I'm always finding stuff when I mow the lawn, particularly in the back yard. Last time it was some kind of bone--which I put in the rose bed to look at more closely later and then couldn't find. (There are a couple of bricks and flat big stones in one corner of the yard, which probably represent where the outhouse used to be, but also always seem to demarcate a miniature graveyard, markers of lives far past, energy long from active but faintly humming or glowing at the periphery of perception).
This most recent time I found a rusty pin about 2.5 inches in diameter from Walt Disney World. Top to bottom it read as follows:
1. Happy Birthday (pre-printed, arc across top)
2. Cake, three layers with "9" written in magic marker.
3. Tablecloth or snow-topped hillside supporting the cake, with the name "Kate" written in the same marker, flanked by Mickey Mouse heads on either side.
4. Cursive "Walt Disney World," pre-printed.
5. Where Dreams Come True, pre-printed.
The pin was rusted and discolored, but I couldn't figure out in an image search what year it dated from.
Spent the rest of the afternoon daydreaming about a treacly novel called "Kate's Room," about a couple who move out to the suburbs, to an old house they soon discover is haunted by the ghost of a 9 year old girl. They can't have children of their own, see, and for whatever reason adoption isn't their bag. At first fright the ghost just seems like a final insult from the world.
The ghost has a young girl's taste and objects until they furnish her room properly, etc. Eventually the couple and the ghost girl become friends. The novel doesn't end happily ever after, but it ends brightly enough, with the couple realizing that they might find happiness in the suburbs, a woman, her husband, and a bright little ghost girl with a world of potential. A sort of magic realist response to "Revolutionary Road."
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