No longer lost

Three years ago, Madison lost her math calculator. I wrote about it HERE. It's worth reading again, and it's a two-second read. Summary...she hid the calculator when we left for vacation.

Madison: "I don't really remember why I hid that specifically. It was sort of because it was worth more than $100, and at that time, at my age, that was a lot of money, so I figured someone would steal that and sell it on the black calculator market. The sad thing is that I left clues on a piece of paper as to where I hid my things like stuff from my purse and my laptop, and I couldn't decipher any of it when I returned. Although I did find the other things, I'd hidden. Just not the calculator."

We have searched for that calculator for three years. If you're a frequent reader of this blog, you know how missing objects, those he deems essential, are a bane of my husband's (Find those entries HERE and HERE), so the missing calculator was just another to add to his list. First, he finds it absolutely ridiculous that one would lose something in the first place and two, he is not buying another. So, we began the hunt. The search, if you will. To no avail.

Thankfully, Darcy had acquired an extra calculator from her math teacher (a story in itself), and so Madison returned to college with the extra. But the missing calculator became one of those family jokes. Anytime we lost or discovered something in the house, the calculator was referred to as well.

Me: "Your dad found the missing telephone."

Darcy: "Was it with Madison's calculator?"

or

Me: "I thought for sure someone had taken my purse."

Madison: "You mean like someone took my calculator."

We've never stopped looking. When I cleaned out the house after Madison went to college, it was the first thing she asked when I told her I'd taken everything out of her closet. Had I found the calculator?

Uh, no.

Then, three years later, while going through Madison's room, closet, and boxes of crap stored in both, she hit the jackpot. I was going through boxes of old clothes from their childhood. I'd hold up an item, she'd say keep or toss, and it would go into the correct pile. She, in turn, was doing the same with her drawers. At one point, she pulled out an old nightgown she'd continuously worn in her youth. We reminisced, then she turned to what had been hidden in the nightgown. Whatever it was had fallen to the floor. 

You guessed it.

THE CALCULATOR!!

All this time, it has been wrapped up in a nightgown covered in monkeys. The scream Madison gave when finding it alerted the entire neighborhood. My answering shriek alerted the community on a block over. I think Tom and Darcy's yelling when we texted the picture probably woke their co-workers. OMG! The calculator.

Darcy: "So, there was no math stealing thief? I was right. No one wants a math calculator bad enough to steal it. Your money? Yes. A calculator for math? No."

Me: "Well, if Madison were a thief, I could see her pocketing it."

Darcy: "Sadly, that is probably the truth."

And sadly, now her days of needing a calculator have come to an end. Guess there's always the black calculator market.