We went to New Mexico in July, took the car and drove 1150 miles each way. I love driving, except for the bumper-to-bumper-78-mph traffic on I-10, and maybe the truckers need to go back to school and learn about passing on the LEFT? But that?s not the point.

We stopped in Natchitoches (pronounced Nack-o-dish and famous for meat pies) in northern Lousiana to spend the night at a Best Western because we?d been driving 13 hours and we were very tired. And we left our pillows there. Two good-smelling pillows of perfect thickness and squishability, and by the time we realized this we were in Baton Rouge and an hour from home. I didn?t call because I didn?t think the motel would ship us pillows. What kind of box would they need? But I felt bad about them, about giving them up for gone. They couldn't be replaced. The cases were this cherry blossom print.

Then, the best thing happened! We stopped last weekend at the same Best Western coming back from Andrew?s Dallas soccer tournament (won one, lost one), and asked the guy at the front desk, on a whim, fingers crossed, if someone might?ve seen our pillows, might've put our pillows in lost and found. He checked in the back: There they were. We took them to our room and Malcolm and I each slept on one, and they smelled like us, and we were grateful for this little bit of redemption that felt like joy. And the next morning we remembered to load our dear, found pillows in the car, and Andrew slept on both of them the rest of the way home.

Here they are: