Memory #2 The newt that ate itself

When I was about thirteen my friend Jessica bought a newt. We all went out to the mall together to get it. Jill, Jessica and I. We picked out the newt and a tiny plastic cage, plus a rock, some bright purple gravel and special newt food. It may have been Jessica's only pet. Or the first pet she bought for herself. In any case she was very excited. Each day when we ate lunch in the cafeteria together we would ask her,

"How is the newt." Each day she would have some story to tell us about something that the newt did. She thought it was adorable.

One day she came to school and said,

"There's something wrong with the newt! It won't eat the newt food" Concerned, we began to brainstorm about things that a newt might want to eat besides the dry fishy smelling nuggets we had gotten from the pet store. Maybe worms. Maybe hamburger. We asked the science teacher.

"I don't know. Go ask the pet store." He said. For some reason Jessica thought lettuce would be a good idea. She went home that day and fed it lettuce.

The next day she reported that it hadn't eaten the lettuce or anything else. That night she tried a little piece of hamburger, but the newt wouldn't touch it. It actually tried to avoid it, moving off the rock and into the little puddle of water below as though it was repulsed or frightened by the offering.

"He just sits on his rock, gasping." She said and then did an impression of a gasping newt.

We were worried. We decided we should go back to the pet store after school and get some live bugs. Maybe live bugs would ignite the newt's killer instinct. Crickets were all they had. I was pretty sure that these bugs would be too large and crunchy for the newt but it had almost been a week since it ate last. They were worth a try.

The crickets were in the cage for about 3 days before they escaped, unharmed, and settled to live behind Jessica's bed. They kept her up at night, chirping. But the newt continued its hunger strike, silently. One day Jessica came to school and said

"The newt is eating itself."

"What?" we said

"The newt is eating itself. It was chewing on its hands the other day. I woke up this morning and they were gone."

"What was gone?"

"It's hands. It ate them."

We couldn't believe it. At lunch break we scoured the playground for some things a newt might like to eat instead of its hands. Maybe grass, maybe a piece of tuna sandwich. Maybe a squashed mosquito.

"Maybe he's too hot or cold." we said.

"Maybe he needs a friend."

" Maybe we took him away from his wife when we took him out of the pet store."

" Maybe he's afraid of us."

" Maybe he hates his house."

" Maybe he hates the color of his rocks..." We could only speculate. The newt kept eating itself.

It ate its hands, its forearms. Eventually it ate as much of its legs as it could reach and then it started in on the tail. Then Jessica said,

"Hey guys I figured it out. Maybe newts do this all of the time. Aren't they the kind of lizard that grow back its tail when it gets pulled off?"

"Yes! Yes they can do that. Its limbs will probably grow back!"

It was a comforting thought. But it wasn't true. The newt's limbs did not grow back. It ate whatever it could reach of its little body and then it died.