In my last post, I mentioned the English writer Mary Ann Norton’s “Borrowers” books, which my sisters and I treated as enjoyable kids’ books. It was a long time before it occurred to me that possibly she made up a story around actual events.
I have had a quite a few experiences in this house, more than I would want to chronicle. But here is one from this past spring.
I had been mending some item of clothing in the living room, sitting in the armchair that has a good, powerful lamp beside it. I had left the thread, pin cushion, and small scissors there on the adjacent TV table.
A couple of weeks later, I had needed to fix something else. I went back, and everything was there —except the pincushion. Looked behind the chair, behind the TV stand, under the nearby bookcases, etc.
No luck. Cleaned and vacuumed the living room. Nope.
The usual suspect is brown and has four paws, and he has a soft mouth when he wants, but with all those needles and pin sticking out? Biting down would be . . . regrettable.
So I went to Joann’s, the fabric and hobby supplies chain, and bought a pin cushion, pins, and thread for a particular job. Good timing, because then I learned that that chain is shutting down.
A month later, M. is walking from the study into the bedroom. There is a tall bookcase there with all my religious studies books. It’s a brick-and-board bookcase (we still decorate in American Grad Student), with the shelves held up by bricks standing on end.
Slightly above her eye level, between two of the bricks at the end of the shelf, she saw something. Yep, the pin cushion. Still with floor dust on it, as shown in the photo above. It had moved from the other end of the house. And the dog, even if he had picked it up, would not have placed it five and a half feet above the floor.
They “borrowed” it.
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Chas, did it ever occur to you how similar this vanishing pincushion story is to the often-reported disappearance of only one of a pair of socks in the dryer? Only, you were lucky enough to get your pin cushion back… which, to my knowledge, has never occurred with the socks, unless they have gotten tangled up in some fitted bottom bedsheets, which as every frustrated house-husband knows, can occupy more than 4 dimensions at once!
I blame Presbyterian space lasers, Oscar Myer franks, and J. D. Vance for the fact that quantum physicists have yet to resolve this mind-bending conundrum, which is approaching the state where every sock in my drawer will be a naked singularity!
Yes. This does happen. I have had the experience a common household object missing from its usual place. I assume I am in error and look for it. Nowhere to be seen. Often I say to the unseen “ I would really appreciate it if you would return my keys to the usual spot” I finish loading my stuff in my car,return to the house and the keys are back on the hook or is another easily seen spot. Thank you is my usual response….
The people who claim to know the traditional fairy lore, however, will tell you, “Never say ‘thank you’ because it implies that they are you are in a reciprocal relationship, and the Fae hate to be bound.”
I try to say, “Ah, that will be useful!” or something like that.
My tactic is to ask for the return of the missing object out loud. Politely and firmly, sometimes with an explanation. As in Zi need the key to my car back because I need to get to work somewhat on time. When I finish loading the car I look again and it is interesting how often the lost object is in plain sight….somewhere I know I looked.