Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, I ventured to my mailbox and found, in the slush at the end of my driveway, a soggy packet of something.  It turned out to be a pack of professional portraits of a child I would deem to be about three months old.

I brought the packet into the house.  The pictures were damp, but not all of them were ruined.  And there were many in various poses.  I spread them out to dry, then started an investigation.  Who did the pictures belong to?  Could I find the owner?  (And how did they come to be in the mess at the end of my driveway??)

One of the poses had the child's name and the date--September 2009.  Wow!  These weren't recent pictures!

I started my search.  Couldn't find a name in the phone book.  Put out an inquiry on Facebook. Called the studio that did the pics.  No results.  Emailed my neighbor across the street who gave me a number out of the phone book (that I had supposedly already looked in)...a last name that matched. Called the number.  The people that answered weren't the parents of the child but did seem to know the child and the parent(s) but quick to say that they have "no association with that family".  They did, however, give me the name and a cell phone number for the child's mother.  Called that number, which went right to voice mail.  Left a message.  No response.  Called a couple of days later.  Same result.

So here I am in possession of OLD portraits of an infant who is probably almost 5-years-old by now.  I have dried them out and cleaned them off.  Threw away a couple that were too damaged to keep.  I guess I will put them in an envelope and wait for awhile.  How long should I keep them before I determine that it's a lost cause??

How these pictures happened to be in the slush, I probably will never know.  My daughter suggested that they could have been in someone's trash and just fell out...but no one lives next to me.  I just want to do the right thing.  I think I already have.

We'll see, won't we?