Heroic quest for a fleece
A lost jumper delivers a delightful pairing of British humour and honesty.
Returning to our daughter’s home after a walk along the network of field-fringed country footpaths from the Funtington village fete near Chichester in West Sussex, I was shocked to realise my wife’s treasured fleece jacket was missing. I headed back to Funtington the next day and made an inquiry at the small post office to see if anyone had handed it in. I was told by a young staff member, “You are wearing my mum’s shirt!” I hastened to tell her it had been a bargain purchase at the fete. But she had no news about the fleece.
Reluctantly accepting the loss, we continued with a holiday in Wales, and eventually returned to our daughter’s home. Still feeling hopeful of finding the fleece, I decided to again set off for Funtington and twice saw distant, and possibly well-dressed, scarecrows. My perception has always been that the presence of scarecrows indicates that they are on private property. I was tempted to be bold and trespass anyway, just in case one was decked out in new clothes, but imagine my astonishment to suddenly see my wife’s fleece draped casually over a footpath direction sign. It seemed a delightful pairing of British humour and honesty.
To confess, I had been the one responsible for the fleece’s loss from my backpack. To surprise her with its return, I casually left it, highly visible, on the sitting room floor of our daughter’s home and waited. She didn’t notice the garment, even after a few nostalgic mentions of its sorry loss, but finally she realised it was there and we were rewarded with her look of astonishment. She had bought the fleece in New Zealand, and it travelled with us to many countries, and caused some tense lost-and-found moments, suffering the final misfortune to be left behind in a taxi in Adelaide, never to be seen again. But on that occasion, it was not left there by me. I can identify with the Ancient Greek myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece and can tell of my own quest, with a much happier ending.
Send your 350-word contribution with full postal address to: travel@theaustralian.com.au Published columnists will receive a 300g Lumira boxed candle from its new Australian fragrance range, valued at $70.
