W – Work Boots – a place to hide

W – Work Boots – a place to hide

    Stuart knew he had left his work boots somewhere, but couldn’t for the life of him remember where. That of course was not an unusual occurrence. He was misplacing things all of the time. But in this instance, it was rather important that he find them. 

    Living on his own Stuart was very cautious with his money. He didn’t trust banks and hiding his money in a dresser drawer or under his mattress, seemed too obvious a place to keep it. So of all the plethora of places, he could choose to hide the money, he chose his work boots. No one would think to look there. 

    There was only one problem. Though he felt pretty safe having the money in his boots, he was always changing their hiding place so that if people were watching him they wouldn’t notice a pattern. The problem was remembering where the most recent hiding place was. And today was the day that the landlord was coming for the rent. 

    Having no bank account, meant no checking account. It also made his credit rating rather weak. If he didn’t pay his rent he would be kicked out and his landlord was a stickler for punctuality. When the rent was due, you were to pay on the date with no exception, especially since the landlord did not trust the mail. He collected the money due exactly on the day it was due and at the same time, 11:22 a.m.

    Stuart tried to retrace his steps from the day before. He had come in from work, he was a carpenter for a local building supply company, took off his boots, and put them in the closet as he usually did. These work boots were identical to the ones he kept his money in. He had supper, watched some TV, and then went to bed. He usually checked in on his money work boots before going to bed, but he couldn’t remember doing it the night before. 

    He woke up that morning, got dressed made eggs and toast for breakfast, and then remembered about the money. It was now 11:00 in the morning and he was panicking. He remembered from a mindfulness seminar he had taken, that when you feel stressed what you need to do was focus on routines and things would become clearer. He couldn’t think. 

The landlord would be here soon. As Stuart walked through the kitchen he noticed that his breakfast dishes and dinner dishes from the night before were still sitting dirty in the sink. He decided that washing dishes was as routine as he could get. He wished out loud that mindfulness would help him find his boots. 

It only took one dish for things to clear up the problem, for as he opened up the dishwasher to put in the dirty plate, there staring up at him was a pair of old work boots, just waiting to be found.