The Saga of the Lost Book

For those of you who read my blog and my sisters' blogs, you will know that we all are avid readers and come from a family of the same. Last night, my mother appeared and asked me if I knew where her book was. She is reading Loving Frank and is almost done and managed to misplace the book. She was beside herself. She knew she had had it in the morning but here it was 12 hours later and no book to be found.

A search ensued. We called Mary Beth and Helen, they didn't know where the book was. We turned the house upside down and still no book. She had been out on the porch in the morning- which did not bode well as it was pouring rain and had been for 5 hours. I did a perfunctory look but did not see the book while she looked in her room, bathroom, and the attic. Still no book. I decided to do a more thourough look of the porch and stepped out onto what was now an oil slick. With the first step, I had done a split (I have never been able to do a split) and wrenched my left hip, knee, and ankle. Ever so ladylike, I cursed the heavens and burst into tears which brought my mother running. After I was standing again we looked over the porch and still no book. As I was walking back into the house, I HIT THE SLICK SPOT AGAIN and once again found myself in a split...

After limping back into the house we decided the book had to be upstairs even though she had turned her room upside down. I headed up the stairs, paid homage to the cat gaurding the door, and heard my mother behind me say - "there it is". The damn book was right inside the door covered by a pillow. She had stopped behind me as I said hello to Henrietta and caught a glimpse of the book because she was at the right angle. I don't know that we ever would have found it had we not gone back up. She felt horrible that I had now fallen twice and the book had been under her nose but I completely understood. Last year, I had left my book on the mantle and had made it just off the island before I remembered. She drove the book to me so that I did not have to backtrack, about an hour roundtrip.... Paybacks are a bitch, aren't they?