Vanishing Act

Wednesday morning Fern and I were in New York. We were staying in Brooklyn at a friend's apartment and planned to take the express bus into Manhattan. On the way to the bus I say "Phone check," and we both tap our pockets. "Got it," Fern assures me. "Got it," I reply back. "Camera check?" "No, I left it in the apartment." That's ok, I say, I've got two, three counting my phone.

I hand Fern her Metro card for the bus while waiting for the bus by a garden wall, she's sitting on the wall, I'm leaning against it. Then she can't find the card. While we're searching frantically the bus pulls up. I swipe my card and we sit in the front seat of the bus to find her card. Finally I find it in my tote bag and all is well.

The bus is a long distance coach bus, not a typical city bus so it's comfy in the front seat. We stay there. Fern and I chat about what we want to do in the morning, our hair appointments aren't until noon so we had time to kill. She wants to eat breakfast. The driver can hear us since were are so close to him. Eventually he learns our plans and suggests a stop and a route to walk which should provide ample opportunities for food on our way to our destination on SoHo.

We get off the bus downtown near the Battery and the financial district. I check our seat on the way out and grab Fern's iPod which had slipped off her lap. The bus turns the corner and vanishes.

Fern's phone isn't in her pocket.
It's not in my tote bag. Not in my purse.
I call it and we're not hearing it ring.
My heart sinks.

We found a place to eat and called AT&T to suspend service on that phone. By the end of breakfast I was feeling better and not stressed about the phone. We went on to have a good day, got our hair done, putzed around Times Square, used the restroom at Tiffany's, and got new headphones at the Apple store.

I took my "big" camera with me. I had checked the battery before we left home and it had a full charge. The first time I pull it out to take pictures, it won't, no juice. So I had to lug a big heavy useless camera with me all day. The Kodak is having issues again with acknowledging the memory card, so I'm down to my phone. Grrr.

For a small donation...
I took this of Fern and Elmo. I actually thought I took two pictures but only this one was there when I looked later. Naturally, the other picture was better.

This is the entrance to the Apple store near the southeast corner of Central Park. While Fern and I were in there, I plugged in my phone for a quick free charge.

By that time we were pretty tired and our feet hurt. The bus stop for our bus back to Brooklyn was only a few blocks away so we called it a day.

When we got off the bus near the apartment Fern scoured the area for her lost phone to no avail.

Thursday, back at home, we went to the AT&T store and got her a new phone. Same model as before, and through the magic of desperate economic times, I got that, and added unlimited texting for the whole family and got a 15% discount on my bill for only $30 out of pocket.

Post Script

Sunday night I got a call on my cell phone from a 718 number. The caller's mom found Fern's phone at the bus stop in Brooklyn.