Missing Notebook

I think I left my notebook in the cottage where we vacationed. If I did, I can tell you exactly where it was—on the corner of the living room table next to the window that overlooks the lake. I hope I didn’t leave it there, but I was so busy our last morning (packing, cleaning, washing dishes, taking out the trash, carrying bags out to the truck, getting the kids ready to go, etc.) that it’s possible that I did.

On the bright side, the notebook had been empty at the beginning of the vacation. I didn’t do much writing while we were there. But I would be slightly embarrassed for someone to read what little writing there was, since I used the book primarily as a journal and wrote about a family tiff in it.

But that’s not really what bothers me, especially since potential readers would have to learn to read my terrible handwriting first, and that’s hardly worth anyone’s effort. I am most upset about having lost something that I wrote for the kids. We had a ton of fun doing Mad Libs while we were there, and the kids loved the game so much that I created a special one just for them. I had hoped to post it here and include a copy in my annual photo album. That’s a loss.

The notebook might be in this house somewhere. I’ll keep hunting for it, but if I don’t find it soon, I’m going to have to assume that I did leave it behind. That would mean it has since been appropriated for use by someone else or thrown into a recycling bin.

Or maybe it has been hidden away in one of the cottage’s many storage areas. It might be in the desk with the many dozens of abandoned card decks. Or maybe it’s in the closet with the board games so old and unpopular that no one has ever heard of them. Or perhaps it’s in the dusty cupboard with the ancient Christmas audiotapes and forgotten children’s books. What a sad thought it is that my notebook might be in one of those places, where it will be taken out once in a while by curious new guests, then shoved back into the darkness again to sit and sit, summer after summer.