December 2003 Issue - Essay # 6
Slither
By
Dorene E. Ireland
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I
have a little rubber snake on my computer desk at work.
I named him Slither, which is something I've yet to see him do.
Instead, he rests comfortably atop my left computer speaker.
It's a useless piece of hardware, really, so he is certain to have
a pleasant nap. Slither
listens to me type throughout the day, which, I'm sure, is less than
exciting. Sometimes a
co-worker moves him, playing a game with me that I never asked to be a
part of. Slither always finds
his way back, though. He's
talented like that. I
talk to him often, my only friend at work who will never contradict or
question, the only one who doesn't see me as "the girl in the
office." I tell him all
my secrets, and he has yet to share them with anyone else.
Of course, there are no other snakes here, or perhaps he would have
by now. He
has never once told me that my thoughts were wrong and stupid or silly,
has never put me down for the opinions that years of anger at the world
have given me. He has never
said anything, really, and yet he has become--and remained--the best
friend that I could ask for: one
that doesn't judge, doesn't question, doesn't betray. Perhaps
the comfort that I feel from talking to him is a bit strange, yet, to me,
it seems that if I need someone to talk to, it's better to talk to a
rubber snake than to myself. At
least I have someone-- well, something--that listens to me.
How many people out there don't even have that much? My
snake, my little rubber friend, he sits and stares at me now, perhaps
wondering what I'm typing today, or in which direction our conversations
shall lead. Maybe he wonders
why I've been so quiet the last few days, or why I do some of the things I
do. Maybe he thinks about a
lot of things. And maybe he
doesn't. It
doesn't matter to me what he thinks or what he doesn't.
It doesn't matter to me if he's alive or not.
All that matters to me is whether or not he is a good friend, and I
have to say, this little rubber snake is a far better friend than most.
And that is all that seems important. |
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Author's Biography Dorene
Ireland lives in upstate New York with the love of her young life and a pair
of monstrous cats who only she seems to love. E-mail Dorene at direland@frontiernet.net
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Essay
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