This past bridge we were on a family trip in Lisbon. Everything had been going great until, at the bus stop to the Lisbon airport, when we were returning, my heart skipped a beat: I didn't remember keeping it in my suitcase My oldest daughter's teddy, her first gift who has accompanied him in his dreams since he was born.
We were only two minutes away from the hotel, but when time is short and doubts too, and the bus arrives in just 4 minutes ... what to do? Trust that in one way or another the doll, the octopus, has reached the suitcase or one of the bags we carry.
We arrive at the airport, fears grow, we start talking about it without my daughter hearing us, that does not realize, what we will do if it is not, always ask for the octopus to sleep…
In the waiting of the next airport I review the photos I have taken in the hotel rooms before leaving. In the small bed a lump is guessed between the sheets ... oh, who would send me not to lift the sheets from the beds for a final review! Or did I do it? Won't the octopus have fallen between the small hole in the bed and the wall? Why won't I have checked the floor under the bed?
The first thing we do when we get home is to check the suitcase and all the bags from top to bottom. I hope to hear somewhere the faint rattle sound that the octopus makes. Any. The octopus has stayed in Lisbon.
The desperate process of location of the teddy begins
Call the hotel, there are still 11 o'clock at night. They have nothing recovered from room 706, or at least that is what I think I understand between the mixture of Portuguese, Spanish (they did not understand what was "doll" or "toy") and English. We agreed to send an email and call the next day in the morning to see if the cleaning lady knows anything.
I send an email with the picture of the doll (Yes, it appears in our albums since my oldest daughter was born) and explaining the great sentimental value that this doll has for us. Explaining to them where I think the octopus can be and giving them all the possible options so that, if they locate it, it will be sent to me with the least possible annoyance on their part.
The next day I seem to understand that they do have octopus at the reception, but as a holiday they will send it to me by mail the next day. Imagine what joy!
Who misses the doll?
But y Mar, have you asked us for the sleeping doll? Because in the meantime, that first night just arrived from Lisbon, we have put her to bed, giving her another one of the cuddly toys we have at home. He hasn't said anything about the octopus and has slept so softly. Goodness! Maybe tomorrow she will be more rested and ask us, so we better not talk about the octopus in front of her. We will call it from now on "That little thing we have left in Lisbon".
Two more days have passed, with his naps and nights, and Mar has not asked about the octopus. However, I have already authorized the payment of the shipment by mail of the doll. I have not yet been charged or answered my last email, and that keeps me in suspense, but as I say it seems that the octopus is located.
It seems like a lie what an object can mean to parents. Call me sensiblona, but I had to endure tears when I saw that the octopus had stayed in the hotel. It was as if I missed the first clothes my daughters had worn. Irreplaceable.
Although it seems that Mar has not noticed, at least for now, he has not even mentioned it. It seems to me that I already know who we are responsible for creating the transitional-object-effect ...
With what the calls to Portugal have cost plus the shipping costs I could have bought ten octopuses (which just in case I also searched the Internet, without finding the same model ...). But they would not be THE octopus. It has not arrived yet, and until I do not, I will not sleep peacefully when I hear the octopus rattle move next to my eldest daughter ... Is it the transitional object that joins me to her while she sleeps?
