To some, the one that got away can be referenced to relationships, and the person that someone broke up with, or a relationship that they didn’t notice was going downhill. Or that statement could be talking about the number one; the one that got away. The way that I discovered this book was when we were determining on if certain book(s) we were given were novels or not. Our class was split into 4 groups, and each group was given a book(s), after a couple minutes passed of us talking in our groups, we passed the book(s) on. On the last turn, my group got the book “The One That Got Away” by Percival Everett, and illustrated by Dirk Zimmer. My first impression of this book was that it was cringe, but it was funny at the same time. It humored me that the title was, to me, two faced. You could view this title in a math form, or in the way that some may view it as, relationships.
I immediately held up the book to my group, and started reading, all eyes on me; it was not nerve-wracking at all; I quite enjoyed it. On first starting the book, my I was impressed, it’s a definite child’s book, that is quite adorable. The book is about a group of Wild Westerners, who are herding the number one’s like cattle, horses, or however you choose to view them. The group caught quite a big one, and they decided to go look for more, the group looked everywhere they could possibly look. The group then comes across a herd of one’s, and “They rode into the herd and threw hoolies over one, then another, until they had captured many. They put the new ones in the coral with the first one.” (Everett, 12-13) The group then went to sleep for the night. When they woke up, the men counted the one’s they caught, and noticed one was missing, one ESCAPED! So, they left their camp, and went out to look for the One that had escaped. They eventually did find the one, a top a mountain. They get into quite a pickle though, there’s a piece of stair missing. They must find the part of stairs that is missing. They do, they find it in a well, how conveniently placed! The group goes back up, and places the stair, continuing their journey up. They get to the top, finally, and find NOTHING. They then head home, discussing on how many one’s they have, eight in total. “But when they reached the coral… they had not a single one.” (Everett, 31-32) At the end of the book, there was no single one, they all combined together, since there was eight. But, in the beginning, there was 9, so, hence the title, the one that got away. If you look at how many one’s they had in total, and look at it in a math perspective, there had 8 one’s, in the one’s place.
On the relationship spectrum, the saying “She’s/He’s the one that got away” is stated a lot. I’ve even said this myself. According to urban dictionary, the one that got away means, “A person who you were originally supposed to end up with but due to a cause of fate or by consequences caused by you, the relationship failed. As time goes by, you wonder what you and that person could have been, making them the one that got away.” There’s also a song by Katy Perry, that is called “The One That Got Away”. She sings about how she met a guy during the summer after high school, they hung out most of the summer. But, at the end of the Summer, they would have to split ways, he was the one that got away due to School having to start up again, or him going off to college. In the end, the quote, “The one that got away” can be interpreted in multiple ways. Whether you are a math person, and you look into the quote as the number one got away. Or, you look at it from a relationship perspective, and look into the quote as a person got away from the relationship. If you are the one that got away, or if your significant other got away, don’t dwell on it. The relationship wasn’t meant to happen in this life, and it didn’t happen for a reason. A reason to protect you in some way. It will happen in another life. Accept that it won’t happen, and move on. Find someone who will treat you the way you should be treated. You don’t need someone right now, you have time. As stated in the movies, Transylvania, you have time to find your zing. Whether that is days, weeks, months, or years; you will find your zing.
