"Mom, I'm too hot," he protested as he climbed into the car.
That afternoon, the weather turned frigid, as expected, but Jacob jumped off the bus with only a long sleeved T-shirt for protection.
"Where's your jacket?" I asked him.
He slapped his head. "Oh! I forgot."
Frustrated, I put the boys in the car and drove back to the school in the hopes of finding his jacket. Forecasters threatened freezing rain overnight, and I didn't think his hoodie was going to cut it, especially since he'd already lost a hat.
The receptionist was not surprised to see us, nor was she surprised to know why we had returned to school. You see, this was not the first nor second time we'd gone back to look for Jacob's jackets, and he’s only been at this school for three months. Once, I bought him a new hoodie to get us through the weekend, but when he started leaving multiple jackets at school, I put my foot down. I'd hoped the deliberate return and search would inspire him to keep up with his jackets, but I was wrong.
"Why am I not surprised?" Jacob's teacher gently jested when we showed up at her classroom. She'd once told me that truly bright kids tend to be a bit absent-minded. At the time, we'd been talking about Jacob's tendency to forget to turn in his homework even though he'd completed the assignment and gotten all the answers correct. His jackets are just another casualty of his brilliance, I suppose.
We searched all over the school that afternoon, but we never found his coat. Luckily, Jacob did not freeze to death over the weekend. However, I was still ticked that I'd spent $40 on a coat that seemed to have vanished into thin air.
"Somebody must have taken it," Jacob pleaded, but I had my doubts.
That night, he penned this poem in penance:
Jacket, jacket.
You keep me warm,
but I left you on the gym floor.
Jacket, jacket.
Life without you is no fun,
'cause I can't go out and run.
Jacket, jacket.
Black and red,
Without you, I am dead.
Jacket, jacket.
I'm so COLD.
I even wrote it in bold.
Jacket, jacket,
No need to worry.
I will find you in a hurry.
For the next week, every day I asked Jacob to check Lost and Found for his coat. Every day, he forgot. On Friday, exasperated, I emailed his teacher and wrote "FIND JACKET" in black Sharpie on his hand. Even with those reminders, he forgot to look for it. Luckily, Jacob survived another weekend and another winter storm.
Today, I miraculously dropped the boys at school 15 minutes early. "Go check Lost and Found right now before you go to class," I called out as they exited the car. "You have plenty of time."
Jacob shrugged his acknowledgement and walked into the building.
When he climbed off the bus this afternoon, I asked him once again if he'd found his jacket.
"Yeah… but then I left it in the music room."
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go bang my head against the wall.
