lost and found

Monkey (23 months) pictured right

A few weeks ago we had quite a crisis as a family but I now feel like I can write about it. It all ended well and more importantly brought to my attention a new menace that is threatening our families ( but more on that later).

Having not long moved back to Marple, Finn, Evan and myself were taking in all the old haunts....first the playground, then the library then and quick stop at the famous co-op cafe for a quick fruit shoot and cake. but wait.....a quick head count on leaving the coop revealed we were one short. Finn, Dolly, Evan .......no monkey.

What followed was a hurried dash around the aforementioned sights of Marple retracing our steps. Now Monkey isn't just any old toy. Monkey is THE toy. Evan literally will not sleep without him. Likewise Finn and Dolly (we're good on original names- pretty lucky finn and evan they didnt get named Girl and Boy).

Coop...nothing.... Library...nothing....playground....nothing.... inbetween...you guessed it...nothing. we retraced most of the way home before I began to admit that the situation was now bigger than I could handle. 6 hours until bedtime and the Ratcliffe clan were informed. lisa rang her mum who went and scoured the streets afresh.

It was at this point i turned to other possible solutions and stumbled across the immoral trade in cuddly toys. we'd checked with mothercare only to find out that our monkey model had been discontinued but low and behold i found one on eBay.

but what was this.. a starting price of £20. and not just the one spare, "oh my child no longer plays with this" toy. this was organised. well these were desperate times. i scrolled down further to the description:

"New. Ideal as a spare or as a replacement for a child's must have toy"

Were people really buying up cuddly toys in the hope of selling them on to the vulnerable and desperate in the event of unfortunate tumble from the pram? oh no Monkey wasn't alone, there were scores of others caught up in the toy exploitation ring. And we seriously considered bidding for it. what could we do . we had tried to slip Elephant to evan as a stand in but he isn't stupid- he was starting to guess that something was up. But we knew we couldn't become part of this underground immoral trafficking.

Then the messages starting coming in from Lisa and from her mum. Monkey had been found. In front of Tittertons ........no Senior Citizens....... by a stranger? No....Great Granny Syb.

By some stroke of luck or fate or divine intervention Great Granny Syb had been going about her normal Marple business- helping out at the hatch at the Senior Citizens centre. She stepped out the door and looked down to see a fallen monkey. She didn't know at the point that Evan had lost it but "the tail was still wet" so she knew it was THE monkey.

So the day was saved (and the night). Now if monkey had dropped even a couple of meters in the direction of the library then she wouldn't have spotted him and of all the places for a sleeping evan to drop monkey, the chances of dropping him in front of the doors of his great granny's hang out seem quite slim. but there we are...reunited.

But lets just spare a thought for all those monkeys and bears that could be keeping kids safe at night but instead are being bought up and sold for huge profits when misfortune falls.