Key Facts

I don't usually lose things. This is probably due to a few truths about me. One, I don't have much stuff. Two, because I don't have all that much stuff, I don't have many extra items which I don't frequently use, therefore I don't frequently lose things.

Friday I needed to get into my car for something. Hmm, my key isn't in my pocket. I wonder if I left it in my room. Nope. Maybe it's in another pair of pants. No, not there either.

So I start thinking back on the last time I'd had it. That Wednesday we'd gone over to Luke and Andrea's for pizza and a movie, and I'd grabbed my glasses from my car. My glasses ended up being entirely unnecessary, because the Underhills have a big old TV, but getting into my car then had been the last time I'd used my keys. I'd then run across the snow to the office, where people were waiting on me. At the Underhills I reclined on the floor during the movie. (I use the word 'reclined,' honestly, because I don't remember if it's layed, or lay, or lied, or...). The pants I was wearing have shallow pockets, so my keys could easily have fallen out. The next time I saw Andrea I asked if she'd keep a lookout for it.

The following few days I watched the ground whenever I went from the parking lot to the lodge. The snow was melting, definitely a bonus in my search for my keys. Andrea said she hadn't found the key.

Yesterday I got tired of missing it and decided it was time to go through my stuff very thoroughly. I started with my little dresser, organizing it in the process, but not finding my key. I shook out my sheets and blankets in case it was somehow mixed up in them. I double-checked the box where I'd kept it for the few days since I'd arrived. Then I turned to my closet to begin going through my pants and jackets.

If you've made it this far in this little epic, congratulations. Your efforts are about to be rewarded. Because I suddenly had this non-memory, not a light blinking on or anything like that, but almost an instinct. I saw my hand moving towards the little undercling-shaped slot on the shelf where my hangers hooked. Reaching my fingers in there I felt my keys. It all came back.

Our little trailer isn't locked. I'd kept my key in a little box on my dresser along with my hats and gloves, but thought that would be a little obvious if anyone came up while we were up on the hill for a day or something. So I decided to drop it into the slot where the hangers hook on the underside of the shelf in my closet. I remembered that I'd dropped them in there, then been unable to get them back out. Growing frustrating I'd decided to do something else and work on it later. I completely forgot about it.

Amazing, the mind. In its abilities, and so often, at least in my case, its disabilities. At least this story has a happy ending, right?