This is a story about a lunchbox, a bunch of twits, and a smartypants.
Meet Christian's lunchbox, bright and cheerful, stands out in a crowd, skilled in the art of carrying all manner of food items, hot or cold...
We've learned recently that it has secret skills, too. Like secret agent, undercover, covert-ops skills.
Christian's lunchbox has had a long summer. Most of it was spent on a shelf in our kitchen; because Christian was having lunch at home all the time, lunchbox was not especially necessary. There were two times when it got to put its excellent carrying skills to use: when we went to the pool with all of our friends who stayed with us, and when we went to the Rangers baseball game with those same friends. Lunchbox was so excited to be able to perform its duties; carrying food for someone is the fulfillment of its very purpose here on this earth. Having to sit on the shelf the rest of the summer was about to drive lunchbox to the edge.
You can imagine how happy lunchbox has been since last Tuesday when lunches started at school. It wasn't a full week, but three of the five days it was filled with Christian's lunch, so happy. Hand-in-strap, together again. In fact, lunchbox was so glad to be out of our kitchen that it sneakily stayed behind at school Tuesday and then again on Thursday . We picked it up the first time the next day (Christian got out early, so no big deal; good thing for you, lunchbox!) so that it was ready for the following lunch day. But Friday morning I was stuck with no lunchbox, and had to take Christian's lunch over mid-morning and just put it in his lunchbox which was sitting happily in the lunchbox line, amidst all the other lunchbox friends. Totally unaware of the chaos it was causing in our house each of these mornings.
Friday Mike picked Christian up from school since Eliana was asleep and soon after they came inside I asked Christian where his lunchbox was. It wasn't in his bag or next to the front door. I checked on our porch, because Mike and Christian had been having a conversation out there before coming inside; I thought maybe he had put it down during their talk and then left it there. Nope, just the front porch, the sidewalk, the grass.
Mike said,"You had it in your hand, buddy. Did you put it down over there in the hallway before we left?" He couldn't remember; he was convinced that he had brought it home. I told them we would just walk over and check it out. I didn't want to wait until Monday for a couple of reasons. Obviously, I wanted to be able to pack his lunch on the first day of the week, especially since this morning I had gotten a call from another mom saying,"You might want to bring Christian's lunch over..." He honestly thought Friday Pizza began right away. I knew it didn't, but like I said, sneaky lunchbox had managed to stay at school Thursday night. I also didn't want to leave it because Sunday morning the Sunday School classes met; I thought it would be best if lunchbox were just at home for the weekend and we didn't have to worry about the confusion of all the different people and possibly getting moved around or taken.
So once Eliana was awake we walked over to the school and looked in the hallway first thing. No lunchbox. We peeked in the classroom and no one was in there, although the door was still open. I felt funny about going in there; I don't know why, but it just feels like I'm not supposed to do that. I said,"Let's check the lost and found." We went downstairs to the lost and found bin, and it wasn't there, either. We ran into Christian's Spanish teacher twice; she smiled but I think she thought we looked a bit strange wandering the hallway after school hours like we were. I tried to explain,"We've lost a lunchbox."
She was very sympathetic. Maybe it's happened to her, too. She asked what it looked like, and Christian quickly replied,"It has cars all over it!" Michaela added,"It also has car noises like 'Beep' and 'Vroom'!" She nodded her head and said she would look out for it.
We went back upstairs since she had also encouraged us to go ahead and look inside the classroom; now that we had official permission I didn't feel so funny about going in. We walked in the door and looked all around. Christian walked the entire class, Michaela followed him, checking all around. He looked inside his desk, over by the books, at the other door. I looked on the counter right next to the door we entered, as well as to my right where a little table stood.
All the while I could hear Eliana in the background, chanting something. She had been as quiet as a moonbeam up until now, so I turned to ask her what she was saying. She had gotten up on her toes on the foot strap of her stroller and had her little arm and finger pointed straight up; she said again, as clear as a clean glass, "Christian's lunchbox! There it is! Christian's lunchbox! There it is!" I looked where she was pointing and right there beside my face, on the very counter I had looked at upon entering the room, sat Christian's lunchbox.
It was laughing at me.
I called the other kids, told them to come on, and showed them how Eliana had found the elusive lunchbox. They laughed and laughed and we all told her what a good job she had done. I still can't believe it; Michaela and I even had our glasses on!
I might have to get one of those satellite trackers that you can implant. Lunchbox, I've got my eye on you. Actually, I've got Eliana's eyes on you. Mine don't seem to work all that well.
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 11:37PM 
