Those Darn Keys (Key #1)

I do not know how to drive, but I do know that there are three rules that are important for driving. First, you have to have the keys, or you cannot drive at all. Second, you have to get the car started, or you do not go anywhere at all. Third, you have to know where you are going or have a map, or you do not get to the right place. I think Mommy knows these rules, too, but it seems like she forgets a lot.

With keys (rule #1), for example, she locks them inside the car so often that Daddy bought her a little box with a spare key to hide somewhere on the car. She also has locked me in the car by accident and had to call the police to get me out. She has locked my sister in the car by accident and called the police to get her out. (The police have come to know Mommy pretty well, and they just shake their heads when they come and see who it is.)

The little black box works, though, but sometimes Mommy drives a different car without a little box. Then she is in trouble again.

Once Mommy returned to a non-little-black-box car from the bookstore, only to find the car locked. She looked in her purse for the keys, but they were not there. Then she saw keys inside on the seat. Oh, oh! It was Sunday, and it would be hard to find someone to help. The car was lock-safe, so she could not pick the lock.

So, Mommy looked in the telephone book and found a locksmith who would come help her if she would pay him a lot of money. She agreed. He came and unlocked the door, although he broke the lock, so then, Mommy had to get the lock fixed. Mommy thanked him and paid him, anyway. She was just glad to get the keys so that she could drive home. With relief, she picked them up from the seat — but they were the wrong keys, the keys for the house.

With a sigh, Mommy went back to the bookstore. It was now almost two hours after she had left the store, and if her keys were in the store, she could have saved two hours of time. As it turned out, she could have saved those two hours because the information desk had the keys. They asked Mommy what she would do to get them back, and she said, "Just about anything." They made Mommy jump up and down and bark like a dog to get her keys back. I bet a lot of shoppers thought she was crazy. Maybe they were right!

Conclusion: If you want to drive somewhere, you have to have the keys.


------------
This story is excerpted from a collection of vignettes that I helped Doah, my severely mentally challenged youngest son, to write and publish several years ago (copyright 2003). It was my attempt to help him understand literacy and the purpose of writing and reading.