Lost and Found

From time immemorial, Man has been the Hunter. And Woman requires it.

Personally, I consider it one of my missions to make sure the men in my life keep that skill honed, now that they are no longer required to hunt for food.

Let me amend that. Whenever my mom needs an ingredient from the pantry or one of their three freezers, it's "Ted, go find the ........" Same here, except in my house it's more likely to result in Ricky having to go to the grocery store.

My dad, unasked but oh so appreciated, once spent fourteen hours searching inch by inch through the shag carpeting of my childhood bedroom to find a lost earring. That, my friends, is hunting.

In my own home, I only make a perfunctory search before calling in the expert to find my phone, purse, book, sweater, shoes, shirt or the important piece of paper I just had in my hands. It used to be the eternal search for car keys, but now I have two sets and work diligently to keep them either in my purse or on the key rack.

A couple of weeks ago my wallet was missing in action. I had it at lunch with my friend, but by evening realized it was not in my purse. It's a flat, black wallet that easily fits into a back pocket and holds my cash and the six or eight important cards I have.

I looked everywhere. He looked everywhere. We searched the car, both cars, the driveway, the house, the pockets of my clothes. We did it again. We have two bank cards, but daily checking showed no unauthorized activities. I put off canceling the cards and going to the DMV to replace my driver's license (it has the rare good picture!), all the while feeling totally stupid that I'd truly lost my wallet.

It is weird having no credit cards and no identification. I paid cash for everything.

Last Saturday, over a week after the disappearance, I had a message. Someone had found one of my bank cards on the side of the road, near where I had lunch that fateful day. Hallelujah! The suspense was over, at least partially. Unfortunately, the nice man was out of town for the holiday weekend and I could not confirm which card he had and a more precise location of the find.

But never fear, my hunter was here! We drove to our best guess of the location. Ricky parked beside the road and we began searching. It had rained nearly every day so the ground was soggy and the creek beside the road was full. I got some comfort that the rest of my cards were likely washed away and unusable.

Then Ricky found my Eddie Bauer rewards card ground into the mud. But that was it. At least we were in the right spot. I waited at the car while he looked one more time, going down a ways, then coming back on the other side of the street.

Crossing the street back to our car, he found the other bank card. Score! Then another card and another. Then the wallet itself, with the remaining cards, including my driver's license and most important this year, my medical insurance card.

My best guess - someone stole the wallet out of my purse during lunch, took the cash and tossed the rest out the window during the getaway. They were probably a little disgusted since my cash was mostly ones. The amazing part is that my wallet lay in the middle of a busy street for over a week and I recovered virtually everything.

Actually, the hunter recovered it. I just watched.