Singleton

A lost earring turns up, and I have an explanation.

My first night in North Carolina, I accidentally knocked one of my small silver dogwood flower earrings off my bedside table and onto the floor. The earring disappeared into the multi-hued wall-to-wall shag carpeting which camouflages everything, including a small silver earring. I literally combed the carpet and inspected every surrounding potential earring landing place to no avail.

The Hurwitz family’s version of St. Anthony is my daughter Sarah, whose house I was staying in when I lost the earring, and to whom I turned for help, as she is the designated Finder of All Missing Objects.

The mystery only deepened when Sarah couldn’t find the earring, either. “I’ll keep looking,” she promised me, since I would be leaving the next day. I thanked her, but had to assume that my earring was forever lost, a tiny victim of gravity, high pile, and deceptive multi-variegation.

The next morning I got up early to catch my flight. I went to my aforementioned bedside table to gather up the book I’d been reading, along with the photo of my parents that I bring with me every time I travel. There, shining sweetly in plain sight, was the lost earring.

Are you skeptical or annoyed? I would be both, were I in your shoes, reading this. It is both farfetched and pat. But I swear it actually happened. I swear I am not making it up.   

Here’s another true thing: My parents were in my dreams when I was in North Carolina. When I’m home I dream about them on occasion, but in North Carolina, I dreamt about them every single night.

Whatever you are thinking now you have to admit it’s a strange set of circumstances. First, the lost earring, then, the dreams, and finally, the earring’s reappearance. I have thought about it at length, and the only plausible explanation I can come up with is my parents saw to the return of my earring.  

If you can think of a different purely common-sense explanation, let me know. Maybe there is a perfectly good one, and I’m happy to entertain it.   

In the meantime, thank you, Mom and Dad.