Perfect Day with Spots

Swan Family: Mum, Dad and 4 cygnets

It's Thursday and I thought about the day ahead and how it could work to make Mel's week a time to remember.  It wasn't so special but it was memorable.  We headed off to Hyde Park, one of Perth's oldest parks in North Perth.  There is a easy walking path around both picturesque lakes.  Plane trees and huge Moreton Bay Figs Trees surround the lakes like a living veil.  The warm air of the suburbs is not found here among the shade of these magnificent trees.  If I had a jacket I would have put it on until our walking warmed us up! A number of families with small children and elderly people strolled around the lakes stopping like us to admire the family of swans with  cygnets, almost adult themselves,  the coots and numerous ducks.  We walked around the lakes three times, over thirty minutes before heading off for lunch at a local café.  


Mel dwarfed by a Moreton Bay Fig Tree

I  had already warned Merv's support worker we would be back to change into our bathers before going to the local pool.  Joe said Merv had won both games of ten pin bowling.  Before the sentence was finished Melanie screamed!  We stopped and looked at her.  I don't know what we expected, what could possibly be wrong?   Mel stood pointing at the carpet in the hallway. My one year old carpet on special from Solomans, still expensive with a protective coating.  My carpet all one colour but now with spots.  Not just ordinary spots, but big black blotchy spots.  The spots that would make anyone scream in horror!  I surveyed the damage, I stooped and looked closely before I sprung into action. The black spots turned into Merv's room and stopped at his chest of drawers.  A clue.  I had left the house after they had gone off to the bowling alley and later the pathology clinic.  There were no black spots before I left, therefore they had to be walked in after they returned home for lunch.  Joe said he had
 


View of  the first lake

 

not walked down the hallway but washed his hands in the kitchen.  The clues did not add up. 
White vinegar was of no help, so I grabbed the bucket with warm water and a splurge of carpet cleaning fluid.  On my knees and no more black spots, just wet spots.  I sighed, releasing my tension.  Agatha Christie was now at work deciphering the evidence and writing a plot of how it happened.  Both Merv and Joe sat quietly looking sad and innocent but I knew better. 

Mel and I escaped to the pool walking and swimming in the pool and having fun.  After I dropped Mel home and before I returned home a plot had evolved in my head.  Agatha Christie would have been proud of my detective skills.  My first suspect was innocent (pity).  Merv was the now the suspect.   Joe checked the passenger side of his car to find the tell tale black spots.  

Black Gooey Stuff on Merv's Shoe (left): Mystery Solved

We no longer took a quick look at Merv's shoes but insisted they come off and this is what we found:  the very back of his heel was filled with black gooey stuff.  Black gooey stuff in his heel, in Joe's car, the same which had been found on my beloved carpet.
It had been a perfect day with spots and a mystery solved!