Some days it seems that we spend an inordinate amount of time looking for things – the car keys, my camera, a coffee cup, Nyel’s checkbook.  We fault ourselves for being overly busy or having too many things on our aging minds.  We try to remember to return things to their proper locations so they will be readily available but it is a never-ending battle.

In our house, of course, we also have to contend with our resident ghost, Mrs. Crouch.  Mostly, she gets blamed for things that simply disappear for good.  My grandmother’s doll, Myrtle, for instance, comes to mind.  In my Dear Medora book I wrote:

Mona’s doll, “Little Flirt,” given to her by Mama’s friend Jenny, sits placidly beside Myrtle, the doll that was Mama’s a generation earlier.  Both of these long-time members of the family have been enjoyed by many Espy girls over the years.  Though Flirt and Myrtle had to be re-strung recently, and though they have been re-clothed many times, their soft bisque complexions and bright glass eyes are as lovely as ever.  Even now I retain my little girl fantasy that, if only my hearing were a little more acute, they could share stories with me of their long-ago adventures.   

When my editor asked for pictures of Little Flirt and Myrtle, only Flirt was to be found in the doll cabinet.  No Myrtle.  We searched in every closet, every box, every nook and cranny for her, all without result.  That was seven years ago and she has not yet shown herself.  Mrs.Crouch is the only explanation.

And now, I think, Mrs. C. has a new trick. Last October, when I was doing a final Fall Cleanup in the garden, I lost my clippers.  I looked in all the places that I had been working and all the other areas, as well.  They had simply evaporated.  But, yesterday, there they were!  Right in the area I was working.  Not so strange, really.  I had simply overlooked them, or so I have tried to convince myself.

However, they were right in the area that I walk every morning and every evening on my way to deal with the chickens.  I’ve walked by that patch of lawn adjacent to our bed of Black-eyed Susans dozens, if not scores, of times since those clippers disappeared.  They simply have not been there… until yesterday!

So now it seems that Mrs. Crouch is returning items that she has borrowed.  I almost feel that she is chiding me a bit for ignoring the garden during these winter months.  Very annoying.  And, if she’s going to be returning things, I wish she’d get my priorities straight!  Myrtle would definitely be at the top of the list. Then that checkbook of Nyel’s.  And, while she’s at it, how about those gold nuggets of my grandfather’s that used to be in his desk.

Okay.  Okay.  Just kidding about the gold.  I made that up.  But, garden clippers?  Very funny, Mrs. C!