I had a cousin that used to (and may still, for all I know) bite her toenails. It was disgusting. She would sit there with her leg bent up to her mouth and bite through each one.

She was a few years younger than I and the families were close so she and I got put together a lot more than I cared for. She was aggressive and I didn’t know how to handle her bullying. Mostly, I’d just try to walk away.

She was a biter. One time she bit me so hard on my wrist, I had an impression of teeth in a perfect circle for weeks. I pretended I was wearing a watch.

Playing hide and seek, I hid and giggled as I heard her search from room to room. Eventually, I heard her voice in the living room. She had simply joined the adults and left me hiding. When I confronted her, everyone just laughed.

I didn’t like her and no one would listen when I’d tell them as much. I was basically told to show her compassion but remember thinking how vastly unfair it was that no one told her to stop being a colossal nightmare. I would try to play but, inevitably, she would throw a fit about not getting her way. She was a tattletale in the worst way so I’d get in trouble because I wasn’t playing nice, ‘nice’ being compliant to her every desire and demand.

Sometimes I wonder what kind of person she turned out to be but she was such a ghastly child, I have no desire to find out.

People might say its best to let go of the past. I disagree. I hang on to memories with a vengeance. Clearly.