Nitpicky

When I was in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades I had a best friend named Janet. She and I were inseparable, or as inseparable a girl who wasn't allowed out of the house by herself, could be.

The summer right before I was about to attend fourth grade I had spent two weeks in the Philippines (this happens to be the last time I was there). While there I was always told not to stand too near to people, not to share hair brushes or let people touch my hair, because of head lice. This happens to be a common phenomenon there and my parents were afraid that we might not be allowed back into the US carrying such vermin.

Of course we were checked out at the immigrations building and having been found clean let back into the country. Now I had seen evidence of these head lice from family members and know exactly what to look for. And so our quick story begins...

We were a few weeks into fourth grade and of course Janet and I were sitting beside one another. One late September afternoon I happened to glance over at her smoothly combed back hair and saw a tiny, hairy, little creature weaving through her strands of hair and I leaned in closer, fascinated that I had found something, and saw that close to her roots were some white specks that I knew to be nits, or baby egg sacs that the lice deposit. I was an explorer and I had struck the mother lode. The only dilemma was that she was my best friend and I did not want to be a tattle tale.

It went back in forth in my head for the next fifteen minutes, tell or not to tell. Then the final bell of the day rang and I made up my mind. Once everyone traipsed out of class I stayed behind and told the teacher that I had seen a tiny bug crawling in Janet's hair. She thanked me and I headed home. The next day the teacher called Janet outside and spoke to her in undertones. When Janet came back to her desk her looked ruffled and she looked upset. I asked her what had happened and she said that the teacher checked her head for lice.

I don't know if she was ever found to have lice but I know that the nurse came in to talk about it and then we were searched. She never found out I was the one who told.

Me.