Black and white, up and down, right and left, and lost and.... I�m sure about the lost part. I�m not so sure about the found. Day-Hay�s flute has disappeared from the band room. We�re hoping someone got mixed up and took it home thinking it was hers. But I�ve called most of the other flute players in the school and they don�t have it. We�re hoping perhaps it is somewhere else in the room. But most places have been searched. We�re hoping it�s lost�and found.

We went through this once before with Kat�s viola. The viola disappeared but then it reappeared a day later. The flute�s been gone more than a day. We have the serial number and the band director is going to check each flute that comes through tomorrow but I think we may be out several hundred dollars. It�s a rent-to-own flute but flutes are more expensive than violas and we haven�t been paying that long.

I�d like to think the whole thing is an accident, a child not paying enough attention. I�m beginning to wonder. Nevertheless, as far as I know, no other instrument is missing and it�s odd that just the one would disappear. On the other hand, a flute is small enough to take easily while a tuba, or even a trumpet, is harder to take. It wouldn�t be the first time something has walked off in that building. A few years ago, someone took Kat�s Jewish star necklace off her gym teacher�s desk and there were complaints of other disappearances.

If the flute does not show up, I plan to notify the police. I�ll give the principal a chance to talk me out of it. I feel as though I have to give him that opportunity because of my relationship with him. After all, I am a school board member. But I�m not willing to just let nothing embarrassing happen while I�m out several hundred dollars. I�m not convinced it�s healthy to just cover these things up because of how they might look. Look where such an approach has gotten the Catholic Church.

Still, I have hope found will follow lost. I just wish the flute had left behind a few bread crumbs.

|