We used to live in Queensland, Australia, but a couple of years ago we decided to move back to New South Wales. My father-in-law had died before we moved so when he was alive he’d never been to our current house.
When he was alive he used to visit us. I would go to work and he would decide to clean my pantry. I would get home and he’d have all the things that had gone past their used by date in one pile and all the others back in the pantry. I would then go through the chuck out pile and retrieve certain items.
He is here. In our new house. But how he found us, God would only know.
I was going to make a cake for one of the grandchildren. It was his birthday. I knew there was a cake mix in the pantry as I had bought it specifically for this reason. Went to the pantry. No cake mix. Looked everywhere. No cake mix. Called me husband. He looked everywhere. No cake mix.
Had to make cake from scratch. Oh well, as long as the cake was iced and had his name on it, my grandson would be happy. I put candles on it and lit the candles, so he could spit all over the cake. He’d be happy.
Next day, went to pantry. There was that darn cake mix sitting on middle shelf, right at the front. I cursed Bruce (my father-in-law). I thought I heard laughter. I’m cracking up until I turned around and there was my husband. He had come to find out why I was standing in the pantry, yelling obscenities. He swore blind he hadn’t touched that cake mix.
Every cricket season I open my big mouth and tell people I have a photo of myself with Michael Holding (former West Indies cricketer and now cricket commentator). I have it framed and I always proudly produce it and hang it on the wall until the end of the season.
I moved down here and proudly bragged once more. That’s when the problem began. I can’t find it. I have searched high and low. No picture. My new friends think I am making up the whole story of how I got to be in a picture with Michael Holding. I look again. I have found my picture bag. It must be there. I hunt through. No picture. If anyone out there is looking for a particular picture of their baby. I most likely have got it in that bag. I have pictures in that bag of babies who are now parents of the other babies in that bag. I even found a picture of a baby who is the grandparent of another picture of yet another baby.
I have pictures of all the cats I have owned of the years. I have pictures of other people’s cats. I have pictures of cats that happened to be where I was at the time, but I can’t find that damn picture of Michael Holding. My father-in-law has hidden it. I know it!
You wait, cricket season will come to the end and I will find that picture. By then no one will care as they will be too busy following something else
I guess that’s the sad story of my life and a ghost called Bruce.