Even Make Belief Has a Purpose

“You know that vinyl record that was stolen by those gang members a month ago?” I reminded my girlfriend of that night.

“You mean the 8 year old kids that you accused?”

“Whatever!”

About a month ago, my parents had company over and decided to let their friend’s children loose in the basement; a suite to which I have been renting for the last 3 years. They made their way into my room and managed to shuffle and rearrange every item they could, including my vinyl collection. I came home that night to an empty house, DVD disc without their cases and a missing vinyl record. I was furious! I mean, who would steal my Regina Spektor record?? That night I had a vivid dream to which I was choking the kid that was using my record as a Frisbee. He was playing by a pond and I had spotted him from afar. I crept up slowly, letting my foot land heavy only when the child raised his voice to sing the chorus of some innocent after school special song -- something about loving everyone and sharing -- yeah, me loving to kill him and him sharing a bed with the fishes haha right? right? I palm the back of his neck and force him into the pond; he struggles; I shush him with the grin of sweet revenge letting him up for air only to make him feel like he was getting a second chance at life then submerging him once again. Wait a minute…this isn’t my private diary…….

“Your friend’s children are thieves!” I proclaimed to my momma in her kitchen the next morning. “They need to be put into jail now while there’s still time to change! This record was very dear to me! It’s a classic! I love it! When I see that kid at the pond he’ll pay dearly, yes he will. Oh yes he--”

“What are you talking about?”

“--huh? Nothing.”

“Well,” I didn’t want to admit it to my sweet little girlfriend but I had to. “I don’t think I ever owned that record on vinyl to begin with.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Yeah, but while searching for the darn thing, I cleaned up my room real good!”

The past is forever evolving. I read that in a book by David Carr once and ain’t that the truth. Symbolically and literally, events from the past can mean/look different to us at different stages of our life. There may be things that hindsight will notice or make up sub-consciously, like the existence of a Regina Spektor record. The purpose? Who knows. But my room is so damn clean now.