The Eyes Have It.
Do you know the old saying, “the walls have ears”?
Well, at our house, the salt has eyes.
It started, like so many of the more bizarre things at our house, with a craft project. We’d come across a little craft project book that had attached to it a small Ziploc bag of googley eyes. Those are the little round circle eyes with a black pupil that shifts around in a googley kind of way.
Initially we dutifully followed the instruction. Sierra, who was five at the time, added googley eyes to a few recycled bottles. Then she added them to a few drawings.
Then I made the mistake of leaving the room briefly. I must have forgot the time she painted her entire arm red when I left her alone with the finger paint when she was three and a half, looking like she’d been in some horrible accident. Or the time she trimmed all her stuffed horses manes and tails. It looked like she was running some sort of equine rescue organization.
You’d be stunned to learn how many things in your house can sprout eyes if a five year old is involved. I came back into the kitchen, only to find that the entire room was staring at me.
There were eyes on the refrigerator, eyes on the spatula, and on the salt and pepper shakers.
As time goes on, we’ve gotten rid of most of the eyes. But every now and then I’ll come across something staring at me from the oddest places. A pair of eyes were watching from their spot on the patent leather shoes Mireya had outgrown. Another set showed up on a stapler. But it’s the salt and pepper ones that I’m most enamored with. What were my most boring salt and pepper shakers are now my most precious. There they sit, watching me as I prepare dinner, like little sentinels of seasoning.
Of course, this can creep you out sometimes. Suppose they are reporting back to the parsley? Maybe they are sending comments out via carefully alternating salt and pepper bits.
It’s tough not to get paranoid when you’re being stared at, even if it’s just a googley stare.
But mostly it’s a reminder. A reminder of the day when I walked into the room and the entire room looked back.
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