At approximately 3 o’clock this morning, a great shriek and a crash echoed through the house. There were bellows, furniture went flying and a brown furry creature the size of a small ottoman rushed past me as I wound my way through the hallways to Silas’s room.
Apparently, Suluk brought back a pygmy yeti from her travels last month.
Apparently, said pygmy yeti bit off Silas’s supernumerary toe.
You must understand: everyone in our family is born with a supernumerary toe. It is often on the left foot for men, and the right foot for women. And we always lose our supernumerary toes in odd and adventurous ways (naturally).
Cousin Octavia lost her toe getting drunk with sirens off the coast of Cuba.
Uncle Ruprecht lost his toe whilst in the Congo. It seems that he was bare-chested wrestling with a chubacabra in some sort of strength display.
Cousin Cate lost hers whilst playing polo on a hippogriff.
Great-Uncle Ebenezer lost his hunting with korrigans in Scotland.
Aunt Agatha lost hers in a freak accident whilst dancing with a Japanese Tatsu.
Silas had managed to keep his toe the longest. Most of us lose ours at a fairly young age, doing something reckless and dangerous. Silas’s ability to keep his supernumerary toe had become a point of pride with him, and the family often theorized on how he would finally lose it.
I suppose losing it to a pygmy yeti – currently a cute and fluffy little cryptid the size of a beagle puppy – was too much of a disappointment for poor Silas.
He left in a black rage before the sun came up. I have his toe in a jar, along with all the other toes of the family (we’ve always kept them, organized and labeled).
And now I have a pygmy yeti. I think he’s rather adorable, don’t you?