Keys

I never do it. I just never do it. I used to keep a magnetic box stuck to the inside of one wheel well just in case... but that was a long time ago, and eventually I stopped trying to re-attach the box when it fell off, ‘cause, well, ‘cause I never do it.

Lock my keys in my car, that is. That magnetic box used to hold a spare key.

So, anyway... today I did it. My ‘day off’ schedule had me running to an appointment and doing errands, the last of which was to stop by work and get a few things done. At noon I finished with work, and grabbed large denim purse (my ersatz brief-case) in preparation to leave. I rummaged through it’s pockets for my car keys and... nothing.

Luck had it that my husband was at home, so I phoned and asked him to kindly deliver me the spare pair. “I’ll be waiting in the parking lot- in my usual space.”

I walked around my car, peering through the windows. The keys were not in the ignition, in fact, they were no-where to be seen. I noticed that the car was, in fact, unlocked (which is unusual, because I routinely deploy the automatic locking mechanism with a single switch when I exit the car).

“I must really have had an air-head moment!” I said to myself, as I peered through the window at the space between the driver’s and passenger’s seat- hoping against hope that the car alarm was not deployed. The tiny flashing red light told me it was.
I suspected my keys were hidden in my small purse (which was lying on the floor of the passenger side), but although the purse was open and its contents were partly visible, no keys were in view.

“Well,” I said to myself, “I could open the door and use the 20 seconds before the alarm sounds to rummage for the keys... But what if I dropped them somewhere in the parking lot, or in the store- what if they're not in the car? I’d be stuck here with an alarming car... that’d be embarassing!”

The 20 minutes that I spent 1) debating whether or not to open the car and 2) imagining where the keys might possibly be if they were not resting in the comfort of the little purse- seemed to last forever. I was, indeed, happy to see my knight in shining armour ride up in his green Ford Escort...

Oh, and the keys were in the little purse.