Memoir of an Umbrella

Thursday, January 12, 2006

I (Rachel) just wanted to write down a memory from my first year.

It was the first month of my employment. School had begun and we had hit a bit of a rainy spell. Rusty and I didn’t have a car yet so I was still riding the bus to school. Well, the bus stops that I used were not close to our apartment or my school, so I had a bit of a walk in the mornings and evenings. Naturally, I bought an umbrella. It was my first cutesy umbrella. I never did much walking in rainy weather in the States so I always had a plain, compactible, one. Nothing cute or fancy about it. But in Japan, most people use the full size umbrella. Stores even provide long, slender plastic bags to put your umbrellas in, in order to save on the puddle and squeaky shoe factor on rainy days. So… I made an investment into a light blue color accented with a dragon fly pattern for my new umbrella. I was very protective of it and since I had paid $3.00 for it could you blame me?

Well as you can guess one day it rained. So, I grabbed my umbrella and went. At school I gracefully placed it into the umbrella holder in the entrance of the school, and promptly began my work day. As I got ready to leave school that afternoon I had happy thoughts of walking in the rain with my cute umbrella. As I walked to the umbrella stands I didn’t immediately see mine. But didnn’t worry as there was a plethera of umbrellas. However, as I begain searching for it, the horror of the truth took hold. Someone had stolen my umbrella! I was crushed and shocked that someone would do such a cruel thing to me, a newcomer at school, a foreigner in a strange land, and a person who has never stolen. Then I got angry. I marched back into the teacher’s room and declared that my umbrella was missing and someone had taken it. The teachers could clearly see that I was distraught, so being the kind and helpful people they are, some began to help me search. They asked for a description and the location of the last sighting. I told them and we searched. And you know what happened? I went home with a dumpy brown umbrella. One I didn’t even know. A stranger if you will.

The next day at school an investigation was in full swing. Our school’s handyman asked again for a full description of my precious umbrella. As I told him, like a police sketch artist, he drew my umbrella. The picture came to life! I thought he had drawn it for his own search. After all, I was beginning to realize, that I wasn’t as attached as I thought to my umbrella. I could find a new one. But I thought it was nice of him to keep an eye out for it.

Later that day I went to a class. While looking around the classroom I noticed a missing poster on the board. Then I realized it was a missing poster for my umbrella! As I went to other classes that day I saw the same poster in every one of them…much to my embarassment.

As I returned to the teacher’s room after my last class I thought about how silly I had been. Then to my further embarassment and humbling lesson a sweet teacher came up to me to explain that she had taken my umbrella home with her. And that she would promptly return it the next day. I thanked her as graciously as my dumb founded thoughts would allow as she apologized repeatidly.

Of course the next day she brought the umbrella with more apologies. However the joy and satisfaction of having my umbrella didn’t come. Instead embarassment of my attitude toward the incident replaced it.

The following days in the different classrooms were spent taking down the missing posters. Of course, a few days later, it rained again. So I grabbed my umbrella and was on my way. I once again placed it in the stand and went about my day. While leaving that afternoon, I discovered that once again my umbrella was missing. It just doesn’t pay to have a cute umbrella. I never saw it again.