Because that's the kind of people we are...

A cozy Saturday night made more cozy by lighting a log in the fireplace.
As I perform this happy chore I can't help but notice the abundance of ashes underneath the little metal grill-a-ma-jig the logs sit on. I should clear them out soon. Then I think (because I'm me) what a fabulous place to hide something. Like if you had to hide some small bit of valuable what not from who ever you need to hide things from, then where better than the ashes in the fireplace....has this been done?
I share my fabulous idea with Alan, he contemplates it, seriously contemplates it (because that's the sort of person he is) and I can see the idea rolling around inside his pretty mind. He isn't thinking I'm crazy for interrupting our companionable silence with a place to hide things we wouldn't want snoopers to see...but deciding whether it truly is the best place.
I elaborate before he can comment.
"It could be in a little fireproof metal box, and we could have a live fire on top of it. Wouldn't that be cool?"
He silently chews this additional bit of information over before answering, "What about in the toilet?, like down the drain and into the pipes a bit...."
I imagine we were both thinking the same thing, that you'd need a bit of clear string or something attached to your valuable so as to fish it back out when they'd gone...who'd gone? I don't know...just them.
"The toilet's been done an awful lot." I respond, gently so as not to crush his pipe dreams. "You always see them looking behind or under the lid, in the tank etc, so down the pipe might not be such a great place."
He nods, a slight tilt of his head as if to say without speaking "touche"
Then a light of inspiration ignites behind his blue eyes, as bright a flame as the fire now crackling in the hearth.
"What about in the septic tank?"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh." I breathe, impressed.
"Good one!"
While it might be a bugger to dig up a septic tank to get back what you'd flushed down there it wouldn't be impossible. Perhaps not the best place for your every day run of the mill item you don't want people to see but if you had some 40 million dollar thing-a-ma-bob...well then the expense of ripping up the yard and busting open the septic tank would be worth it.
We share a smile.
But he's not done.
"What about one mile, straight down below the septic tank, buried in the earth?"
"Umm...er.....what?" I raise an eyebrow in question.
"In a metal box!" he elaborates.
"er........what?"
But he's on a roll. I decide to play along, amused by his passion. His imagination is galloping at speeds no man made vehicle will ever outrun and I want to hop on for a ride.
"Well I was going to say that's just crazy and out of the question but...if it's in a metal box..well then that's completely different. If it was a sphere though, a metal sphere...impossible. So good thing you said box."
"ohhhhhhhhh a sphere....even better..." I can see him roll the idea of a metal sphere buried one mile beneath a septic tank around on his tongue, but perhaps it's not to his liking as suddenly he bursts out "THE MOON!"
"what? What about the moon?"
"We could hide it there." There's a feverish look about him now, a man possessed, completely enraptured with figuring out the absolute best hiding place for..what? I don't know but we'll have a hiding place for it.
"No one would look on the moon." He steeples his fingers together, peers at me over his hands and his eyes have narrowed to sharp slivers of blue.
I realize he's no longer in the room with me but somewhere else, off in space, investigating the moon as a hiding spot.
When he speaks again, his voice has dropped to a whisper, a dreamy quality infuses his every word.
"At the core of the moon, hide it in the center of the moon.....ahhhh...even better........"
he trails off, I hold my breath awaiting....it appears he has had an epiphany....an idea so profound that even I can see the peaceful transformation wash across his features.
"What? Tell me...." I am caught in his spell, I don't want to know I now NEED TO KNOW...where is the best place to hide something.
"Not the center of the moon....no not the center..." he cackles. A shiver crawls across my skin...this is going to be big..I can tell.
"NOT, the center of the moon, oh no.....but just off the center a bit. A hundred feet to the left of the center of the moon......THAT....THAT is the best place to hide something."
I absorb his knowledge into my own being. I make his realization my own. We sit, once again in silence. The flames from the fireplace cast a golden glow over the room. We share a smile and slowly return to our tasks before the whole hiding place conversation began.

Because....because that's the kind of people we are.