Mad Uncle

The Octopus of My Heart

In the first grade I knew something must be wrong. I was obsessed with a ginger haired girl named Gabby. The heartache didn’t go away for the longest time. She was the first girl I imagined naked. Not that a boy of six knew the first thing to do with a naked six year old girl. I couldn’t even form a complete picture, if you know what I mean. My fantasy image of Gabby resembled that of Casper the Friendly Ghost, but with pink skin and red hair. Not having experience with female genitalia at the time, there was nothing down there, in my mind’s eye.