Sandy Supposes....

Missing In More Ways Than One

         A week has passed, but something is still bugging me and it's not the ravenous mosquitoes hovering about. I'd like some answers, yet me, myself and I shrug their collective shoulders, roll their eyes and sigh. Their lack of interest irks me. Can't they recognize a mystery when they see one? How can they not want to know what happened?

         On this particular late evening after the darkness had descended and we'd enjoyed a reunion with our camp neighbours, hubby and I met at the rear of our vehicle. Why? That detail escapes me now.I glanced at the license plate and for a brief moment I could not process what I was seeing. I even doubted the date specifically the current year. I had to convince myself that it was indeed 2021 and this is important because the plate sticker clearly read 2020. Huh? Our vehicle plate registration sticker had expired?

         This had never happened before. This car was not our first. As responsible owners and drivers we understood the law. For years, every October, hubby's birth month by the way,we'd renewed that vital sticker without fail. Sure, we bemoaned the expense,but it was the cost of being independent. Oh, and of course we'd rather not incur a fine.

         How had neither of us noticed this egregious faux pas? For many years, my partner owned a garage. Licensing vehicles occurred frequently. This car had recently been at its dealership of origin for re-installation of summer tires and an oil change. Had the attending mechanic not seen our outdated sticker? No, "hey, that sticker is old, eh?" All of us had not noticed?

         The best we could recall, when we'd purchased our new car last July the salesman had promised to give us a plate sticker valid to October of this year. He'd mentioned it being ridiculous to apply one good for only three months. So, we never verified it. Hmmm. And the usual vigilant government had not mailed us a reminder either. Double hmmm.

         This is not the mystery. What follows is strange and inexplicable. Hubby's first reaction that fateful evening was to consult the vehicle's paperwork. The last we'd been aware of it it resided inside a black pocket-sized pouch relegated to the glove box. He yanked open this cubicle and rummaged around not finding this pouch. I suggested that perhaps it had fallen under a seat and so with the aid of his cellphone's flashlight, bright enough to signal aircraft, he searched. Bear in mind it was late evening and the car's interior is black.

         "It's not here," he grunted.

         This is the same great hunter who cannot espy a jar of peanut butter right in front of him on the pantry shelf. He will holler, "Don't we have any peanut butter?" So, I couldn't help myself, I had to ask. "Are you sure?"

          I believe he snarled. I then requested he check his pockets and this earned me a glare. Hey, he's absconded with important documents before, but I did not rehash that. When the eldest rolled her father's newly restored pick-up truck along an icy embankment, the ownership and proof of insurance had not been up against the roof as he suggested. They'd been safely tucked into his wallet which was with him hundreds of miles away. Anyway, this time he did not possess said paperwork. We tossed the interior looking for it to no avail.

         This car and I have racked up the mileage and all of it illegally.I fail to comprehend why I was not detained during a border lockdown that saw me waved through by two different police forces? I just had to blurt, "Where are they?" Hubby glared once again as if I hadn't read the first one and snarled, "I don't know." Okay, I admit I may have said this more than once. I replied, "I told you I don't expect an answer. I'm just exclaiming out loud. You know, rhetorical." After a collision with a wayward deer several summer ago all I could repeat was "oh dear."

         So, the car's ownership, the proof of valid insurance and the plate registration were all missing. Why? When? How? We could do nothing that Sunday evening but retire to bed mystified.

         First thing the next morning we rectified our lack of valuable documents. Stopping back at home to awaken our computer we printed a copy of the insurance slip. Then we visited the local Ministry of Transportation office to purchase a replacement ownership and a current plate renewal sticker. Before anyone else had discovered our lack of proper vehicle verification we'd fixed it. Now this car is legal to be driven on the road until October of 2022.

         Everything has returned to normal, but I still wonder. Where are those documents? What became of them? What possessed me to notice the expired sticker that night? Why had it not been apparent months ago? Why is this still bugging me? The never knowing is irksome.