Dear Crimson,

You are my dead hermit crab. You are a memory from a childhood, long gone, but deeply missed. You were my first true pet, besides those bajillion fish that I never appreciated. I used to be scared to touch you, because often you scuttled away and jerked around very suddenly. Your pincers were a menacing threat that I never was able to overcome. You smelled like wet dirt, but your bright crimson shell always reminded me of the Crimson Chin, a superhero from the Fairly OddParents, one of my favorite shows as a child. I chose you from the pet store because of that red color that I can still imagine today, if I close my eyes for long enough.

You taught me many important things that were important to my childhood character. I learned to take care of another life besides my own. I’ve always despised the smell of sand, because I thought I could always smell your odor lingering in it. When you died, you left a ring of suspicious liquid around your body. I cried because I didn’t know what had happened, and my mom had to throw you out. No proper burial like you see in the movies. I didn’t ask what she did with your body, and I don’t want to ask because I doubt she even remembers. All I know is that I still have your shell, your home for a few months, stored somewhere in a big brown box somewhere in a storage unit in a building in a nearby city. Your cage sat in my basement in the years before we left that house. Whenever I went downstairs to retrieve wrapping paper for the holidays or birthday parties, your cage haunted me, but at the same time, it didn’t. This is because there are only positive memories associated with you.

I decided on a hermit crab to copy my cousins and my sister. Together, we had four hermit crabs. Crimson, Creamy, Clyde, and Kermy. We used to set them on the hardwood floors of my old house and observe them as they scuttled around the ground. These were childhood memories filled of love and care, and I’d just like to thank you for being there, partially at least.

This is the closure that I never got to have when you died.

Sincerely, Catherine

Inspiration for this post comes from here.