Memory banks and forged deposits

It's snowing in Seattle.

A lot.

Not "a-Seattle-lot" but really quite a lot!

We aren't used to this kind of weather in the Pacific Northwest.

I've spent a lot of time in the midwest and it feels like Minnesota in Washington.

As I unload the groceries from the car tonight, I'm on the phone to my mother who just now got her water back after her pipes froze for ten hours.

It's cold and I assure her that, not only did I pay my electric bill, but I've also purchased an entire case of logs for the woodstove.

"We won't freeze" I promise her.

"Remember that time when you were little and we had to burn the furniture to keep warm?" she asks me.

"Um. No. I actually don't." I reply.

(I'm wondering with all of my storytelling banks, how could I have missed this deposit???)

"You really don't?" she asks again.

"No. I honestly don't. Tell me.".

"Well," she begins...

" We got this coffee table from my inlaws one Christmas and since your father wasn't working, we decided it would be more useful as firewood. It was maple and it kept us warm for three days."

I ask her why she didn't tell me this before, it would have been fantastic writing material.

"I thought you knew." Was her retort. "You were there after all."

She was right, I was there. But I don't remember this.

Everything else I remember with crystal clarity but this has escaped me.

How does that happen? How do those significant things manage to slip by unnoticed? And what else had I conveniently forgotten?

Maybe she was protecting me all this time. Making sure I thought it was firewood back then and turning the clocks back when she knew I could handle it. I guess that's the beauty of persuasion. Like a magician, you can alter a reality with the imperceptible slight of hand tricks.

But maybe it was something else, something a bit more- selfish.

Maybe she didn't want me to tell everyone we were burning furniture to stay warm.

After all, I did have that strange habit of bringing people from the bus stop home for dinner quite often.

I guess there are some things that never change.