be put into the new hall closet, in the farthest, darkest corner, so that the troll could come out when he was ready. He's a shy troll. No one has ever sees him, of course. But he doesn't like to be trapped, so the hall closet door stands slightly ajar. It's been this way for years, throughout too many moves to count. No one in the family shuts that door whenever we are at my parents' house, we all know without even thinking about it that that door cannot be closed all the way. Or else someone will jump up and open it again to let the troll breathe. I suppose every family has its quirks and oddities; some of us more than others. But I'm the only one I know who has a family troll. Even my brother-in-law knows about the troll, and at one point asked my sister what they had to do to get a troll of their own. Sometimes there are things you have to take on faith, without questioning them too closely. Sometimes there are things that you may never be able to explain because they just *are*. He's not a bad troll. He's very harmless, quiet and shy. He doesn't speak to anyone. I don't recall that he ever did. It's not like this was some imaginary friend of us kids that the family incorporated into a 'real' creature. He just....is. |