A little background info first...
Seven weeks ago Matilda's flute was stolen from the music storeroom at school. The students store their instruments for safekeeping during the day until they are needed for class...the room is always kept locked. For some reason the store room was not locked this particular day and when she went to collect her flute it was missing, along with two school instruments.
After a great deal of back & forth email & phoning, the school accepted responsibility for the theft and agreed to reimburse us for a replacement. There was some degree of angst involved as Matilda's instrumental music teacher addressed her in class, accusing us of making up lies about her flute having been stolen and that we wanted to "profiteer" from the school so we could get her a new flute. She then went on to say that Matilda's flute was nowhere as expensive or as good a quality as I had claimed and that we were being difficult and "cantankerous". Let me add that at this point in proceedings there had been no claim made by me as to the quality and value of Matilda's instrument.
That conversation was downright wrong, not to mention highly inappropriate of her to speak to a student in front of the class in that manner. All we wished (apart from the flute not having been stolen) was for restitution. The matter of an apology and retraction is still ongoing.
Imagine my surprise when yesterday I received a phone call from the school Principal letting me know that Matilda's flute had been found by a teacher in a garden bed in the school grounds. It was found with a music book which was not Matilda's and it obviously had only very recently been placed in the garden bed as there were no signs of garden debris, dirt or rain damage to either the flute or the book...
...and we have had some quite heavy rain since it went missing...
My best guess is that it was stolen by someone who wasn't able to sell it to a Cash Converters type store. It's a small mercy that the thief had a fit of conscience and decided not to offload it in a dumpster.
Matilda is beside herself and incredulous when I told her...all she really wanted was to have her very own instrument back. She knows it so well, the silver keys have moulded to fit her fingertips and the lip plate fits curved against her bottom lip so perfectly.
She is one happy possum indeed.
Thank you for your kind comments about my Aunt. Her funeral is next Tuesday in Melbourne. Matilda and I will be heading down on Monday morning and will stay for a few days. It will be good to catch up with family we haven't seen since the last family wedding...around 6 years ago now.
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