Disappearing object

[wjbeaty]

I've repeatedly had objects vanish in semi-mysterious fashion, only to reappear later. Here's my best one: it disappeared while I was holding it, and I immediately wrote up the events

JAN 2005, U. of Washington BAG74
I was stirring a tall paper cup of coffee with a wooden stir-stick while slowly pouring in cocoa powder. I was holding the very tip of the stick so I could use it to scrape the bottom and dislodge any powder. I lost hold of the stick and it slipped under the surface. (These particular cups are so tall that a stir-stick can get lost, it always happens.) But then the end of the stick didn't float back up again.

Hmmm, mysterious. Did the wood get saturated that fast, and sink? Must have. So I grabbed a second wooden stir-stick and swept it around to feel for the lost one. Nothing there. Hmmm, maybe it remains diagonal and won't lift up? Or... it must have broken in half, and the two halves were deep in the coffee? But they should be floating. I stuck my finger into the coffee to check temperature, and it was too hot to continue, but I swept my finger around quickly and didn't feel the stick. Then I wondered... is this one of those "vanishing object" events? If so, then Ooooo! This one could be scary, since the stick ***MUST*** still be in the coffee. If it's gone, then I'm going to scream. I was stirring my coffee and the stick went under, so it HAS to be in there.

As is typical in these things, my emotional state could be significant: while stirring, I was fuming about the situation between my ex-wife and teenage daughter... and right then I DROPPED the stick. Vanishing-object reports often involve emotional distractions and DROPPED or tossed objects.

OK, now I freeze; stop and examine my latest memories. I was looking right at the coffee and watching the rotating cocoa powder on the surface... the stick really went under as I watched. Yes, I really lost hold of the stick, and it has to be submerged in the cup, no question. And there really are two sticks involved: I really grabbed a second stick after the first one sank (and the top half of that second stick is dry: it never was submerged.) No question at all about the time sequence. But the missing stick didn't float back up again. What should I do next? Pour off the coffee! Check whether there's two stick-halves down under it.

So I carefully went across the room and got my ceramic coffee mug, dumped it's contents (two dry teabags and yet another wooden stir-stick) into the trash can near the microwave, and then sloooooowly poured off the hot coffee into the mug. And... no stir-stick pieces pour out. No wooden fragments under the coffee in the paper cup. I carefully drink the coffee in the ceramic mug, then slowly pour the rest of the paper cup into the mug. I empty it totally. I look for tiny framents. I even feel around inside the paper cup... in case my brain is somehow editing out the image of the stick.

Nothing.

Holy. Effin. Crap. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now my hands are shaking and I have to type up the story quickly, before I 'edit history,' or perhaps convince myself that it didn't really happen.

Later addition: a friend mentioned that I should keep the cup. I thought I still had it, but no, it was in the main trash can. The trash can had a new plastic bag with nothing else in it (the cleaning staff changes these every morning before anyone else arrives.) In the can was the paper coffee cup (upside down,) along with the plastic lid... and underneath were THREE STIR-STICKS. One stick was clean white wood and was covered with lint (I'd found it on my desk and discarded it while looking for the vanished stick.) One was light brown; it was probably the second one from my coffee. And one was... totally dark brown, as if it'd been totally immersed in coffee much longer than the other. Oh kayyyyy, did my vanished stick... reappear?!!! But first, did anyone else in the office discard a dark brown stir-stick? Nope, the two other people had no tea that morning (and neither of them drinks coffee.) Two of the stir-sticks had the unmistakable dark stain of coffee. Both were dry (since an hour had passed,) so I couldn't tell if both were used that morning.

But but... supposing that my original stick had earlier winked out of existence, wouldn't it return in the same place, and be found near the microwave oven? How could it reappear in the trash with the cup? It's as if the stick had been in the cup all the time, even when I emptied the cup and let it dry out, and even after checking the cup several times and sweeping my finger around inside out of paranoia. The only thing I DIDN'T do was to show off the (empty) interior of the paper cup to the other two people in the office. Maybe they would have seen the stir-stick that I could not see. Or feel.

Weeks later: I buy the same type of coffee and repeat all the same events as the first time, but this time the stick doesn't vanish. This time the stick doesn't even submerge in the coffee. It's too buoyant, and it's very visible as it circles around as the coffee spins. These sticks almost submerge, but they always leave at lease 1cm (sometimes 2cm) of very visible wood protruding from the coffee.

Other similar reports:

[brett]

well that's a new one bill - mind you i am always "loosing" things round here and them "appearing" in places i am sure i did not leave them - my house keys especially - well i wait with bated breath for the "reasons" it could not of possibly happened from the sceptics

[wjbeaty]

[WhiteTiger]

I have one along these lines that would be pretty hard to put down to perceptive error.

To synopsise the setup, back when I had teeth I had an upper incisor that had been knocked out a few too many times and the root became so short the full cap wouldn't stay in place no matter how it was attached. At random intervals the thing would work loose and I'd end up spitting the cap out. It occurred once during my sleep, and I woke up with the tooth missing, was nowhere to be found in the bedroom. At over $600 for the thing, I tore the room apart looking for it. All bedding, mattress, spring and bed frame were taken out one at a time after being thoroughly checked and/or shaken out, same for the nightstand and small dresser. All drawers were emptied inside the room into empty boxes to make sure the thing hadn't been coughed out forcefully enough to have snuck into a hypothetical cracked drawer. The entire room was vacuumed and the bag cut open and gone through. No cap anywhere to be found.

For a combination of reasons I didn't have the tooth replaced right away, which turned out well. About six weeks or so after the thing went bye bye I purchased a new set of bed linens, brought them home and being a guy, took them out of the wrappers and put them to use without washing and drying them. As I was shaking the package wrinkles out of the first pillow case something small and white flew out and hit the wall. There, laying in plain sight on the beige carpet was the missing cap.

Why it wasn't found during the strip search of the room or intervening period, and hth it apparently flew out of a freshly unwrapped pillowcase I haven't the slightest idea.



Tiger