The Sock Bandit

#deardiary #adventure #shortstory #comedy

Dear Diary,

Socks. I love them. Over time I have grown a collection of what I think are the most unique socks in the world. Animal print, colour combinations, geometric shapes, polka dots, stripes, emojis, you name it, I probably have it. Since I only ever wear one sock at a time I think i'm one of the few who can say I get two pairs of sock for half the price.

But I'm not here to bore about my extensive love of socks, you see, I noticed that some socks have been mysteriously disappearing into thin air. The most recent incident happened on laundry day. I do laundry every 2 weeks, all my clothes are packed in a romper and I carry that romper from the second floor down to the laundry room located on the main floor.

Unpacking the romper, I organized the laundry into piles, shirts, underwear, and socks. I started with the largest and worked my way down to the smallest.

By the afternoon, I was pulling the washed sock pile out of the washer and into the dryer for a cycle. Folding them I like to keep the pairs together, it helps me keep track of the loose pairs I need to reunite with its other half upstairs in my sock drawer. It was then I noticed it, 2 set of socks were missing their pair. Looking around I couldn't find them buried among others, the hamper was completely empty, and there weren't any socks lying around on the floor between the bedroom and the laundry room.

Taking a lap around the house I double checked each room to make sure I didn't happen to misplace them-no luck. By the next morning I was still troubled with the missing socks. They literally disappeared into thin air, where could they have gone!? It was a busy day so I needed to put this thought aside and focus on the tasks I needed to get through. Pick up a package from the postal office, stop by the diner to say hi to my old friend Glen, pick up some vitamins for my plants, and stop by the grocery store to make dinner later.

Going about my day I was doing a good job not thinking about the mystery of the missing socks, when I noticed clues left for me to find. Like a sign from the universe letting me know where and what to look for. The first clue was left on the kitchen counter, a single strand of string with the familiar colouring I would recognize from one of the missing socks. It was dark blue, with various spots of colour along the length of the strand. It belongs to my blue polka dot sock set. Looking around the kitchen I check for any sign of the sock on the counter, the floor, inside the cupboards and drawers. Nothing. How did this strand end up here? I didn't know the answer to that either. With no other sign left for me to find, I continued to go about my day....until I found the next clue.

The second clue I found lying on the patio deck while unpacking the plant vitamins I picked up from the shops. It happened to be tangled up on a splinter casually blowing in the breeze. This strand was plain red, which I recognized it to belong to the second missing sock. Now how did this one end up all the way outside!? Looking around the patio I found no sign of this second sock either. Is someone stealing my socks??

Looking past the patio I scan the grass and notice something out of place, way down in the corner of the back yard. Slowly making my way towards it, what I noticed was a small pile of grass that seemed to be breathing on its own. The patch of grass was the size of a frisbee and along side the edges were exposed strands of white fluff. Slowly picking up one side of the grass patch I discovered a litter of baby bunnies, among them buried beneath the white fluff, I discovered my missing socks.