The mysterious towel

Last May my sister traveled all the way from America to visit me here in Holland. She spent two weeks by my side. We had the times of our lives. Anybody that knows Laurel and I know that we are more like best friends rather than sisters. Of course, even best friends have those occasional fights, but our last one was somewhere around July 2004 (at least, that was the last real fight...we didn't talk for a week or so and it was all because of her stupid boyfriend...Actually, he was the topic of the fight, not the beginner, but I'll blame it on him anyway).

So Laurel and I spent two weeks in a small room, watching four crazy kids together (the small room was at night, the four kids were during the day). She re-learned how to ride a bike. I had to too, actually, because she was riding my bike. That meant that I had to ride somebody else's bike. The only other one that we have that would'nt be a temptation for a Dutch bike thief was a man's bike. That would'nt have been quite so bad, except Dutch men are tall. Jack is taller than me, and so it was a man's bike for a tall man, which meant that I could only touch the ground one foot at a time (personally, I don't know how men dare ride their bikes! How the heck do they not hurt themselves on that very oddly positioned cross-bar thingummy?). Even worse than that was the fact that this bike also has an added seat to it so that one of the twins could sit in front of daddy while he rode on family bike rides. So, I had a man's bike that was too tall for me with two seats on it. I had to ride like I'd been riding a horse for a month straight. You know, that cowboy, bowed legged look. The good news is...I survived. Oh, another thing is that the bike doesn't have a first gear, so I also had to get it started in second gear without falling off. It was insane!

It was also fun to play room mate together. I had a top bunk bed and she had the bottom. I have a semi-short bunk and a relatively tall sister. This resulted in a few bumps here and there. I think that on her first full day here she sat up suddenly in bed and banged her head against the bottom of my bunk. Of course, I had to laugh. Something else that ended up being quite interesting is that Laurel moves a lot when she sleeps. You ought to see her bed sometime. She moves so much that she tears the sheets right off of the bed. Well, one night as I was falling asleep I suddenly felt something. Laurel was already asleep, and in her sleep she propped her leg up against the bottom of my bunk. Her foot was right in my back!! Finally she removed the offending foot and I was able to go to sleep. I learned the next morning that she was dreaming that she was running away from somebody and in order to hide on them she had to prop her foot up against something. Another night I had just fallen asleep. You know that place right after you fall asleep where you feel like you're still slightly awake? That's where I was. Well, suddenly my throat got rebelious and snorted very loudly. It scared me so much that I jumped! After I realized what happend I started to laugh. That's when Laurel commented that it had scared her awake also! It was so funny that we must've spent the next ten minutes laughing.

Yes, we had a wonderful two weeks together. It went by way too quickly, though. She was here, and then suddenly, she was gone again. I didn't know how I was going to manage without my best friend.

When Laurel got home she told me that she'd accidently taken a towel from us. She and mom were going to mail it back to us. I never told my host family, figuring I'd just give it back when we got it. It never came in the mail, though, because they never really got around to sending it. That was ok, however. I was home for a surprise vacation for two weeks in July. When I came back to Holland I took the towel with me. I used it the following week, and after I was finished I threw it in the laundry, putting it back into circulation. Danielle washed it that weekend and when I came in on one of those days the towel was there on my bed, neatly folded. I figured that was weird but shrugged it off and repeated the above procedure of using and throwing. Then Danielle repeated the process of folding and puting it in my room.

Finally, we had a little conference. I explained that Laurel had accidentaly taken it while here and so I'd brought it back. She then explained that it's not one of her towels and she was wondering why I'd brought a towel back when I have plenty here to use already.

Hmmm...well, that created a few questions that I had to ask myself. Where did Laurel get the towel from? To whom does it belong? I never received answers to these questions. And so, dear reader, if you noticed that you have a blue (not light or dark, but right in the middle) towel missing I probably can return it. Of course, the length of time before I can return it is dependant on which country you live in. If Holland, of course, I can return it next week. However, if you live in America I am afraid that you have another 2.5 months to wait. But the good news is, I found your towel. And if nobody claims the towel, it will remain very mysterious which means I'll have to keep it because I like mysterious things.