We're fresh off the river from a search & recovery mission. We're looking for a paddle we lost two days ago. It's been cold and rainy this evening and the river is swollen. The only people we saw were a raft of men wearing shirts that said "I'm very excited to be here" and "I red heart NY". It was as plain as their pale faces that they were fish out of water.

In passing I asked them, "So did you see the beaver?"
"Oh yeah, we saw ducks too!"
"Did you see the horses by the bridge?"
"YEAH! We saw them!"

At this point I felt like quite the hostess, welcoming tourists to the beehive state, enriching their experience, making a memory...
Then I asked, "Did you see the muskrat?"
"Uh no."
"How about a beached paddle?"
"Noooo..."

I couldn't think of anything else to ask but I was possessed and said, "did you see the mysterious girl wearing a black and white striped shirt?"

And then I panicked and paddled really hard.

No sign of the missing paddle. We'll have to go back.