The Missing Tortilla Chip

So that's where it went

Grant held a handful of tortilla chips to dip them into the salsa. It wasn’t his habit to dip more than one at a time, but for some reason he grabbed a few from the bowl. As he moved them from the bowl to the dipping dish, he dropped a few.

“Oh great,” he said, knowing he’d better pick them up now rather than wait until he stepped on them in his bare feet and grind them into the carpet. He located one immediately and tossed it. He distinctly remembered dropping two so the other shouldn’t be far from the first.

Now, where’d that thing go?

He got up, pulled the cushions out from his chair, checked under the chair, on the carpet, on the hard floor by the carpet and finally, and near his keyboard. He lifted the keyboard and turned it upside down to shake it. Other than crumbs and dust from daily use, no chips.

Nothing.

“Where’d it go?” Grant asked out loud. “It’s around here somewhere.”

He brushed himself off. Nothing dropped to the floor.

It’s only a chip. What harm could that be?

He thought back to the time he dropped a chip in the keyboard and it sputtered for a few seconds before smoke started rising. The chip had salsa on it so the salsa was the fire-starting culprit in that case.

But that was then, and this was now.

Maybe I shouldn’t eat salsa anymore. Pfft. That’s not gonna happen.

He didn’t give it much thought for an hour until his wife came into his office to ask what he wanted for supper.

He swiveled in his chair to focus his attention. “Yes, m’love, you rang?”

“Ok, I’ve got lasagna, hamburgers, leftov….” she stopped and tilted her head. “What in the world is that thing in your beard?”

Grant took a swipe at his beard and there was the missing chip.

“Oh that? Yeah, I’ve been looking all over for it. Thanks,” Grant said as picked it out of his beard and held it in front of him to look at it.

“Don’t do it. Don’t you dare do it. Toss it,” she said.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Grant tossed the chip in the trash.

“For dinner, eh, let’s have something other than leftovers,” said Grant.

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