In idle moments, sometimes the relic from my past would creep into my mind.  It was only part of my life for a short time, and then, gone.  Its ghost lingered, partially because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where it went.

And then, years later, wrapped in paper inside a container at the bottom of a box, it suddenly reappeared:

A can of Buzz Cola.

If you’re not familiar, Buzz is the soda brand in The Simpsons.  When the show spawned a movie, they did a promotional deal with 7-Eleven selling Buzz cans along with Squishee-branded Slurpee cups.  Naturally, I had to get them, along with the Krusty O’s cereal and Radioactive Man comic book:

But then I moved, and before leaving my former home in Florida I got rid of a bunch of stuff.  That was the last time I remembered seeing the soda can.  I figured I accidentally threw it out with some bunch of trash.

I moved again.  And then a second time.  All the other relics were accounted for, but still no Buzz Cola.  Last month, I moved a third time, fully exploring a set of kitchen-related things I somehow hadn’t opened at my last few stops.  I unwrapped a set of four glasses and salt and pepper shakers.  In the same area, a lone item the same size remained obscured in the National Geographic pages I had used to wrap fragile things in Florida.

I had absolutely no clue what it could be.  I slowly peeled back the pages and held the can in all its Buzzy glory.  The world is once again complete.