The Mystery of the Missing Car Key
Last Thursday as I was getting ready to leave for the doctor's office, I realized I had lost my mom's car key. I checked all three coats I'd had to wear during the previous couple of days. When the temperature range is between 32 and 68, it's necessary to have several coats at the ready at all times. The key wasn't in any of the coats. I thought maybe I left the key in my jeans. Nope. Then I remembered I washed that pair of jeans. I checked the washing machine, the dryer and the entire laundry area. No key. I didn't have anymore time to search because I had to get to the doctor. I grabbed the back-up key. I would resume the search when I got back, I told myself. Well, then came the evening of wallowing in self-pity, so I postponed the search. The next day, however, I started looking again. I took everything out of my coat pockets. No key. Checked the jeans and the laundry area again. No key. Checked the pockets of my tan pants and black pants, thinking that maybe I'd worn them and forgotten. No key. I checked my mom's coat pocket, thinking that maybe she'd forgotten to put it on the table, where we leave it for each other. No key. Then I checked every compartment of her highly compartmentalized purse. No key there either. At one point I began to worry that I'd dropped it someplace. Then I quickly realized that if I'd dropped it someplace I wouldn't have been able to drive home. I resigned myself to the fact that today I was going to have to get a replacement key made and explain my irresponsibility to my mother, something I was not looking forward to.
Today, as I was getting ready to leave the house my mother asked me to leave the key so she wouldn't have to use the back-up key anymore. She was afraid of losing it, then we'd be SOL. Of course she didn't say SOL but that's what she meant. So, before I had a chance to get the duplicate made, I had to fess up and tell her I couldn't find the key. I told her everything I done, everyplace I looked since Thursday. She, too, was stumped. Then it hit her. When she used the car on Thursday, five hours before my doctor's appointment, she wore a different coat than the one she usually wears. When she got home, she took the coat upstairs to hang it up. We checked the pocket. Key.
So, I went through nearly 3 1/2 days of searching and frustration and she went through 3 days of being angry with me (although she didn't tell me until this morning) because her memory isn't what it used to be. But don't tell her that. She doesn't have a memory problem.
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