"And I won't tell you where it is"

I had a project planned for this weekend that called for the use of glue. Plain white school glue. No chemical warnings, no need to stock acetone in case I glued my fingers together, no heat required. Just the sticking of things to other things with white glue.

Of course, I had no white glue in the house. Thus, when I went grocery shopping, I had it on my list. As the local grocery has its stationery section at the end of an aisle facing the entry, I went straight to it, picked up a bottle of glue, and put it in my basket.

Then I finished my shopping, checked out, went home, put away the food, took care of other things, and at last came back to look for my bottle of glue.

Except there was no bottle of glue. It wasn't in the reusable tote. It wasn't in the plastic bag in which they'd insisted putting the V-8. I pulled out the receipt and looked -- it wasn't on the receipt.

It was as though the glue had never been. I am baffled.

Adrienne Rich