baronessekat | Weekly challange to me

Here's my reply to the challenge given to me this week:

They are my shield, my protection, my armor against the world. I need them to even perform simple activities of daily living.

You may think I’m kidding when I say I need them and that I can’t function without them. They are a compact bit of security, and the first thing I actively reach for every day (even before turning on the light) and the last thing I put away at night (even after turning off the light).

So of course I was upset that morning when I reached and they were gone.

My mind screamed with panic. I had to find them. But I forced the calm about me and broke with routine and turned on the light first. After all, when you can’t find something, you turn on a light to help make it easier to see what it is you are looking for. It doesn’t help. They aren’t there. I always put them in the same place every night so I can find them in the dark.

They should be there… in the little dish just behind the alarm clock. But they weren’t there. I lifted the clock, move aside the three books sitting there waiting to be read. Nothing.

My heart started to race a bit as I crawled out of bed and sink to the floor. I had to fight the urge to sit there and rock to into a nice state of catatonia and despair. But the small sliver of rational thought I still had took control and I started looking. I felt under the nightstand and reach behind it; I felt around under the bed.

I found several used Kleenex™, a book I had been looking for, a pair of slippers I thought I had lost, an empty soda can; a pair of undies, one blue sock and a surprise left behind by the cats. But nothing else.

The anxiety grew so thick I could taste it. What if I can’t find them? I can’t call into work and tell them the real reason I can’t come in. Do I call someone to come over and help me look? No, that would just get me laughed at. I mean I’m a grown woman, I should be able to cope. This is not the end of the world.

Yeah right. I can’t go anywhere with out them. I needed to find them.

The panic set in and I scrambled around and really dig and feel for them. They have to be here somewhere.

One of the cats came over to see what I was doing.

“What did you little rats do with them?” I yelled at her. It had to be one of the cats that moved them. I’m always yelling at them to get down off the nightstand. “I swear, if they are broken or damaged in anyway because of you I’m going to have new kitty cat slippers.”

The cat, of course, just looks at me with those ageless feline eyes as if to say “You always say that. I do not think it means what you think it means.” I ignore the look and continue my desperate search.

It felt like I had been looking for hours. But when I resigned myself that they were not under the bed or anywhere around the nightstand, I looked at the clock and realized only 15 minutes had passed.

I was doomed! Doomed I tell you! Doooooooomed.

I stood up and then flopped down on the bed, ready to have a good old fashioned crying panic attack.

Then as my head it the pillow, something scratched my cheek. I blinked and sat up. There, nestled into a small shallow in the pillow they sat. Apparently I had not put them away the night before.

Elation swept through me as I grabbed them and held on tightly. Then calm came to me as I carefully put them on.

The world was okay again. I could see clearly again.

My glasses had been found.

I could get on with my day.

~fin

(topic this week was: Glasses)