The mystery continues

Yesterday evening I finally figured out how to identify who my followers are. Although there were more than I’d realised, considering I’ve never done anything to promote my website, I was able to establish that, as I believed, there are only two people on the island who are followers of the blog. This, of course, doesn’t preclude others knowing about it and just checking in occasionally. No way to know.

I had already ruled out both the island followers, although it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that one of them is lying.

I’ve only ever known one wealthy person on the island, but she’s moved away, so could not have been sticking envelopes in my door. Besides, she never particularly liked me.

I thought I had a possible candidate yesterday when an emoji wink appeared in a Facebook comment, but that individual has now also been ruled out.

There was only one other possible (though unlikely) candidate, so I sent him an email saying: “If by any chance it was you, thank you very much.” Came the reply: “I don’t think it was? But without knowing what it is… hard to be sure.” Of course this could just be him being coy, but I very strongly doubt it. So I wrote back to say that, if he didn’t know what it was, it wasn’t him. The mystery continues.

I realised something else last night. It is very quiet where I live. Even if the intention had been to anonymously stick an envelope filled with money in my back door, if I’d been home, I would have heard a car pulling in and would have investigated. So either my benefactor parked further away and approached surreptitiously on foot or he or she knew I would be at a rehearsal Wednesday evening. The number of people who would have known that is very small indeed. Which leads me back to candidate number one. He was also at the rehearsal, but he arrived late. And he’s usually very punctual.

When I rang him after rehearsal to ask if it was him, I tried to trap him by deliberately saying there was $100 less in the envelope than there actually was. He didn’t blink. (Not that I could see his face, but you know what I mean.) Nonetheless, he is a good little fibber, so I haven’t ruled him out completely.

Thanks to my anonymous benefactor, I am now in a position to order firewood. (I know I said I would not waste donations on anything mundane, but there is absolutely nothing mundane about being warm in the winter.) Unfortunately, turns out my firewood supplier is no longer in the firewood supplying business, so I shall have to seek advice about a reliable replacement from fellow islanders. At least I know I will be warm, so many, many thanks AB, whoever you are.

Come winter, the cats will thank you, too.