It was just a silly little library book, really, and yet I longed for it more than anything.
Why? It had gone missing.
I searched the house from top to bottom (once, twice, three times easily) and asked the kids to do likewise. They gave me an indulgent nod and assured me that they would, though I knew full well that its retrieval was far more important to Mom than to them.
Mom’s the one that has to pay for it, you see.
I renewed the book as many times as the library would permit and meanwhile I kept searching. I checked the van (once, twice, three times easily) and the lost & found box at our church.
It was nowhere, this little Police Cloud book. It was simply gone. At night I would picture its cover in my head and feel tormented. Lost items have that effect on me; I feel powerless, cheerless, out-of-control.
[Alas, I still had my appetite. I never seem to lose that.]
Inevitably I faced the facts. It was lost and we were accountable. When I phoned the library to report it missing, they were kind but still they charged me.
“You can pay the $15.00 dollar fee online,” they said helpfully.
Which I did, finally, yesterday morning.
And then yesterday afternoon, to blow off steam, I went for a bike ride through the neighborhood. Angela wanted to come along and so I hauled out the burley from the back of the garage.
As I was snapping her in, I saw it: a book in the back of the burley.
A cheery white face, a bright blue cover.
Peace;
Resolution;
And one more phone call!
Ad Jesum per Mariam,
Ha! Yay for you! (Been there, done that, myself. Good thing the library has that policy where they will give you that fee back if you find it in a reasonable amount of time! Yay for the library!)
Yes, the sure fire way to find a lost object in this house is to buy a replacement (which is pretty much what you did with the library).
That happens to us quite a lot, except that if the kids damage or lose a library book and we have to pay for it, it comes out of their allowance! Learning responsibility is painful. 🙂
That’s an entirely reasonable proposition, dear Jennie, but unfortunately our Angela doesn’t get an allowance and she was the one who lost it!
Except in her mind she didn’t lose it. She merely left it in the burley…and then forgot about it. 🙂
That has happened to us a few times. Sometimes I say to myself, “Did we even get that book? I don’t remember it in the stack.” We always take so much with us, I can hardly remember. Now if we can just get them back on time. Glad you found it!
Wow, our library won’t give you your money back if that happens!
You know you’re a mom when… 🙂
Actually, since my boys both have OCD they tend to panic when something is “lost” – which is more stressful for me than the actual loss of the thing (even if said thing is going to cost me money to replace), because their meltdowns are not fun to navigate through. Thankfully, it isn’t often that this happens – OCD might cause extreme stress, but it also tends to help things stay where they belong. 🙂
~Jenny
Paying that fee works EVERY time. I think it’s St. Anthony having fun… 😉
Been there, only I found the book in the stroller as I was on my way to the library to pay up. YES!
I dropped by to give you a heads-up that teachers can get free coffee on Mondays. I thought that might be up your alley 🙂 Details here:
http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2008/09/free-coffee-on.html
That’s happened here, too, but with more than books! Sometimes I wonder whether I should ever borrow anything from anyone! 🙂
Oh gosh- ours is Percy and the Dragon. A silly Thomas the train book. I’ve renewed it since April and now have to buy it. Between the late fees and the cost of the book… I need to get a job. Thanks for reminding me to just pay it off.
Hmm, I would still be inclined to assign some extra chores to the one who “forgot about it”, even though she doesn’t get an allowance per se…
I’m not just being a mean and grouchy kidless back-seat parent here. I’m speaking from my experience growing up without my parents impressing that kind of responsibility onto me…