Matchstick girl

billygean ♦ April 22, 2008 ♦ 2 Comments

The doorbell goes. I look down at my outfit. I have been meaning to have a bath all day, but have been distracted by things like America’s Next Top Model and Gossip Girl. Consequently I have added various items to my pyjamas – hot pants and vest top – as I got colder. namely, a cardigan that comes down to my thighs, and fluffy Santa Claus socks.

I figure it is probably only the postman, and Lord knows he has seen me worse.

I fling the door open. “Oh,” I say, seeing HomeFriend.

“Billygean,” she says, flinging an arm around me.

Then she pauses.

“You’re not wearing much!”

I laugh. “Is this not acceptable? I don’t socialise much,” I say with a grin.

“It’s fine,” she says, ushering me to sit back down. “I bring you gifts!” she says, presenting me with a box. “To keep you creative,” she says.

I open the box and out fall hundreds of matchsticks.

“You use the matchsticks,” she says, “and the glue, to build things.”

She places a dinner tray on my stomach. “You can even do it lying down.”

I laugh, touched. “Thank you,” I say. “I can’t believe it’s come to this, to keep me entertained.”

“I can’t believe it’s come to this generally,” she says. “Would you have done less, before, if you’d have known what would happen?”

“No,” I say, eyeing the drawings on the box, Cathedrals built up and up out of thousands of tiny matchsticks. “I would have done more.”