We took off for three days – on vacation, just the two of us. And it was a grand adventure, the kind every daddy should make, for bonding purposes, even if you do end up like me and have to console your 6-year-old child through crying fits when she misses mama.
My daughter and I discovered a great place to stay in a friendly, small town. And we had a neat agenda mapped out with lots of activities. Then, it started to rain in the Blue Ridge Mountains as we stepped off a passenger excursion train for a layover at lunchtime.
We stepped inside a restaurant – a place where it was dry. And I paid no mind when a woman at the cafe’s front counter, said, "Please put your wet umbrella by the door. That way, it will dry."
Fast-forward a half-hour. Our sandwich was gone. And so was our blue umbrella – stolen!
"Stolen? I can’t believe it," the woman at the front counter said.
Yet then, without offering an apology, that woman simply suggested someone "with a double stroller" had taken our umbrella.
Shocked, I never thought to ask the counter lady why she didn’t stop those people from swiping my stuff. I could only figure that it was now my mission to locate that "double stroller" among the pedestrians of this tiny town – and, of course, reclaim my umbrella.
But what was I really going to do? Get soaked on this rainy day, running the sidewalks with my daughter, and accost strangers?
For the next few minutes, we sort of did that. And we nearly got saturated as we tromped through town, sharing our sad story, as we stepped in and out of restaurants and small shops.
"A stolen umbrella? Something like that just doesn’t happen around here," several strangers told us.
In the end, we never found the so-called "double stroller." We never again saw our umbrella. After a while, I ended up carrying my little girl like a baby on the city streets – just to keep her dry.
The following day, we rounded out our getaway with a horseback ride and a visit to a park. But do you know what turned out to be my daughter’s favorite part of our vacation?
"Actually, I kind of liked it when our umbrella got stolen," she said, smiling. "That was kind of funny."
JOE TENNIS is a features writer for the Herald Courier. Call (276) 791-0704 or jtennis@bristolnews.com.
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