The pen in the drawer

An original literary non-fiction-style account of beginning to use a fountain pen received as a graduation present.

The pen arrived in a box with a hinge stronger than some of the furniture in my room. My sister had chosen a deep green barrel and had my initials engraved near the clip. I thanked her, opened the box twice more and put it in the drawer where I kept documents that must not be lost.

At work, I used the free pens left beside the telephone. They were always disappearing. I complained about this to my sister, who asked why I did not bring the green one. I said that it was too good to lose. She looked at me for a moment and asked whether I was enjoying owning it.

The next morning, I carried it in its box. At my desk, I felt ridiculous lifting the lid to write a short message about a delivery. The ink appeared darker than I expected. I crossed out the time, wrote the correct one and folded the paper. There was no ceremony, and the message was not improved by the price of the pen.

A week later, I left it beside the telephone. I returned from lunch and found a colleague using it to label some keys. I watched her finish before saying it was mine. She apologised and handed it back. There was a small blue mark on her finger. I told her that mine had looked the same on the first day.

That evening, I put the empty box back in the drawer. The pen stayed in my bag. I still checked for it before leaving the office, and I would still have been upset to lose it. But when my sister asked about it again, I could tell her what I had written with it rather than where I had hidden it.

Explain how the narrator's attitude towards the pen changes.