76 Empty Boxes..,

I was going to wait until I have my new computer to write about the box conundrum, but I have to get it out of my head. That being said, a little bit of background and context is needed to fully grasp the hilarity of this experience and my utter lack of ability to get past it. So, my mother has Alzheimers, (we actually go Thursdsy for our "official diagnosis and treatment plan). She lives 17 miles from me - one way, needless to say I am over there as much as possible trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy for her until we have a plan from the doctor. In addition, my brother lives with her who is also disabled. Has been for years, debilitating anxiety/panic disorder and has been under treatment for a very long time. Then two years ago last May he had a stroke. He has mostly recovered, the part of his brain affected was mainly for speech, but he has persevered and regained most of it. The two live together and bicker constantly - he's sometimes hard to understand and my mom can't hear for crap. And neither have any patience, which is sadly, a family trait for all of us. This is not a good combo and is alone a huge source of stress and tension, and also laughs... because at some point your choice boils down to laugh or cry.. I will always opt for hunor first, even if it is just to mask a raging storm of frustration. In addition, neither is a "neat freak". I am trying to  word this as delicately as possible. So, the weekend after Thanksgiving my husband and I spent all weekend doing a MUCH NEEDED deep cleaning of the house. The only detail from this gargantuan endeavor we took on worth mentioning, (the endeavor that continued through Thursday of the following week), is that I ended up gathering and disposing of 76 EMPTY BOXES!!! All sizes, all shapes, none broken down and just randomly strewn all about the house. Yes, I did take the time to count them. Some were as big as Christmas tree boxes and some as small as shoe boxes. And everything in between. So many questions are going through my mind at this point - 1. Where did they all come from? 2. where are the items that came in them? 3. Why are none if the broken down or at the very least stacked inside each other? 4. And why the hell are they even keeping them??? What possible explination could there be? When asked, I got the same response from them both... "what boxes??". Do they really not know they are there? Is my moms house some paranormal alternate dimension where unused empty boxes go to live out the rest of their days??? Is her house a waystation in midworld for cardboard, left there for Roland and his ka-tet to use to fight the Crimson King in some mysterious way?? THEN .....  As all of these questions are rapidlly running through my already overloaded brain, my brother asked me if I knew where there was a box the right size to ship some albums. What the %*#€!!!   Is he unaware that he has a wider variety of boxes than UPS or is he wanting me to just dig through and find what he needs? Me, being completely speechless (a very rare occurrance I assure you) and completely unwilling to do anything with the boxes but crush them, counting them as i go, just hand over whatever box happened to be in my hand at that moment. And as I am shaking my head in bewilderment as I am walking away, I hear him tell me it is not the right size. I decided to just keep walking. Since that day four more empty boxes have mysteriously appeared. They are like Gremlins, but instead of getting water on them all you have to do us move one and another box just magically appears to fill up the empty space the removal of the first box had the audacity to leave. So fast foward to today, I am at my moms, wrapping some presents in the living waiting on a friend to show up and help get my moms car towed home (a post for another day). My brother who was sitting on the couch chatting with us stood up to go to his room, stumbled, fell on the coat rack - that is now broken slightly but still usable. My mom panicked like she does for everything. He was not hurt and except for upseting mom its was comical- we both laughed.🤟🏼😂 🤣 😂 BUT PLEASE ASK ME WHAT HE TRIPPED OVER IN THE FIRST PLACE....... ... .......🧐🧐🧐 A EMPTY BOX. 😖 A new one. Are they like ghost? Can only I see them? I am so utterly perplexed that it is consuming way too much of my thoughts. I know everyone is tried of hearing me talk about the boxes. Hopefully, writting about them will resolve my fixation on them and make room in my cortex for the next ludacris situation that pops up. And there will be one, that is the only thing that I am 100% sure of.

UPDATE. Two years later and the boxes are still pulled here by some unseen gravitational pull that even Stephen Hawkins (RIP) could not explain.