Disappearing And Appearing Objects

From left to right: 8-sided piece of aged/weathered cast iron, a stone that naturally looks like a vulva, and a chip of rose quartz with a smoky quartz or tourmaline inclusion. All three appeared in my house in the past 6 months on the floor in high traffic areas, with no precipitating sound or occurrence to explain their presence. Photo by Barbara Fisher.

Ever have something disappear that you had just seen moments ago?

And you search around your house looking for it, looking in all sorts of outlandish places where you would never put it, all while harassing members of your household for moving it while they swear up and down they never saw it, much less touched it?

Only to give up, and then, hours or days or even months later, walk past a spot you checked multiple times, a spot that is very obvious and in a very visible place in the house—a high traffic area and there it is, for all to see?

That happens to me ALL. THE. DAMNED. TIME.

And has happened to me for years.

I have lots countless pieces of jewelry, and seldom does jewelry get found later. Within the last 6 months I have lost a favorite bracelet. The last time I saw it, I had taken it off in my sewing room while working on face masks for family and friends. I have not worn it since then and it has simply disappeared. A few weeks ago, I lost a favorite earring which was large and hard to miss, very colorful. It has not reappeared.

There are many more dramatic instances I could recount here,

I’m used to this.

What I am going to talk about are three objects pictured above that have appeared in my house in the last eight months.

Objects I do not recognize appearing in my house is a new oddity to me. The tricksterish entity, spirit(s), poltergeist or my own psychic abilities (or my own forgetfulness) that have for decades played games with my stuff (and other household members’ things) has a new pastime.

It, they or whatever, leaves little strange gifts on the floor for me to find.

And they don’t leave them in out of the way places. No. They’re left in the middle of well-travelled areas where they could easily be trod upon.

The first one I found was about six months ago. It was in my bedroom, next to a trunk at the foot of my bed, between the dog bed and trunk.

It is an eight-sided piece of cast iron, about the size and shape of an 8-sided die used in roleplaying games. In fact, when I spied it there on the floor, that’s what I thought it was. But after I picked it up and saw how weathered it was—rusted and corroded, it was apparent that wasn’t at all what it was. There are no signs of numbers on any of the 8 triangular sides, nor is there a place where it is obvious that it was once attached to a larger piece.

Thinking perhaps my fourteen year old son, Koi had found it in one of their walks with their older sister, Morganna, I asked if he had brought it home. He said no, but that it was something that seemed familiar, like he’d seen in it a dream.

Well, that was comforting. So, I asked Zak, who also had not seen it. I called Morganna and showed it to her over a video call. Nope. She’d not seen Koi find it, nor had she given it to me.

Thinking it may have come from a piece of decorative iron fencing in our town, I took it to the several places I know that have wrought iron fences, and found no eight-sided bits that matched this piece.

It now lives in a bowl on my altar. An unsolved mystery.

About two months ago, a stone was found in our hallway. It’s the middle object illustrated above.

It’s a natural stone, and it doesn’t look carved. It’s fairly sizable, as you can see. Perfectly smooth, save for the cleft, which doesn’t look carved; if it was it was carefully smoothed after being worked. It looks like it was formed that way.

Once again, I went the rounds of my household. Koi looked at it and suggested one of the dogs brought it in from their run beside the house; there is gravel there. (I always check with Koi because he is always bringing things like rocks, shells, feathers and bones into the house—rather like their sister and myself.)

But none of the gravel looks a thing like this stone, and it’s too large to have been carried in by paw pads, and none of our dogs have shown a propensity to pick up and carry rocks in their mouths either before this incident or since. Koi noted it looked like a vulva and dubbed it “The Coochie Rock,” which seems to have stuck, so that’s its name. Zak hadn’t seen it and Morganna hasn’t been in our house for any appreciable amount of time because of the pandemic.

So, it sits on the household altar between a carved malachite fox, and a Mother Goddess figure.

Finally, about four weeks ago, that chip of rose quartz appeared on the floor right next to the chair that I sit in by the hearth. It is small enough that a dog could have dragged it in the house in its paw pads. But it was sitting in a place where I would have stepped on it easily and in bare feet it would have been noticeable.

In fact, I found it exactly by stepping on it, since it was between the chair and my route to the kitchen. And between when I found it and when I had sat down there were hours where the dogs hadn’t been outside. Plus there was snow on the ground when I found it, which would have meant there would have been water around it. The floor around it was perfectly dry.

Looking at it, it appeared to be of mostly rose quartz, with either a small inclusion of black tourmaline or a narrow piece of very dark smoky quartz crystal in it.

I did the rounds again, but no one else had seen the little chip of rose quartz. Koi, the collector of quartz crystals and stones adamantly said it wasn’t his. I believe him because when I offered it to him, he refused to take it, citing he didn’t trust its mysterious provenance, and saying since I found it, it was obviously meant for me.

It’s now living in the goblin house on top of the bookshelf that holds my fairy lore and mythology books in the living room.

What does all of this mean? Why are stones and such appearing in my house?

What will happen next?

I’m not sure.

I have started leaving offerings of cream, butter and bread on the stump in my back yard and on my doorstep regularly, in the hopes of appeasing any creature within or without who may be making these gifts. We’ll see what happens.

Of course, I wonder if anyone else has ever had strange small objects they can’t explain show up in their houses?