Gary, the snail, is a friend of mine. Don’t you believe me? Here is how I met him and how he ended up being a guest star in Bird: El inglés volando. The story goes, more or less, as follows.

Gary arrives home:

It was just the typical lovely sunny spring day. You get back home absolutely carefree, grab your key, look down and, Oh! A snail on the doorstep! And not a small one, but one almost as big as an egg.

Puzzled.

“Ok, you cannot stay here or else someone will tread on you. Here you go to my patio.”

Gary’s life:

This guy had been lucky. He had a nice little patio full of plants almost all for himself. There were always some other snails around, and we can say Gary was pretty much… an average snail. Only bigger.

He would spend months very well hidden somewhere. He would come out when it was about to rain. When one of us saw him on the prowl, it was quickly announced: “Gary’s out, come and see him before he hides away again. And! Careful he doesn’t start munching the pansies and petunias!” You had to be quick to stop him.

Due to his size, you could see him easily. That came in handy not to step on him.

***

WARNING, sensitive content:

It has happened to me that I have run over some other little snail… If you have smashed it, well, what a pity, but it’s over. Such is life. If you have left it half smashed, euthanasia is necessary (a second stamp).

***

Gary’s accident:

There was something I had to do related to the patio. I opened the door and heard a crack sound. I closed it and opened again. A second crunch. I had been eating almonds in the patio that day, but I could not see any bit around. I looked behind the door… Oh, dear… Gary! He was moving with half his shell broken. Poor thing. And I didn’t have the slightest idea of what to do. I tried to take him, but he fell on the floor.

His body was ok, it was “only” the shell. I washed it as carefully as I could and put him in a big lunch box with some lettuce leaves.

Gary’s recovery:

These animals are miraculous. After some days, his shell was growing again. Amazing. If it had been a little creak, maybe we wouldn’t have been able to notice the spot. But this was a very big hole, so the patch was not so perfect…

After a week, he was so much better. We put him back in the patio, wishing for the best.

Gary’s lessons:

He got over. From this incident on, I got interested in snails and I learned a lot of things: What they eat, what they don’t, the fact that some can live up to 20 or 30 years, about their inner organs (there’s a heart, a brain, a lung, a kidney…) and about their sexuality.

They are so sensitive you wouldn’t believe it. They spend hours kissing and caressing. Everything is so tender…

One morning, I found him in the middle of the patio sleeping by a friend. S/he and s/he.

I put a big leaf over them so that no bird ate the couple. At least not in that moment.

Little Garys:

Little Garys were born. Three, five, seven, dozens of them. We “bought” single tickets for most of them. I guess the birds in the near park had a specially big breakfast once or twice.

The ending of this story:

When we moved, we didn’t forget our snail. Somehow, he was our friend. Snails cannot listen to you, and they don’t show happiness to see you around; but we couldn’t leave him behind. We brought him stuck to the tile where he was aestivating. I put him next to me in the car.

I was reluctant to set him free in the new patio. It was rather a little garden, with lower walls and many birds…

I saw him two or three more times.

I told my new neighbour about him, but she hadn’t seen him. One day she came to my door, asking me if the one she had in her hand was Gary. But it wasn’t. Gary’s mended shell was unmistakable.

Afterword:

I’m almost sure he didn’t get lost. He could go away to other similar patios in our previous neighbourhood, but he chose to stay with us for some reason. We could have kept it at home in some sort of terrarium, but we decided to set him free.

I think now you understand why there’s a snail, Gary, here and there in Bird: El inglés volando.

What I think? Make friends, regardless of their species.