1 Mother 2 Another

Last weekend Brian had tickets to the
hockey game – the Stars were playing in town, and he’d
gotten free tickets in a contest. For several weeks he’d been
carrying the tickets around in his work briefcase, checking
periodically to make sure they were there. Then the morning of the
game he went to get them out – and they were gone.


We tore the house apart, looking everywhere. All those little
stacks of paper miscellaney that I seem to collect, assiduously
sorted through. Every trash can, every nook and cranny, every toy
box. The tickets were simply gone.

Then we found a clue – a hockey
schedule. Crumpled on the floor in a corner of the kitchen we spied
the Stars calendar, and Brian remembered the calendar had been
wrapped around the tickets. Had anyone seen this printed calendar
before? And that’s when the mystery began to unravel.


Mom recalled Cora playing with the calendar shortly after
she’d toppled Brian’s briefcase over a few days
earlier. Things had spilled, and Mom and Cora worked to put
everything back.


But apparently not everything.


As I said earlier, we’d dug through all the trash cans, which
hadn’t been emptied since the “spill” day. Then
we cast our eyes towards our newspaper bin. We’ve got a trash
can in the kitchen just for recyclables, and a wire holder for
stacking newspapers for recycling. Both had been collected since
the briefcase spill.


So as best we can reconstruct, Cora put the paper tickets in the
recycling bin. Brian and his brother – the invited guest for
the day – stayed home from the game.


And I tried hard not to give a small “That’s my
girl!” cheer for my eco-friendly toddler.