The Stowaway

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well today! This post is a little different than what I usually write, but I thought it was time to share one of those weird stories about myself that I have hinted at in the past – one that still gives me a good laugh when I think back on it. Hope you enjoy!

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“Do you have tubes in only one ear?” the doctor asked, his voice laced with curiosity as he peered into my ear.

My dad looked over at him, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Um… no. She’s never had tubes in her ears.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow, glancing over my head at my dad before turning back to peer deeper into my ear. “You sure?”

“Yes,” my dad replied, clearly growing a little concerned about where this was going.

The doctor didn’t say anything, but you could see the wheels turning in his head. He set down the tool and slapped his legs, as if coming to a decision. “Well, she has something in her ear then. Let’s see if we can get it out.”

And with that, he grabbed a pair of tiny pincer-like tools that looked straight out of a surgeon’s nightmare and delicately inserted them into my ear. I was tense, unsure of what was happening but trusting the man in the white coat. He grabbed onto something that felt a lot like my eardrum and pulled.

Nothing came out.

The tool slipped, and I felt a wave of disappointment rush through me. “Let’s try again,” the doctor said, trying to sound reassuring as he went in for round two.

This time, when he yanked, it felt like my head had exploded. A sharp, ringing sensation filled my ear, and for a moment, I was sure my whole skull had just detached from my body. The doctor stepped back, looking at his tool in disbelief, but there was nothing in it.

I felt something had definitely shifted. It was almost as if a small chunk of my brain had been displaced. The doctor peered into my ear once more, his tool at the ready. Then, without warning, he burst out laughing.

“Well, I think we’ve found it,” he said, his voice shaking with amusement as he fished around in my ear with the tool and produced—of all things—a small white bead.

There it was, gleaming innocently in his gloved hand like it had just been waiting for its moment in the spotlight. My dad and I exchanged bewildered glances, both of us staring at the bead in shock.

“How’d that get in there?” the doctor asked, still laughing, as if he couldn’t believe what he was holding.

I shrugged my shoulders, equally mystified. I had absolutely no memory of how that bead had gotten there. In fact, I didn’t even remember shoving it in there. It had simply… always been a part of me. Or at least, that’s what it felt like.

The doctor turned it over in his hand and gave a final verdict, still trying to contain his laughter. “Well, from the looks of it, it’s been in there for a long time.”

My dad and I both stared at the bead, and I thought about how, in the grand scheme of things, it probably wasn’t the strangest thing I’d ever done. But, you know, it was definitely up there.

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I hope you enjoyed this little tale from my past! Life is full of surprises, and sometimes, they come in the form of tiny, forgotten beads.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to share any bizarre stories of your own in the comments below! And if you ever find a bead in your ear, now you know you’re not alone.