Sunday Scribblings #102 SMORGASBOARD ...

The Sunday Scribblings Darlings have made prompt #102 'Smorgasboard' ... or the choice to use any of the previous 101 prompts …

with the question ‘What would you attempt if you knew you would not fail?’

My choices of the offered prompts relate to the following incident …
Real life --- Thief --- If I could stop time --- Punishment and Reward --- Anticipation --- Change --- In the Kitchen --- Deepest darkest --- In the news... --- Secret Identity --- Rooted --- I have an idea – Change --- Goodbyes --- Yummy --- Crush --- Troubled ---I get that sinking feeling --- the end ---

Have you heard that saying ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ well read on?

The other day leaving home at 9am to do my half day at the local opshop the Australia Post parcel contractor arrived waving a large hot pink package at me - I was excited, I'd been pestering him for weeks about this package coming from overseas containing an altered art challenge for me to complete!

I was thrilled and walking up the road I was amused and horrified see the package had stamps all over it saying "this package has been delivered via Goroka New Guinea" Good grief!!! There were also stickers indicating it had been opened and inspected by Australian Customs.

Drat they knew the contents of this painted hot pink treasure! I decided I’d wait till I got home to devour the contents! The package had been resealed using that stiff packaging tape - you know that stiff stuff great to use in hems and handbags, the stuff you need a Stanley knife to undo? I was excited at the mileage I was going to get out of this saga.

At the op shop I put my bag in the usual place, in the kitchen. Working on that day was the manageress, an older male volunteer and Moi!

During the morning the male volunteer came out of the kitchen with my bag asking if it was mine. I said yes. He told me he had seen the bag in the kitchen and had gone through it thinking it was a donation. He added he’d been through my wallet, noted money plus other ID. The manageress overheard the conversation and we laughed at the silliness of his mistake! Quietly I was perturbed ... he’d thoroughly searched my bag yet he was not there to sort donations. There appeared no harm done, I didn't make a fuss.

I went home, knackered, I hung my bag up, had a snooze! Later I awoke, went to my bag, the hot pink 38 x 30cm package with my name and address emblazoned across the front was missing. It was too late in the day to race to the op shop! I was gutted, devastated - AND more so as I'd watched a gi-normous truck load of rubbish had been taken to the tip ... instinctively I knew, the precious package was gone.

That night I hardly slept – seething at the thought that this little shite had not only been through my bag but had removed the precious package!!

Next morning I was at the op door at opening time! I was livid I explained my findings to the manageress! What could we do, it was his word against mine?

Like a galleon in full sail I confronted the thief, he denied all knowledge, protesting way too profusely for my liking. The large bright pink package and my wallet had been in my bag, when he messed with my wallet he couldn’t have missed the package, could he? The manageress was shell shocked as I called him every lying, thieving, adjective ever written ... along with some not written in lexicons of any day!

I resigned on the spot.

I wrote to the charity to report the incident.

I resolved they can stick their op shop and their choice of volunteers where the sun don’t shine!

The sender of the package is still, like me, flabbergasted ... says the saga couldn't get much better unless some amazing stranger turns up on my doorstep with the package, battered and grubby in about six months …

So … Sunday Scribblers … what would I attempt if I knew I would not fail?

Do I need to spell it out?

Enjoy more talented Sunday Scribblings here