Something of His Very Own

Snicker. The blog is named after him,

        by Valerie L. Egar

          All Sammy wanted was something of his very own.

      When his brother Cody outgrew his clothes, Mom put them in Sammy’s bureau.

           “I want my own clothes,” said Sammy.

          “If they’re in your drawer, they are your clothes,” said Mom, “and perfectly good ones, too.”

         All Sammy wanted was something of his very own.

            When he played with his trucks, his little sister, Lily, crashed her Wonder Pony onto the highway. Then, she grabbed a truck.

“Rrum, rrum,” said  Lily.

“Give me my truck,” said Sammy.

Dad said, “Sammy, share with your sister.”

All Sammy wanted was something of his very own.

Grandma visited every Sunday. She told Cody he was good at drawing and Lily that she sang like a rock and roll star. To Sammy she said, “You have a nose, exactly like your father’s.” Even his nose wasn’t his own!

          When school started, Sammy thought he might find something there that was his very own.

On the first day, the teacher took attendance and called out names.

“Isn’t that something, “ she said. “This year we have three Sams in our class.” Four kids had Superhero backpacks exactly like Sammy's, and two had the same kind of sneakers.

Sammy was sure on the day the teacher asked about pets, he would be the only one with a hermit crab, but nope. Randy had one, too.

When it was time for the Science Fair, Sammy kept his project top secret. He brought it to school hidden under a sheet, but when he placed it on the table in the auditorium and uncovered it, he saw six other volcanoes. One of them even had smoke coming out of the top.

In February, Sammy’s class studied the human body in science. Each student needed to find five interesting facts about the part of the body they were assigned, make a poster and give a short talk. Sammy hoped to get a really cool body part to talk about like “Skeleton” or “Blood,” but by the time the teacher reached him, the only choices left were “Hair,” “ Hand” or “Knee.”

Sammy shrugged and chose “hand.” What was so interesting about the hand?

He went to the library with his class and looked at books and the internet. The more he read, the more excited he got.

Sammy went home that night and made his poster.

                FIVE FACTS ABOUT HANDS

1.     Twenty-seven bones. That’s a lot.

2.  Thumb and fingers work together which makes humans different from other animals.

3.     Most people are right-handed.

4.     Palms of hands won’t tan.

5.     A PERSON’S FINGERPRINTS ARE NOT LIKE ANYONE ELSE’S!!!

Sammy traced his hands on the poster and decorated it with fingerprints.

When he gave his talk, he told everyone how important a thumb is and that most animals, except some of the apes and the koala bear, don’t have them. Mostly, he talked about fingerprints. He told the class how police use them to solve crimes and that no one’s fingerprints are like anyone else’s.

He held his hands up in the air. “My fingerprints are different from everybody in the WHOLE world.” Sammy had finally found something that was his very own.

Copyright 2016 by Valerie L. Egar. May not be copied or reproduced without permission from the author.  Published in The Sunday Journal Tribune, February 19, 2016.  Like the story? Follow me on FACEBOOK, Valerie L. Egar by liking my page.