Reddy Kilowatt

Reddy Kilowatt

Amid the universe of amazing little things, my Reddy Kilowatt pin sits.

Each of us second graders got a Reddy Kilowatt pin when the nice man from Florida Power & Light came to our classroom to tell us about electricity. I have no memory of what he said, but I do have my Reddy Kilowatt pin. Still. Or rather, again.

For about ten years, from when I was 13 until I was 23, Reddy was lost. Reddy disappeared after I had visited my Aunt Lorena and Uncle Bob for a week during summer vacation after sixth grade. They lived a couple hours away from us at Cocoa Beach and had a “guest room”—a concept I was totally unfamiliar with in my own home.

Mama had helped me pack the one suitcase that our family owned, a small green, pressed- wood or paper suitcase that belonged to no one and everyone in the family. When I got to Lorena’s house, I unpacked all my things and put them away in the nice big empty wood dresser in the guest room. Imagine, a dresser that sat empty, didn’t even hold extra blankets.

Who knows why I brought along Reddy Kilowatt. Maybe I thought I would need some “jewelry” if we went out to dinner. I didn’t really own any jewelry, except for a little-girl locket that I hadn’t worn since before I went to school.

Months later, I discovered that I had lost Reddy. I just noticed, like you do sometimes, that Reddy wasn’t in my jewelry box in my bedroom. The small scratched-up jewelry box was one my sister and I found in a trash pile when some neighbors moved out, and we shared the box as well as the bedroom. The box held our “precious stuff”—found marbles, each of our lockets, a 1941 and a 1945 penny (the years of our births), and Reddy Kilowatt, which was now missing.

Years after Reddy went missing, my sister and I went together to visit Lorena again, this time in Houston, Texas where she now lived. When we were shown the guest room where we’d be sleeping, there was the big wood dresser again, the same one I’d used in Cocoa Beach. When I opened the small top drawer to put away my toiletries, I though I saw something slide to the back corner. I pulled the dresser drawer all the way out, and there was Reddy.

It had to be my Reddy. At least that’s what I’ve always believed and that’s why I took Reddy home with me and that’s why he still lives in my jewelry box along with other precious stuff. I mean, what’s the likelihood that two of Lorena’s guests would have a Reddy Kilowatt pen?