a Mystery

[fox]

when is a person just not home, and when is a person missing?

our scout comes in monday through friday to vacuum the hallway and clean the kitchen and bathroom (which is a whole other post, by the way, the daily cleaning service we've come to get used to), and the arrangement is, if you put your bin outside your door she'll take out your trash as well.  on wednesdays, she comes in to vacuum each room, so the wednesday arrangement is that if you leave the bin outside she just takes out the trash and doesn't come in to your room.  all fine and well.

so the bin's been sitting outside flatmate's room since tuesday night; the scout took the trash on wednesday but didn't go in, as per above, and now it's saturday morning and the bin is still in the hallway.  which means flatmate either hasn't come out since then, or hasn't been home (like, at all, even for a couple of minutes).

we're sure it's nothing to worry about, but here's the thing:  only mostly.  because normally, if one of us was going to leave town for some length of time, we'd have mentioned it to at least one of the others.  to avoid exactly this kind of thing, you know?  in fact Homegirl L and i have had precisely that conversation -- 'i'm going to be gone for a week, so don't freak out when you don't see me for days'.  and you all know how my imagination runs away with me; it only has to occur to me once to think you know, what if something is wrong, and you all thought 'meh, it's nothing'? and i begin to Fret.

have sent a text message -- 'Hey, are you okay?"  will see if the disappearing act continues.

Comments

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd love to be all Reassurance Girl here, but ... my mind usually works in exactly the same way. DO keep us posted.

[cannons-at-dawn.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I sometimes leave my bin outside for days on end just because my room's so small. I assume she doesn't usually do that though?

Also, I'm not being facetious, but have you tried knocking?

[cyprinella]

Well, I think the cops count it as missing after 24 or 48 hours. Not hugely reassuring. Hope you get a response.

[orange852.livejournal.com]

...and then, when it turns out to have been nothing, you backtrack over that mental transaction and come all over sweaty cold chills because it's exactly something your mother said to you once and OMFG YOU'RE YOU MOOOOOOOTHERRRRRRRR!

No, I'm not being an insensitive twit; I've already seen the one where she wandered off unannounced and is now present or accounted for. ;)

Our office has a board near Manager's Row with the following headings:

IN == OUT == BOTHELL

Which the Bothell people think should read "In, Out, Atlanta," because the merger of our enterprises is going just that well. :P

Anyway, people's names go in the appropriate column and then everyone knows where to look or not to. Until we have a clock like the Weaseleys', I think that's as good as it gets.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

some buildings around here have those as well -- for counting-noses-in-fire-alarm purposes, i think. thing is, even if we'd had such a board and the name had been in the 'out' column all that time, we'd have been wondering why a person goes out and never comes back. :-)