The Mystery of the Missing Avacado

There is nothing like a good mystery to engage my thinking and excite the senses.  Last week, I bought three avocados when they were on sale at Kroger.  I was thinking maybe some guacamole and chips for a snack, you know?  All my kids love “broccomole,” as Daniel has dubbed the green stuff. 

Anyway, I started to prepare some dinner the other night, and to my consternation, I could only find two avocados.  “Now where did I put that other one?”  I thought to myself.  I began searching the countertop, in hopes that it would be hidden under a stray pot holder, or perhaps a rumpled grocery bag.  I looked on the floor, in the refrigerator, in the sink, behind my toaster oven, all to no avail.  The avocado had simply disappeared!

 

I thought perhaps it was outnumbered by the other two and summarily dispatched, but that seemed unlikely.  My only other option was to ask my normally clueless children.  “Has anyone seen my other avocado?” I asked.  Four sets of eyes fastened on me, and a high-pitched voice squeaked, “Daniel had it!”  Not good.  I ventured another question, “Well, where did he put it?”  Nobody knew.  Double not good.  Hmmm… Maybe I should ask the accused, I thought.  “Daniel, where did you put the avocado?”  He looked at me with a deceptively innocent face and replied, “It was yucky.”  One of his siblings took this opportunity to tell me that he had had it on the couch, and that while he was “hatching” it, it split open.  Okay, this was definitely not getting any better the more I questioned.  Now I had a rogue avocado somewhere in the trailer.  I searched the couch cushions and the trash cans, but still could not find the fruit.  Finally, I gave up.  It has been over a week now, and there has been no sign of the AWOL avocado.  I keep looking, and every now and then, sniffing around in the dark corners of the kids’ room.  I am afraid of what I will find if it does eventually show up.  But for now, it is one of the great unsolved mysteries of my life.