Monday, May 24

The woods, 8:38
Last week one of our neighbours had two bicycles stolen from their garden. Later the same day someone posted a photograph of one of them abandoned in the woods. Our neighbour went for a short walk and came back with his bike.
This morning I go for a walk in the woods, and see a bike parked in the middle of the trees, away from the path but not far enough away to count as hidden.
I photograph it and walk home.
“Why don’t you go and get it, and bring it home?”
“Why don’t I indeed!”
I walk back into the woods to get it and discover that it has vanished. It takes me far longer to discover it has gone than it took me to register its appearance, since I have to check that I have remembered the spot correctly, and then look to see if it has fallen over or otherwise hidden itself.
I walk home again, puzzled. Either the rider had got off and gone for a piss deeper in the trees on the first occasion, or somebody else had taken it before I got back.
If I had not photographed it I would have wondered if I had imagined it.