strangeness

We received a phone call very early this morning, at 8am. Everyone knows that if you live in New York and don't have children, Sunday before 11am is off limits. You don't even make plans for brunch before 1pm.

It was the Food Coop. A man on the end of the line asked when we were going to come pick up Christopher's backpack, which has been there for several weeks. I had no idea what he was talking about. Christopher's backpack was stolen when he was mugged nearly 4 weeks ago, and we haven't given it much thought since then. Apparently it's been at the Coop, of all places, sitting in the office waiting for us to pick it up.

Frankly, it's a little disconcerting. As far as we were concerned, the backpack was gone forever, along with Christopher's glasses and grading sheet. The man at the Coop said that someone had found it between some cars near the Coop and brought it in, thinking that perhaps a Coop member had left it next to their car while loading up their groceries. It's really nice to think that there are honest people who make the effort to reconnect belongings with their owners. It's just strange to think that something that I associate with pain and sadness has been sitting in a place that I consider a haven of sorts.

I told the man that I'd come get it in the next week, and he sounded irritated. He said that was what he was told last time he called us, and didn't seem to believe it when I told him that this was the first we'd heard of the backpack's whereabouts.