Have You Lost Something?

                Have You Lost Something?
“Mousey, mousey, come out and play. Help me find what I lost!”
Do you believe in superstitions, my good readers? For example, a black cat crosses
your path while stopped at a traffic light. What is your reaction?
1. You ignore the cat and continue on your way.
2. You stop and look. Then, continue with your thinking about work, or the office.
3. You spit three times over your left shoulder and proceed with your day.
I’m sure that you will do the third option. Not only at these times, but also while
walking on the street, or sitting in your car, you sometimes thinking about this black
animal. Why isn’t it sitting at home, in a cellar, or an attic? Why it was necessary to
show itself off before me, right at this moment! It puts you in a bad mood. Slowly,
you forget about this and consider if there was truly any harm done by this. Terrible,
black cats are!
By what do most cats (any—grey, white, striped) like to be amused? By holding a
mouse until the small animal is dead. Imagine it for yourself and you’ll be startled
with disgust! Perhaps, you are a lover of white mice, you feed them from your own
hands and kiss them gently? Anything can happen!
So that's it. It turns out that this unpleasant (to put it mildly) animal can help you in
search of missing things, documents, etc.
The situation was as follows. One woman, let's call her Larissa, received from the
bank blank checks and put them in the usual place. A few days later, she decided to
fill out a few checks and send them to the proper places to pay off her bills. Looking
in the box, she saw no checks. She looked in the shelves of her drawer: there were
no checks! Oy gevalt! The woman was in panic, almost crying! She complained to
her sister and husband, who advised her to go to the bank and order new forms, and
these, the lost ones, to cancel. Larissa took several checks from the bank and
diligently filled them in. But then she had some other thoughts: But what if I lost
them, and someone dishonest picked them up and took advantage of them? She
shared her misfortune with Lily Prigozhyna, a good and kind woman. Lily told her: “I
will teach you how to find the loss. You tie a rope to a stool, any rope that is in the
house. Grab the rope. And say the following incantation: ‘Mouse, mouse, play. And
quickly bring it back!’ You'll see, everything will be found!”
Lara went to another city, and when she returned home, she performed these
instructions. And still not believing her eyes, she found that which had been lost! It
turns out that the bank changed the shape and color of the box for the blank checks.
They were actually lying in a visible place! Hooray! The mouse helped! Thank you,
Mouse! Madame even thought about starting an aquarium with white mice and
treating them kindly! But Timothy's favorite dog will not let the mistress keep other
animals in the apartment! He already tore off all the fluff and feathers from a small
48
parrot bird! What a pity, the bird! And our Larissa decided to share with people the
secrets of finding things (of course, for free, wholeheartedly).
And then another case turned up. A young, beautiful woman (let's call her Angelica)
lost in her huge house some very important documents which belonged to her father
(let's call him Anatoliy).
Together with her mother, Angela reviewed all the documents stored in the house,
looking over the stacks of papers and memorabilia in boxes, but nowhere to be
found was a green folder named Anatoly on it. What a nightmare! What now? Reregister
his green card? Where should she go? Frustrated, she called her friend
Larissa and complained of her huge trouble. And what did our lady, experienced in
these matters, do? Correct, she advised Angela to tie a rope to a stool and ask the
mouse to return the lost papers.
What does our upset Angelica do next? Yes, of course, she rushes into the garage,
finds a rope of enormous thickness, saws it with a saw, ties it to a stool, and
sentences a incantation. Remember: “Mouse, mouse, play. And back quickly give
it!”
The young woman says: “For two days the house was a circus [editor’s note: that is,
there was commotion.]. We were nervous, we organized the closets, we went over
everything! When the money from the barbershop was gone from the locker, we
searched everywhere. I then had an idea—that the bag fell behind the box. And there
it was. At home, we shook out box of paper, looked behind the drawers. There is no
green card of Anatoly’s to be found! My God, you are mine! It couldn’t be worse!”
And our protagonist again rushes in search of the lost. Well, what do you think
happened next? She found it! Angelochka had just forgot that she had put this green
folder in another box! There was cheering.
And you say you do not believe in superstitions. There you have a circus.