Fetch or The Dramatic Loss of a Beloved Plastic Covered Pen

After today's Brownie meeting, my daughter realized she had forgotten something so we had to go back and get it. When I got in the car, I had forgotten the dog was outside still. I saw him up the street (because we have no fence still) and thought, "Wow, that's a good looking dog. Hey! That's my dog!" We opened the car door and he came for a ride.

Another version of the same story would go something like this:

I was leading a circle of 13 girls at our Brownie troop meeting when I looked down into my hands to find a pen covered in plastic. I have no recollection whatsoever how it got there and started asking the girls if it belonged to any of them. I was very tempted to take the plastic off, but didn't know if I should, since I didn't know if the owner of the pen would want to do it herself.

I held the pen for a while, finally putting it down on a table in the classroom. I came to the conclusion that I had simply picked the pen up off the floor from the force of habit and therefore should put it up. I never did find out who the pen belonged to and left it in the classroom when we locked up at the end of our meeting.

Upon arrival back at our house, my youngest daughter asked me for her pen back. "What pen?" I asked. "The one with the plastic on it." "That was yours?"

After she screamed and cried and blamed me for losing the pen, I had the brilliant inspiration to return to the school to see if we could get in. That, of course, after learning an email to the teacher and picking it up tomorrow would be the worst decision I've ever made.

Lo and behold! The teacher was there and we got the pen from the classroom. Sure enough, the girl to whom the pen belonged wanted to get the plastic off by herself after all.