159 - The Mystery of the Fountain Pen
On the 16th I posted a tune titled “The Lost Noodler.” That evening I’d left one of the fountain pens I use for composing these daily tunes at the church where each week I direct rehearsals of the mandolin orchestra (the Mandolin Orchestra of Kansas City or MOOKC.) The pen in question was a somewhat expensive one made by the company “Noodlers,” a Coral Sea color scheme Neponset with a special music nib - looks like this:
It’s pretty distinctive and hard to miss. Notice the three tines on the nib - that’s what passes for a “music” nib these days. The idea is if you press harder the prongs will open up and you’ll get a bit of a thicker line, more suitable for beams & the like. It sort of works, however, a traditional music nib is a slanted stub making consistent thin vertical lines and thick horizontal beams easy. Hardly anyone makes one these days so this is the best I could find. Part of the problem is almost nobody uses a pen for composing anymore, and in fact, almost all these pens are used for calligraphy and art, not music.
However, I digress.
Luckily one of the members of the orchestra went back to the church the next day and recovered the pen for me. He gave it back to me at tonight’s rehearsal.
All pretty straightforward and mundane, until it isn’t anymore.
When I got home from rehearsal it was time to write tonights tune and of course I was going to use this pen, however, to my surprise, I couldn’t find it! It wasn’t in my pocket where I put it. I checked my mandolin case, my jacket, the small bag that carries my music stand and baton, everything I took to rehearsal - nowhere. Frustrated, I even went so far as to search the inside of the car with a flashlight. No luck. Somehow I’d managed to lose it again between rehearsal and home. I’d stopped to pick up some groceries so I concluded most likely it fell out of my pocket at the supermarket. I was pretty disgusted.
Still, I needed to write tonights tune so I opened the desk drawer to get a different pen, and there it was, in the drawer with the other pens! I did a double take then I thought probably my wife, Teresa must’ve seen it sitting on the table next to my keys & wallet and put it there, which is where it normally belongs, but she said she she didn’t, that she hasn’t seen it since I left it at the church last week. Besides, she was sleeping when I got home.
Since I didn’t go anywhere near the desk where we keep the pens after I got home I’m more than a little perplexed. I don’t believe in spontaneous teleportation, however, the only other explanation is that one of us totally blanked out, however, I NEVER put the pen back where it belongs anyway, so wouldn’t’ve done this even if I was in some kind of “fugue” state, and my wife was literally sleeping on the sofa when I got home.
Hence, The Mystery of the Fountain Pen.
Follow up. Since creating this post Teresa said it’s possible she put the pen there after all - she was sleeping on the sofa when I got home and she can be pretty groggy after a nap.