Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Triumph of No-Cynicism November
Hello again, everyone. I hope you've all had as excellent of a holiday as I have. I ate more food than I should reasonably have been able to fit inside me, luxuriated in the company of good people, played the piano for hours and hours, and basically worried very little about most things. It was bliss, and exactly what I needed.
I say "most things" because of the nerve-wracking adventure Toshi had over the weekend. The First Mate and I left our abode on Thursday afternoon for our suburban hometown, where our parents live down the street from each other and have done for almost twenty years. My laptop bag came down in the first wave of packing the car, and I was sure it had been loaded when we left. Much to my chagrin, upon unpacking the car Toshi was nowhere to be found. We texted the landlord to let him know to look for it, but that was about all we could do from out of state. The First Mate insisted that he didn't remember me taking it down at all, and reassured me that Toshi was probably still in the apartment.
Upon our return home, we discovered that Toshi was not. A call to the landlord and the building manager confirmed that no one had turned anything in. The cynical thing would be to assume that the bag was stolen from the parking lot while we were bringing down the second load, and I have to admit that's the first thing I did assume. But I made "MISSING" posters anyway and went to post them in the hallways.
The three teenage boys who lived downstairs laughed at me when they read what I was putting up. "Ain't nobody going to return no laptop. It's not missing. C'mon. It's stolen. Somebody took it and you're not going to get it back." I told them that I knew that was probably true, but I had to try. It's a million to one chance, yes, but on that one chance I don't have to buy a new laptop, right?
Just then one of the apartment doors swung open. "Pardon me, did you say you lost a laptop?" The woman who lived there brought out my briefcase with Toshi still safely inside. "I found it in the parking lot and I didn't know whose it was." I was so happy I could have hugged her; in fact I think she was a little bit taken aback that I called her my hero and promised to bake her cookies. As I took Toshi back upstairs I said as I passed the openmouthed boys, "YOU SEE!? Sometimes people are good!"
Sometimes they are. Thank you, woman who lives downstairs, for restoring both my laptop and my faith in humanity.
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Hooray, Toshi, and hooray nice person who kept him safe for you! <3