My toiletries bag fell out of a bag of mine in Atlantic City, and I’m a bit irritated that the coworker who spotted it didn’t pick it up or say anything, and now it’s gone. The bag itself was a plastic bag from Target, no loss there, and most of the stuff in it costs almost nothing. (Except, of course, my razor – man, what a racket those people have. I bet the mob takes lessons.) But I had a comb in it that I liked very much, that I’d had for maybe almost ten years, and was given to me by an old girlfriend that I never talk to anymore but miss – not in a “I want to be with you again” way, but in a “we were great friends and I wonder how you are” way. It seems stupid to be sentimental over a bit of plastic, especially since I recently cut off my long hair after 15 years and don’t really need such a fancy big-tooth comb, but a) it was the last concrete memento of a great relationship and b) it was a really good comb.
When I trudged up a hill from yesterday’s concert venue to a Target to replace some of that stuff, I sort of deliberately bought the cheapest comb they had – a 99 cent Ace. On the back it says:
POCKET COMB
Removes foreign material from hair.
PEIGNE DE POCHE
Ôte les corps étrangers des cheveux.
PEINE DE BOLSILLO
Elimina los residuos en el cabello.
I’d love to elimina los residuos, but I know for a long time I’ll open my medicine cabinet and think: that’s the wrong comb. I’m like that.