Story of the Day 3/ 27/ 2009

I have a friend.

I figured this out because, when I let Sarah out the door, to catch the bus to school on Friday morning, I saw something colorful on my front porch.

My front porch is very small.
It is just a little bit bigger than a front stoop.
The difference between it and a front stoop is that I have a wooden bench on my front porch.
Two of its legs are resting very securely on my porch- on the side wall next to the door.
The other two are almost resting securely.
If you don’t’ look too closely, you wont’ even notice that the legs are about ¾ on eth floor f the porch, and ¼ off of it, floating in the air over some very nice hostas.
So far, it has held anyone who has sat there, without landing them in the hostas. Which right now are just mud, since they haven’t started to come up, yet.
But, for some obscure reason, very few people choose to sit there.

However, Friday morning, I saw something colorful on that very bench.
Two somethings colorful.
A plant- pansies in a very nice container- and nota few of them, and a colorful gift bag with two decadent boxes of tea in it.

Now, I actually have two friends.
Those two friends occasionally leave things by my front door.
Oh. Okay, I only have one friend. The other person is my cousin Charlotte.
Do cousins count?
I am not sure.
Anyhow, cousin Charlotte always leaves a note, when she drops goodies by.
And there was no note.
So, I figured that it must be my friend, Diana.

Diana usually knocks, but she also sometimes goes walking , very early, and she wouldn’t’ want to wake anyone.
So, it could have been her.
And while Diana sometimes leaves a note, she sometimes doesn’t.
And tea and flowers are very Diana.
So are pink flamingos.

But she had already given me one, recently.
I say , recently, because she has given me a few others, in the past.
Although, my neon one in the front window is actually from Louise.
But I only turn it on in the morning. If it is still dark outside when the school bus comes.
I wouldn’t’ want to waste it on anything less than that.

But the pink flamingo from Diana, the recent one, was awfully recent.\As were some very good homemade chocolate cookies.
So, I was surprised to find still another gift from her.
I did call to thank her.
Except, she hadn’t done it.

But my cousin ALWAYS leaves a note.
But maybe the note blew off.
So I called my cousin to thank her.
But it wasn’t her.

And now, I can’t figure out who left it.
Do I have another friend?????
On Shabbat, at services, Saturday morning, to be exact - Saturday being the day after I found the mysterious gifts on my front porch,
I mentioned this conundrum to Harriet.
Of course, this was during services, but we are Jewish, so I am expected to be carrying one conversation during services, at least part of the time.
And she said, “Oh, I wish I had done it!”
Gee, now I am up to three friends.
Or two friends and a cousin.

But I still don’t’ know who left them.
But “Thank you!”

Maybe I even have another friend out there, somewhere.

Of course, it is also possible that hey left it at the wrong porch.