My Sea Urchin
I don't usually carry sea urchins into college. I find it usually exacerbates the whole 'moving through crowded corridors' situation. Now lets make this clear from the start; this was not one of those rounded, bony sea urchins that pretends to be a melon, but rather the more sinister looking - perhaps pink- sharp and spiky sea urchin that threatens instant death should one foolishly make contact with its protrusions. Nevertheless, on the morning of December 12th 2005, I entered my college, bag slung over right shoulder, bright yellow folder under left arm, and sea urchin resting cosily on right palm.
It was certainly difficult at first to make contact with anyone I knew. Anyone I remotely knew, say someone in one of my classes for example, only stared at me momentarily in a combined expression of awe and hatred. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was the bravery of my quest that inspired them so, yet the fact I was threatening their very existence that sparked up feelings of loathing. When I did finally encounter a friend of mine, it turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax to say the least.
Gary Pepper isn’t the brightest star in the sky and certainly proved it when, after ten minutes of standard everyday conversation he was yet to mention my sea urchin. I did my best - thrusting the sea urchin up and down as I described my game of water polo the night before. I increased the pace of my hand gestures as we discussed Gary’s karate lesson but to no avail. I even went as far as to pretend my sea urchin was a ball as we talked about David Beckham’s goal at the weekend. Yet as standard everyday conversation began to run out and Gary’s eyes wandered across the room in search of something else to talk about, there was still no mention of my sea urchin.
Now I was beginning to get frustrated. I’d never anticipated this distinctly boring reaction. Hordes of students swarmed past me, bustling, jostling, talking, shouting. My mind was swirling with anger and irritation. Suddenly I hurled my sea urchin to the floor and screamed, "Aaaah!" Everybody stopped moving. "For God's sake!" I shouted, "What is wrong with you all? Why don't you say anything about my sea urchin? I gestured frantically at the floor. From the blanket of wide eye onlookers emerged Gary Pepper chewing nonchalantly on a tuna bagel. “Um...Tom mate... that’s not a sea urchin... its a guitar.”
|
