Words:  Cup Noodles and Chipped Teacup Content Warning: Mention of gecko/lizard *** I never thought I would throw a funeral for a lizard. It never even figured at the bottom of my bucket list, which was filled with other, equally unbelievable things (37. Pet a polar bear). I looked over at my mother, sitting on the couch, trying to mask her disgust with a smile. She wasn’t fooling anyone but I appreciated the effort. She shook her head at me, and I almost giggled. My six-year-old niece, Zuha, was kneeling on the floor next to me, wearing all black, complete with a net veil she had seen in a movie. She was sniffling a little, looking down at the lizard. It was wrapped in toilet paper, lying limp like all corpses do. We had discovered the body earlier that day, in our kitchen. After residing in one of the cabinets for over a year, it had succumbed to some sort of illness. At least that is what we tried telling my niece, who wouldn’t stop crying and blaming us for murdering it. “You