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Stargirl
by
Jerry Spinelli
When I was little, my uncle Pete had a necktie with a porcupine painted on
it. I thought that necktie was just about the neatest thing in the world.
Uncle Pete would stand patiently before me while I ran my fingers over the
silky surface, half expecting to be stuck by one of the quills. Once, he let
me wear it. I kept looking for one of my own, but I could never find one.
I was twelve when we moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona. When Uncle Pete came
to say good-bye, he was wearing the tie. I thought he did so to give me on
last look at it, and I was grateful. But then, ”
with a dramatic flourish, he whipped off the tie and draped
it around my neck. “It’s yours,” he said. “Going-away
present.”
I loved that porcupine tie so much that I decided to start a collection. Two
years after we settled in Arizona, the number of ties in my collection was
still one. Where do you find a porcupine necktie in Mica, Arizona –
or anywhere else, for that matter?
On my fourteenth birthday, I read about myself in the local newspaper. The
family section ran a regular feature about kids on their birthdays, and my
mother had called in some info. The last sentence read: “As a hobby,
Leo Borlock collects porcupine neckties.
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