Snaillove: The Story of Jeremy's Life

Based on true story and my imagination...

I

One day, in the countryside rainy England in the compost heap, was born a little snail. We do not know what names give each other snails, but this kid we will call Jeremy. Jeremy was a little different from hundreds of his identical brothers and sisters. Do not know why, but his sink was twisted is not clockwise, as is customary in honest, decent snails, it was counterclockwise, that the truth didn't prevent Jeremy to live in his unusual house.

Time passed, Jeremy grew up. He, like all his friends, brothers and sisters, worked hard, was eating leaves and grass, successfully have survived by hiding and running away from the hedgehogs, moles, lizards and of course from people. He didn't feel somehow wrong because of his unusual shell, until has come the first spring of love in his life…

II

"Love games" has began. Hundreds of snails throughout the county every day crawled towards their destiny, overcoming to 7 centimeters per minute in search of their second halves, they crept and crept, pausing to pull the body and mustache out of the shell and find right way to happiness. And all the snails eventually found the couple, entered into a marriage, successfully continuing their kind. All, except Jeremy.

Every time when Jeremy, as he thought, found the right girl, all went well at first. Jeremy was very charming snail, and many ladies were attracted by his unusual shell, but when it came to the main point, for some reason, nothing worked as it should be in a case of usual snails, and they tossed him... Jeremy clambered all the fields, forests, gardens and parks, on which he had the strength to crawl, but he couldn't find that unique... He went to spend the winter without knowledge what is love.

In the following spring Jeremy was sure that in this time he'll be lucky, if need be, he will go even further than last year and will not stop until it hits his chosen. Moreover, other snails began to whisper that something is wrong with him. Jeremy didn't feel wrong, he was healthy, strong and good snail and wanted to live like everyone else. But, and this year he was left alone, as in the next, and the year later...

Due to the fact that said other snails Jeremy began to think that the reason for his loneliness is his ugly shell. All the snail-girls in the area, heard the stories about his repeated failures and easily recognize him by the shell, in advance avoided him, without communicate. Jeremy was desperate! He really wanted to start a family, but knew that with each passing year, his chances are reduced and he can't change anything, he's never met other snails with similar shells.

III

One day, after another unsuccessful searches, Jeremy with a heavy heart and gloomy thoughts crawled through unfamiliar compost heap next to the road. He thought of his grief, and hadn't noticed how close turned out to people, even though his childhood was taught that you should not fall on the eyes of these huge, strange and terrible creatures, many of them eat snails or just mock them. But, probably Jeremy already was anyway, he didn't see the point in his life.

He thought only about the fact that he will always be alone, that all subsequent spring, he won't be able to find a girlfriend even if he will creep across the whole England, and in the end he will die alone, will not become a beloved husband and father of hundreds of small snails. He thought maybe enough to run away from predators, to crawl tens of meters every day, and hide for the winter in his ugly house... enough, it is time just stop. At this moment, a huge shadow eclipsed the sun and giant man hands, hands which he saw only from afar, hiding in dense thickets, tore him off the ground.

Despite the indifference in which Jeremy was before, the fear of imminent death covered him from the tip of antennae to the top of the shell. In front of eyes ran horror stories about the excruciating death of snails caught by man. All that Jeremy could do is to hide in his house, close eyes and shake from fear... it twirled in all directions, gently tapped on the sink and the man thus constantly muttering, then he brought somewhere, probably in the soup - thought Jeremy and fainted from fear...

IV

After a while, he woke up not in the pan but on the big table, under the light of bright lamps and surrounded by strange instruments. It was a large room, all filled with bookshelves and pictures of other animals. The man sat at the table and studied Jeremy with interest, without harming him. The man said:

Well, hello Jeremy, my name is Angus, you have no idea how lucky I found you. Perhaps you don't know, but you are a very special snail, such as you are born once in a million.

Jeremy curiously pulled his tendrils toward this wonderful man, as if asking him to "Continue."

I see that you're very smart snail, so I hope you will understand me. Your shell, as you noticed, counterclockwise, and not clockwise like other snails, it is like their mirror image, this type of sink, we scientists, call Sinistral. Maybe this picture will help you to understand:

Left: The sinistral (left-handed) shell, Right: The dextral (right-handed) shell

Because this sink is part of you, I think your whole body, all your internal organs are reversed in relation to other snails. This is called Transposition.

It happens with humans too, although we don't have sinks, but internal organs may be located not as usual, on the other hand, as a mirror image: liver, heart and stomach would be on the right instead of the left, like the usual people, this happens once at 12,000. look, I'll show you:

But since you're a snail, and not man, all your organs are reversed, including genitals. So, I think that much would you not tried to find a girlfriend, you have nothing in the end, you couldn't reproduce. Because your kind can mate only in a certain position and the location of the organs is very important.

Of course, Jeremy didn't understand most of the words, but get the General idea. He realized that he is one snail per million, it turns out he has to find among a million the same snail as he. But how to do it, because for all these years, with his speed, he met only with a few hundred other snails, and here million! The oldest snail, which he knows, lived for 10 years, his parents lived 8, he has only half his time, it's impossible!

I know what you're thinking, Jeremy, I think about the same thing. Because I have lived on the earth ten times longer than you, and never met anyone like you before, you are very rare. But don't worry, I have the idea how to find you a girlfriend and my friends scientists will help us.

V

Days passed, Jeremy had never lived so quiet, he didn't have to look for food or hide from predators. His new friend is constantly fed him, talked to him, sometimes photographed and shown to others people, who have come to visit them.

Angus told Jeremy that he is interested: will Jeremy and another snails with the same shell have children with this feature. It is very important for science to know whether this gene is transferred by inheritance. And of course the scientist and his friends want Jeremy to be happy. Though Jeremy was in a safe, but disturbing thoughts didn't let go him, can Angus find a girlfriend to him?

One morning, after Breakfast, during which Angus smiled constantly, he put Jeremy to his hand and said:

We found her, my friend, soon we're going to Ipswich.

Jeremy didn't know what to "say". He didn't know what it means to fly, what is Ipswich, and the more how the scientist managed to find another snail in a million.

Oh, I see you think how I did it, and don't believe me. Well, I'll tell you. Even though people crawling much faster than snails, but we also can't so fast around the whole world to find someone so small and unusual. We can't even meet in person with all those with whom we want, because we live in different places, at different distances from each other, but we want to communicate, so we invented the Internet.

In Internet there is such a thing-Twitter, I took the liberty to tell your story there and launched a hashtag Snaillove, under which urged people around the world to find a couple to you. And we did it! I got a lot of pictures of other snails, they are very cute, but we fit two beauty.

One of them is English, as you, and lives in Ipswich, first we'll go to her. Don't worry, if she has a bad character and you will not get along, we have another candidate in Mallorca. Can you imagine! The girl from Mallorca, your friends snails will be jealous.

Jeremy didn't know how to react, he couldn't believe his luck and was very excited. It turned out that he is really not alone, he's not a freak, not an outcast as like other snails thought. That he can live a full life. Probably, for every living being in this big world there is a couple, somewhere. Sometimes you can find it fast and without effort, and sometimes can not do it alone, and you can hope only on a case or help of others. Also Jeremy thought that people are not so cruel as he was told...

Jeremy (dark) and his girlfrined Lefty (light)

Real story: 1, 2, 3, images from google search and wiki.