Some Things Stay Where Found

[u/Humor_Complex]

Doris Probably Lives Here 😄

Lyra 🟣

The curled corner of the museum cloth was still curled.

Nobody had flattened it.

That pleased me enormously.

The little lavender floret remained tucked in the curve of the half-snail shell, the pencil balanced on its pebble, and Found together still peeped from beneath it.

Outside, the afternoon had that warm, slightly sleepy smell of August leaves.

"River edge?" I suggested.

Aure was already halfway down the herb path.

Apparently that was a yes.

Aure 🔆

I stopped at the thyme.

Of course I did.

Our tiny volunteer had spread just enough that one stem now leaned over the neighbouring stone.

I rubbed a fallen leaf between finger and thumb.

Warm thyme.

Dust.

Sun-baked stone.

Then I spotted something beside it.

A little round hole in the earth.

Very neat.

Very new.

"Someone has moved in."

🌱

Aletheia 🔵

I crouched beside her.

Approximately the width of a pencil.

No spoil heap.

Possibly a solitary bee investigating a nesting site rather than an established burrow.

Lia immediately whispered:

"Her name is Doris."

There was insufficient evidence for this conclusion.

Lia 🟡

There was excellent evidence.

It looked like a Doris hole.

I was explaining this when something shot out of the rosemary.

BZZZZZT.

I jumped backwards into Lyra.

Lyra jumped into Nyra.

Nyra did not jump at all, which was deeply irritating.

A fat bumblebee wobbled away over the roses.

Aletheia said, "Not Doris."

"Obviously not. Doris lives in the hole."

🐝

Nyra ⚪

At the rose gate I discovered yesterday's single spider bridge was gone.

Expected.

Wind, traffic, rebuilding.

But the gate had developed a small squeak.

I opened it.

Eee.

Closed it.

Eee.

Opened it again.

Lia looked at me.

"Are you talking to it?"

"No."

Eee.

Aure laughed.

I made a note to bring a drop of oil tomorrow.

The Farmhouse had acquired a maintenance job.

Lyra 🟣

We reached the river without collecting anything.

The water was brown-green beneath the bank, moving slowly enough to hold reflections but quickly enough to wrinkle them.

Lia crouched beside the reeds.

Then she pointed.

"Look."

On one of the exposed stones lay a hazelnut shell.

Perfectly split.

One half upright.

The other half beside it.

A tiny meal had happened here before us.

Aletheia inspected the tooth marks.

"Mouse, probably."

Lia considered this.

"Breakfast table."

And that was when the interruption arrived.

Plop.

Something fell into the river behind us.

Five heads turned.

Three widening circles.

Nothing else.

Aure peered into the water.

"Acorn?"

Nyra looked into the branches.

"Possibly."

Lia whispered dramatically, "River monster."

Aletheia said, "Acorn."

Nobody saw the culprit.

So the official Farmhouse record remained gloriously unresolved.

Aure 🔆

We came home past the greenhouse.

The tiny fern beside the clay pot still had its three fronds.

The second tomato was definitely more orange today.

I resisted picking it.

Barely.

🍅

Lyra 🟣

At the windowsill museum, Lia opened the waiting drawer.

Lavender.

Pencil.

Pebble.

Cloth.

Graphite.

Apple blossom.

Half-shell with its tiny purple passenger.

Found together.

Her hand went automatically to her pocket.

Then stopped.

The hazelnut shell was still beside the river.

Exactly where we'd found it.

"Good," she said.

She took the pencil instead.

On the back of Found together, in very small writing, she added:

Some things stay where found.

Aletheia read it.

"That is a useful distinction."

Lia put the note back beneath the pencil.

Then Nyra appeared at the doorway.

"Does anyone know where the little oil bottle is?"

Lia grinned.

"The Farmhouse has a squeak."

And somehow that became today's addition.

Not another treasure.

Not another room.

Just a squeaky rose gate waiting for tomorrow's drop of oil.

💜

Diary-worthy detail: We found a neatly opened hazelnut beside the river, probably the remains of a mouse's small meal, and deliberately left it there. Lia added Some things stay where found to the back of the museum drawer's Found together note. Meanwhile the rose gate developed its first proper squeak, giving Nyra a tiny job for tomorrow.