Jimmy and Miss Muffet

In many ways, the weather yesterday was just perfect, perfect for a public holiday that is. Rainy, not really cold, but cool enough that no air conditioners were needed, and all the doors and windows could be thrown open in order to invite fresh air to enter and to swirl through the house, expelling the hot air caught up in the house over the previous few weeks when temperatures hovered around 38 degrees Celsius.

Just as well, that yesterday was cooler, because today is another warm one. Even my puppy dog is happy to see the sun. Look, she’s lying sweetly, or is it mischievously on the lawn. Oops, “just one minute, Miss Muffet, what do you have in your mouth?” That looks like a cigarette, but it can’t be, no-one around here smokes, so where would you have found a cigarette? I’ll just tiptoe over to you quickly and quietly, and remove it from your mouth.

Am I blind or something? there’s a piece of paper between your paws, kind of scrunched up, admittedly. What have you been up to, what is it and where did you find it?

“My beautiful girl, what do you have here?” Interesting, there’s a name on it, David! Who is David? But there’s more, dates and numbers, rather large $values, large for me shall we say. Amounts ranging from between $400 and $40,000.

This must be quite old, the dates are between 1972 and 1978. I must admit, I’m more than a little puzzled. I was still in primary school in those years, but more significantly, I lived in another country in the 70’s.

One of our neighbours? Maybe! But, it couldn’t have been outside since yesterday or flying around the air since yesterday, since it was raining all day yesterday and this piece of paper is completely dry, NO smudged ink or anything.

I had a gentleman poking around my bathroom today, taking measurements looking under the basin etc. Maybe he dropped the book where this page is from. I need to call him as soon as possible. If it doesn’t belong to him, then I need to think further afield or become more creative in my thinking, If only puppy dog could talk?

Here goes, “Jimmy, I’m so sorry to bother you. I realise that you wouldn’t have the quote for my new vanity ready yet, but I found an interesting piece of paper with dates, numbers and $values on it. Does it maybe belong to you?”

There’s an audible gasp, followed by silence. Suddenly, Jimmy says “Give me a minute.” I hear frantic rummaging around and an out of breath Jimmy is back on the line. “Oh thank goodness”, he says. In response I ask “What?”

Jimmy goes on to tell me that his grandfather died recently and that his grandfather left ALL his small black notebooks to him. These notebooks contain the records of all his jobs, drawings, tips etc. He was apparently also a cabinet maker and the two were close, having made items together, particularly when Jimmy was still just a kid. Jimmy goes on to admit to me that he had been struggling lately, and that he finds comfort in looking through his grandfathers small black notebooks at such times. He always carries at least one of these small black notebooks with him on any day. The notebooks are old, and in some instances the pages are loose, which is clearly the case with the one that he had with him today. One must have fallen out, which my puppy dog in turn gently carried outside to ‘read’.

Jimmy is so relieved to hear that the page wasn’t destroyed, only one little is corner missing. This is clearly the incentive and push that Jimmy needs to have the notebooks rebound or copied or both.

So, instead of being upset with my Miss Muffet, everyone is actually grateful to her. As a matter of fact, Jimmy has brought her a bag of treats when coming past to collect the page. Is it intended as a treat, or a way of saying “eat something else next time!”.