An Interesting Easter Sunday Morning

Throughout my life, I have spent many years trying and failing. I can not count the number of times, when faced with something new, I jumped straight in the deep end.

Not all of those instances turned out bad. I had a few success stories along the way where with a quick wit and a lot of luck I made it through. But I am not going to talk about those times, the failures are way too funny to keep to myself.

Many years ago, I had taken on my first "real" job with a local engineering company as a field technician. The week before Easter I got called out to an emergency job with the guarantee that I would be home in time to celebrate Easter Sunday. I decided that since it was a short trip and the company was paying for everything that I would take my new bride with me. Off we headed in the company truck.

It was an enjoyable trip. I only had light duties and the job stayed on schedule. We too were right on schedule as we pulled out of the hotel early Saturday morning. The drive was relatively short and uneventful. Within a few hours, we were pulling into our driveway.

Vehicles have gotten pretty smart over the last ten years, they are amazing miracles of modern engineering. Unfortunately, this event took place in the early 1990s, a time when one needed a key to open a door. We had it rough then, no key fobs, no wifi unlocking from a smartphone. Nope, just good old keys, and automatic door locks.

It was those automatic door locks that I happened to hit as I exited the vehicle and closed the door which started my troubles. As soon as I heard the door shut I knew that I had made a mistake. I slowly, and shamefully, walked to the other side of the vehicle to check the passenger door. Yep, it was locked and from my vantage point I could make out the keys sitting securely in the ignition.

I was still young and proud, and I could not imagine telling my boss that I locked the keys in the work truck. It was already Saturday afternoon by this time so I decided that I would just wait until Monday morning, go up to the office early and get the spare set of keys before anyone was the wiser. Seemed like a foolproof plan to me so I relaxed a little and we went on with our afternoon.

Have you ever done something or made a decision that once made somewhere in the recesses of your mind there was a quiet voice telling you something is amiss, but like most people, you ignore it until that moment when suddenly it all becomes clear. It wasn't just the keys we, well I locked in the vehicle, no we had also managed to lock up our luggage as well.

Now, I know that locking your luggage in your truck along with the keys doesn't seem like a great emergency. And normally I would agree with you. But on this particular occasion, we had taken our Sunday's bests with us in case we got delayed we could just get ready there and leave early enough to make it to church.

Sometimes the best-laid plans of mice and men just fall short, as I again found myself standing at the passenger side window staring at all of my wife's makeup. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but I am the one that locked the keys in the car. This meant that I was solely responsible for my wife not having her shoes, dress, makeup, toothbrush, deodorant, and well, you get the picture. To compound the level of screwedness I was facing, it was already past nine in the pm, and in the early 90's they pretty much rolled up the streets at ten.

I panicked and called my boss to see if he could help me out. That idea was not one of my better ones as he was an older man and apparently, he had already been in bed for an hour or so when I called. We scrambled, making a trip, if I remember correctly, to Evansville where there was an all-night pharmacy. There we picked up the bare necessities and after it was all said and done we made it back home by around midnight.

Sunday morning came early that day and we didn't make it to the sunrise service as we planned. We made it to the regular service, me in jeans and her not in that nice new dress we picked up just for this occasion. Service was pleasant as it provided a useful distraction from that voice in my head that likes to remind me of all my mistakes. We then went to lunch at her parent's house and we arrived back at home by three or four in the afternoon.

I was ready for a nap before we had to prepare for the evening service but I decided to once again take that walk of shame out to the passenger side window to stare helplessly at the bane of my existence, the keys. Every other time I peered into that window I was consumed with what we didn't have. By this time I was no longer worried about the stuff we needed and I happened to look past the keys to the driver side door.

I remember thinking to myself that I could not be seeing what I thought I was seeing. I walked over to the other side of the truck slowly. It was at this time that my wife just happened to walk out on the front porch to see what I was doing. There I stood, facing the driver's door window as I slowly extended my hand up to and past where the glass should have been.

I truly believe that we are all predestined to do some ignorant things when we are in our late teens and early twenties, but this had, by far been one of the most ignorant things I had ever done, that week anyway. On the way home from the job, we decided to ride with the windows down to enjoy the warm spring air. When we got home my wife rolled her window up but apparently, I had failed to follow her lead.

In my defense, the truck was parked so that when we walked out of our front door the passenger side was facing us. This also meant each time we left to resupply and returned we only passed by the passenger side as well.

The aftermath...

Come Monday morning I pulled up in the company truck to happen to catch my boss getting out of his car. Busted. I got out of the truck and headed for the front door, the same door that he was now just standing by waiting for me as he eyed the truck. Guess what his first question was? Yep, you guessed it, he wanted to know how I had gained access to the locked truck to retrieve the keys. Me being the nieve do-gooder I was at that time told him the entire story, to which he laughed and never mentioned it again.

My wife, on the other hand, she did mention it again, and again, and again. For a good three months after that day, she would randomly burst into laughter whenever the memory surfaced. She got good at mimicking me at the moment when my hand passed through that empty hole where glass should have been.

Looking back I was so worried about what other people would think of me, like locking one's keys in their car was an offense punishable by stoning or worse. What I wouldn't give to have those kinds of problems now. I don't know if there is a moral to this story. I am sure if I tried hard I could come up with one but it is late and I am tired so I bid you adieu.