Pinewood Heartbreak

I am heartbroken.
I work for the Boy Scouts in several different ways. One of them is to help run the pinewood derbies. I make a car every year and the idea is to get a cooler car every year. Last year it was a tube of toothpaste. This year it was a hand carved image of yours truly. I worked on that for HOURS. It was tough getting it to look just right and still leave it drive-able. Saturday morning I finished painting it. I must say it looked SLICK. My husband had worked all evening the night before getting the wheels just so. I was hoping to beat my friend Brett, who now has the cubmaster job I had. He had a Santa Claus car, which was amazingly, still faster than mine.

Eight thirty found me at the mall setting up the long silver track and the check-in tables. We ran the derby for hundreds of boys of ages from 6 to 12. I love doing the derbies. There are all kinds of cars, and all kinds of people. The people-watching is fantastic!

There were, of course, bumps in the road because I let a few cars through that I shouldn't because I was trying to hurry and missed them. Every year there are those who get so intense that tempers fray. I'm sure there'll be letters. I had to have 70 or so nervous parents tweak their boys' cars because our Council doesn't allow three wheels down and one up (less friction makes them go a little bit faster).

After the dust settled and the boys and their parents edged away with or without trophies, Dave let me run my car and Brett's down the track. The real cubmaster's race won't be until the Council-wide race later this month. Brett had already left for work, but entrusted me with his precious Santa car. I sent them flying down the track, only to remember that I hadn't added graphite to mine. Still slow.

I had to wait for my hubs to come pick me up, so we went window slobbering for a bit. We met the hubby at our favorite toy store, I with the box under my arm containing our two precious cars. Stupidly, I paused at the display table to play a funky kind of tic-tac-toe. That was the last time I saw that box. I'm so crushed to have to tell Brett that his Santa car is gone. And my beautiful, hand-carved Heidi car is gone as well.

I'm still hoping that the person who picked up my box-full of extended childhood will come to his or her senses and listen to God telling them that they should take them back. He tells me that they have their free agency. I hope they will do the right thing.

Addendum:
My Sweetheart Hubby just called from the mall, today (Monday). He went to take our son to a movie and stopped in at Gamedaze because I asked him to check. I just have to say that my prayers were totally answered! They found the box with both cars in it! That's after three days of the store being open and two nights of cleaning. They scoured that store. You can't tell me that my simple prayer wasn't heard by Someone who cares even about such minute things as a hand-carved car and my reputation with a friend. I'm so happy I could just spit!