Larry the Lizard

The struggle for content, other than a more thought provoked piece that I am in the process of writing, has met an end, for now at least, as I have stumbled upon some old photographs that have had me thinking of the past. At one point in my life I lived in Brazil and I must say that the memories are favorable. Many people around my age study abroad for a semester, but my family and I lived abroad for three years. In these three years I developed a good feeling toward Brazil, a country filled with wild nature, an unimaginable amount of potential, and some very friendly people. Upon rediscovering these photographs, I shall recount some tales of this truly wonderful experience.

The second year of our expedition, second grade for me, my family and I were placed at a house in the small town of Jaguariuna. Jaguarinua, located in the state of Sao Paulo, resides in a country setting lacking the sky scrapers and pollution of the large metropolis that is the city of Sao Paulo. The house we lived in was positioned on a large piece of land granting us great privacy and lots of room to run around and soak up ultra violet rays from the sun (which is what I did the majority of every day). In the front of the house we had a quite large in-ground pool! My sister and I spent countless hours swimming and imagining that we were stranded on a raft in an endless ocean. My sister and I basically lived outside, I only went inside to watch soccer (big surprise there), play 3D Space Cadet Pinball, or go to bed. I also fell asleep a few times outside swinging in a hammock. The back of the house was a barbecue area, which is where this first story begins.

Front view of the house

 In the barbecue area there was a sink, and one day I found myself in need of washing my hands while outside. I went to the sink out back and while I had one hand placed under the faucet and the other reaching for the knob, a small gecko leaped onto my hand. Fascinated by this tiny lizard, I stopped and just stared at it. I had seen many similar looking geckos in the house, they had taken up residence and helped us out by eating annoying flies. Interestingly this little guy was not moving, he (I decided the gecko was a male, but who knows) just sat there rather comfortably. I hastily decided that this gecko was my friend and I declared him Larry. Larry was my new pet and I was determined to care for the little gecko. So I retrieved my critter box that I had previously used many times to intercept and remove unwanted spiders from the house. There was a large gap between the bottom of our front door and the ground which allowed these hairy arachnids entry. I put my new friend, Larry, into the critter box so I could monitor and protect him.

Larry! 

The picture above shows Larry chilling on my left index finger. As you can tell I only had on shorts and underwear. I spent most of my time like this, must be what Matthew McConaughey feels like. I just remember the intriguing thoughts about why the gecko stayed put, barely moving at all. After a little while, I decided that I should get Larry some food because he must be hungry. It was time for some hunting, second grade style. Judging from Larry's size, I thought he must need something small to eat. So I had the idea of bringing him back some ants. There are so many different species of ants, some nasty, inhabiting our yard, never mind the country. In my limited knowledge, I only recognized two different types of ants in our yard. There were the black ants with the large jaws that had bitten my feet plenty of times or my hand when I rescued them from certain death in the pool, the ungrateful bastards. I also recognized the leaf-cutter ants, they were the ones that cut leaves from the trees and bushes, what a great process I had to go through to figure that one out. I must say that it was quite remarkable to watch the leaf-cutter ants in action. These guys clearly have a plan and I had a blast watching them. Some of the leaf-cutter ants would go up into the trees and bushes and cut the leaves loose with their strong jaws. Meanwhile, a line that could be traced back to the ant nest moved the severed leaves creating two-lane traffic. One lane marched from the nest to the tree undergoing cutting, while the other lane marched back to the nest carrying leaves, quite fascinating.

So I brought back some ants for Larry to chow on, or so I thought. What happened was interesting and could have been described as sadistic had I known what the results would be. After I released the ants into the critter box a battle that would end with death began. The ants swarmed Larry and began either biting or stinging, perhaps both, his innocent lizard flesh. Not knowing what to do, I watched in horror as the ants clearly dominated the fight. The food I had brought back for Larry killed him. At first Larry attempted to free himself from the merciless foe I had bestowed upon him, but alas he was no match for the ants. Larry's movements began to slow and soon after stopped. I stared at the lifeless body that now represented my ex-friend, Larry. While we were friends for mere hours, I had grown some sort of attachment to the little guy. With the help of my sister, we buried Larry's miniature corpse in front of our house. Not long after, I decided for some strange reason that I wanted to dig him back up, resurrect Larry. My sister helped me with this too, but despite leaving a marker, kind of like a tombstone, where we buried him, we never found his body.

Despite the tragic ending to the story, I still consider this a good memory. Brazil, what a place. I hope to go back again some day. I plan on releasing more Brazil stories/memories which can be portrayed with justice now that I have photographic evidence of what I am speaking of. And Larry, you will not be forgotten.