TheBanyanTree: Secret Stashes

[Dee Churchill]

Ah, hiding stuff. The unheralded Great American Indoor Sport (everyone knows
about the *heralded* Great American Indoor Sport).

When I was staying with my sister that last bit of time Dad was alive, she
and I once hid our stash of Uno bars in the freezer compartment of the
refrigerator, frozen Uno bars being one of life's great pleasures. One
night, long after my niece and nephew were in bed, sleeping the sleep of the
innocent, Glenna and I suddenly found ourselves craving a Uno hit. Glenna
opened the freezer door and started rummaging through the packages, working
her way back to the stash. Suddenly I heard an outraged howl. She backed
away from the open freezer holding a frost-encrusted note in her hand. It
read:

"Thanks, Mom! Thanks, Aunt Dee!"

There were, of course, no Uno bars remaining. The only reason my niece and
nephew lived to smirk about their raid is because their mother and I feared
the death penalty.

Mom and my second step dad, Edderd, had a secret stash thing going, too. Ed
was supposed to be watching his weight so he had a stash of candy bars he
thought she didn't know about. On the other hand, Mom had her own stash
because she didn't want to be eating forbidden candy in front of someone who
wasn't supposed to have any. The funny part was, both of them found each
other's stash but both of them thought their own stash was still safe. Are
you following me so far?

Because what followed had us all cracked up. If Edderd wasn't around, Mom
would share candy bars with us...out of *his* stash, warning us not to say
anything because he didn't know she knew about it. But if Mom wasn't around,
Edderd would share candy bars out of *her* stash...with the same warning.

We, of course, never let on to either of them that the jig was up. No way we
were going to spoil a perfectly good source of candy bars.

Hugs, Dee...