“I found Oldest Boy’s sock,” she says to me, delving into her treasure trove of goodies.  “I hope he has the other one!”   The box accompanies her, in one form or the other, each visit made to our house.  Filled with home-baked goodies, books, magazine snippets, articles of mended clothing and other odds and ends, it is just another way a mother shows her daughter love.

Love in a rummage box.  A sentimental gesture that moves me to pay it forward.

His sock, missing for days, went completely unnoticed on my part.  That, because I am more concerned with the other missing.  My debit card.  Mysteriously, it has up and walked.   Do these cards have legs and a mind of their own?  I cannot hold onto plastic, it seems.  And to say this unnerves me is the understatement of the day.

I make calls, tracing steps on that last of days it was used.  The store I was in, O’leary Fabric Crafts and More.  I was buying the more.  Skating tights, that cost me an arm and a leg.  Four legs, to be precise.  I had traded in three pairs of premium tights that Velcro under the skate so as to buy the more economical tights that would do the very same trick.  As it worked out, I happened to be the one to undo the cash register.  The cashier, shooting darts at me with her eyes.

It took what seemed an eternity, along with a call to her boss, a few appeals to other customers in the store along with my own sincere apologies to mend the wrongs I had done by this simple exchange.  And I walked out with the tights and no debit card, it appears.

That was one very expensive exchange.

But, alas.  The card has still not shown up.  In spite of my best seeking, my fervent praying in the shower and my pleas to anyone interested in saving me a few brain cells.  I still hope and pray for the best.  And while I do all this, I search the house.  In those in between moments.

Today, I found the Oldest’s lost sock, soon to be a pair.  At long last.  It was in a carry-on bag in the bathroom, where I store the extra toilet paper rolls.  Who would’ve thought?  I also found, in that same  bag, a purple Dsi pen that had been on the missing list for who knows how long, along with one earring I had long since written off and a pair of Christmas tree earrings belonging to Second Youngest.

It is worth it to lose things just to find the others.

I search again tonight for other thing lost.  That bain of my existence: my debit card.  And while I do, the Oldest laments the loss of memory on his i-pod touch.  Something has gone wrong, not entirely sure what that something is.  But Husband has spent the better part of four hours over the last couple of days searching for that which is missing.  It has thrown of kilter the dynamic of our evening.

It doesn’t take much to upset the apple cart.

I don’t think these tangibles are the only items to make the missing list.  I am afraid I am a few peas short of a Sunday casserole.  And don’t think I’m not mindful of it.  I was so glad Husband got the game Book Lover’s edition of Memory match for Christmas, it’s pathetic.  One never knows how long one has with the memory one was born with.  Do all that you can in the moments you are blessed with, I say.  And when all else fails, start treasure hunting.  Finding other stuff you’ve lost will more than compensate for what you think you can’t live without.

Even if it is a very important piece of plastic.  I hear they give them out for free at the CIBC.

So while Husband and Oldest exchange words, I search again.  I look inside a bag of Christmas bows, ribbons and tissue paper from two weeks prior.  Pack-rat that I am, I have carefully smoothed out wrinkled paper, saved used bows and ribbon to re-use next year.  And inside this crowded jumble of reds and greens I find a misplaced $25.00 gift certificate for a local restaurant.

So that’s where that was!  Of all the co-incidences.  And again, what I have lost has taken me on a treasure hunt for more of the same.  Missing treasure.

So here is the final tally.  I am one sock, two pairs of earrings, a Dsi pen the richer.

But no debit card found and tucked away in the card holder of my purse tonight.

Epilogue: Thank goodness I finally located that application for the new VISA (don’t ask: my other one went mysteriously missing after our trip to N.C., U.S.A. last spring…) in the office stashed under the kids artwork.

Another little treasure found along the way.