Teenage Scarecrow
What wouldn’t many of us do for love? Sometimes our search for it can make us do crazy things, not always with unpleasant results. Here is a story I, Bandygrass, found on one of my sojourns…
“Where is the music coming from?” you asked, looking up.
“From the attic,” I said, opening my book. “What page do we have to read?”
“Is it a record?” you stood up and tried to find the best spot in the room to hear the song.
“No.”
“Is someone there?”
“Kind of.”
“Who?”
I put the book down. You sat across from me and I could see anticipation for another of my stories in your bright, unblinking eyes.
“Remember that last week Mia was telling everyone about her new boyfriend at lunch? Well, I thought that it might be fun to have one. No, no! Don’t worry, he would be your friend too!
“You know I don’t like any of the boys at school, and I even considered the ones from the school band. I wanted the best boyfriend, so that even Mia would be jealous.
“I went to the library and did some research on love, also on boys, and since I was there already, on voodoo as well. It was very curious to find that a few things overlapped in all three.
“Don’t look at me that way! I’m not gonna be like the girls with boyfriends at school. I thought I could find someone who would write me poetry or sing to me under the rain, spend all day outside looking for a butterfly for me, and sigh when he heard my name. He would come to movie night with us, help us build our town model, and play marshmallow war!
“There were many ways to get a boyfriend in the voodoo book I found. You could steal someone’s hair, or their photograph; have them eat something you made, or make them wear something yours. Since I wanted an original, I decided to go the harder route. I made a scarecrow.
