Lost

I've been here for days now. Do you know how ludicrously boring it is to be lost? You know, you have a purpose in life, a place that you live where you can usually be found and all you want to do is just get on with your job. But you can't. Why?

Because nobody can bloody find you!

I don't know why I'm getting so exasperated. It's not like that's going to change anything. I'm so fed up. If only I had a voice that could be heard, I've have hollered by now and it would all end. I wouldn't mind so much but I've seen her look at me five times today! Eye to eye! If her eyes are bad, it probably doesn't matter that I can't talk because I expect she's deaf as well.

Bloody useless!

Mind you, if I could talk, I might not have the life I have now. I might be sold off as a curiosity to a travelling circus or something although that does seem a little unlikely. I mean, I don't have a lot of presence really, if I'm honest. I don't think you'd be able to see me that well on a stage - maybe the odd glint if the light was right? If I had that much presence, I wouldn't be down here, would I, lost!

I need to calm down. I need to stay sharp and focused. Surely, I'll get spotted soon!

I blame the cat. All that yowling to go out. Meow! Meow! Louder and louder, like it was being tortured. And then she had to get up to let it out and boom! I hit the floor! Tumbling like an acrobat but with less panache. There was nothing I could do to control it. I was gravity's plaything.

We need a cat flap to avoid incidents like this in the future. Never mind the draughts!

It's been days! Days! I can't even see the TV from here!

Calm. Calm. That's it. It won't be long now.

Someone's bound to tread on me. It might be that damn cat. I wouldn't want to embed myself in its soft little paw. Just a quick sharp reminder of my presence will do. Enough to make it leap in that funny sideways fashion, like a crescent, where their bum rears up, tail wild and their front half remains slightly lower, with their eyes wide and ready.

I don't like it down here. It's lonely. I miss my other friends and their sharpness. I like it when I mistakenly get put in the wrong place with them. I know, I've been going on about how much I don't like being lost and here I am contradicting myself but listen. Listen! It's not like this though. No. There, I sort of fit in but down here, with the fibres, it's horrible.

In the wrong box, I end up being smothered, like sardines. Lost, but in a good way. Absorbed. So cold and so close, makes me shiver with delight just thinking about it. I usually get plucked out though. I'm easy to spot as I don't have a head. And out I come, and I'm covered up again, by something that makes me itch. And it's dark in that shroud. I like to be in the light.

I'm in all the light down here! Why can't the old duffer see me? Bloody hell!

You know, I wouldn't mind if I had some company but fibres aren't very chatty. It's probably because they know that given half the chance, I'd push myself into them again and again, over and over, taking my sweet time. There's no thanks even though they've been improved by the time I've finished. No, all they want to do is complain. Mind you, they don't have a great life down here, getting crushed every day.

I suppose I have been lying on top of them for days though. That can't be nice for them.

Once, I almost got away. It was like a maelstrom! The fibres were singing and then silence. They'd formed themselves into little band over a few days: the shape of a foot for one; some had even clustered around a yellow rock-like form but not as hard, but it was sticky and uneven and had fallen and tethered the fibres to it. I reckon I could have skewered it with a bit of momentum but those fibres had resigned themselves to the fact that they were now part of this foreign object for eternity.

But then the maelstrom hit and not only did it rip the sugar rock away but parts of these fibres too. Whoosh! And gone. I could see them spinning in the heart of the storm, round and round, banging against the clear plastic, over and over again. It was relentless. There was no stopping it! Horrible to witness, I can tell you.

But I could stop it. And did. I got caught in it but it didn't have the strength to hold me. I was pulled, the force of the swirl grabbing me and sucking me in. I clattered and grinded and was spun over and over. I was being drawn inexorably to a dark tunnel. I'd seen what happened to things that go up there. They never come back. Imprisoned and taken.

But I was too much for it. I never reached the vortex. I stopped it. And returned to earth.

I felt sure I was going to be spotted then but nope! Old Four-Eyes here needs a magnifying glass to see me.

I despair!

Down here! I'm down here! I'm going mad!

I'll think about something else.

Shall I tell you what my favourite thing is? You won't believe it when I tell you. You won't! Everyone thinks it would be cotton but it's not. I mean, cotton and I have been pretty intimate and we've worked together closely a lot but for pleasure, it's silk all the way. I love silk - love, love, love it! Working it, working through it, dragging it, placing it, poking it. Silk is not just for worms! The feel of it sliding past my steely skin is just heaven.

Here she goes again, getting up. I wonder who she's replaced me with? Perhaps she'll drop them too and I'll have some company.

It's the cat wanting to go out again! Yowling like a club singer. Bloody attention seeker! I wish I could cry out like that! Lucky thing! One cry and she's up and off.

Hang on. What's this? What's that heading my way? Woah! Argh! Help!

My eye! My eye! I can't see! I'm pinned! I'm buried! I've been covered by a tombstone! I'm done for! No-one will ever find me now. Stuck forever in the dark. The fibres are enfolding me. This isn't what I was put on this Earth for!

HELP!

Hang on, we're moving! I'm moving! I'm up in the air. Oh, this is making me dizzy. Ceiling, TV, floor, couch. Hey, I can see the pins! Hey, pins! Up here!

What am I stuck to? How has this happened? It's a miracle! I'm saved!

She's spotted me. Finally, you blind old bat. Now, get me off this force field and let's get to work.

Oh, she's talking to me now. Now she can see me. Oh, that's right. I'm the chosen one now. I know you lost me, you idiot! Yes, fancy that! At least you noticed I was missing, I suppose. Thank goodness for phones, you say? You'd never have found me if you'd not dropped your phone. Is that what this is?

You might have trodden on me? Well, one can only hope.

Yes! She's managed to pull me off. I don't know what that force was but it's sent ripples all the way through me. Like waves. Oh, it is nice to feel the warmth of her skin. We make such a great team. And there's Thimble. Good old Thimble!

Oh, it's good to be back, to be put to use. Ready when you are. Let's sew!

Just don't lose me this time, okay?

***

I wrote this ages ago. And forgot about it. Until it was too late to enter it.

Damn.

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