An Adventure

Like many of my adventures, this one happened because I forgot something.

Occasionally, if I'm traveling, I'll forget the directions. Then I'll have a lovely time exploring old New England towns, having adventures there. Other times I might forget a key ingredient while I'm cooking. That is another sort of adventure. And then, more often, I will simply have some task I must complete, but one of my belongings, necessary to complete the said task, has wandered away, and there the adventure is tracking the said belonging down, giving it a stern talking-to, and proceeding to accomplish my task.

The adventure today was similar to that last category. However, in this case I knew exactly where the necessary belonging was. I simply could not access it.

Grammie went to church today. It was quite an excursion for her, and she is worn out now, sitting in her chair reading the paper while I cook dinner for the two of us. After the service I brought her home. We navigated the driveway without issue, climbed the stairs like true intrepid explorers, made it safely across the deck... when I realized I did not have the house key on my key chain.

I have two key chains. One, the normal one, that has a key to three of our cars, the house (normally), and a spare key to a friend's house (which I probably should return). The second is the one I use during the week, and only has my Honda car keys, and my Shaws card. What happened was last weekend I took my house keys off the main keyring and added them to my Honda keys. Since they didn't belong with my Honda keys, I took them off as soon as I no longer needed them.

As Grammie and I stood on the back deck, I remembered all this. I also remembered pulling open my school drawer earlier this morning and seeing my house key sitting in the bottom of that drawer. "Oh, I'll have to remember this, and add it to my keys," I had thought. A lot good that thought did me now, staring at a closed door unyielding to my futile twisting of the handle.

While Gram sat down on one of the deck chairs, I did a quick reconnaissance of the house and yard. I couldn't get into the garage because I don't have the garage opener, nor a key. All of the lower level windows were locked. I called Mom's cellphone, but didn't get through. I started to call Dad's cell, expecting the same response, when my cell battery quit on me.

I stared at my phone. Great. I was going to have to figure this out myself, or drive all the way back to church and get a house key from one of the less absent-minded of my family members. I determined that I could get Gram and I in the house. How exactly, I wasn't sure. But I knew it would happen.

I went around the side of the house to the room that had not yet been updated with new windows. I stood on a pail thankfully left in the yard, and examined it. I couldn't tell exactly, but it looked locked. I pulled up the screen, and pushed against the window, experimenting. It slid up. I was so excited. I pushed harder, and it went up a little more, then stuck. I frowned, watching the window. There, on the inside, the latch had caught against the wood of the windowpane, and would not budge any more for me. Even fiddling around with the windows for a few minutes did nothing.

I went back and joined Grammie on the back deck. "How'd you make out?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I almost got the window open enough to climb through," I said, "But it got stuck, and I think I would get stuck if I tried to fit through it right now."

I put my hand on my hips, and looked around the neighborhood. Most of the houses looked unoccupied, except for the house directly behind us. The house that had been filled with workmen for the past months. There was a truck parked out in the driveway, and the garage door was open. I told Gram I'd be right back, and struck out in search of assistance.

I knocked on our neighbor's door, and sure enough, there was a man inside. He came to the door. "Hi," he said, "What can I do for you?"

I explained the situation to him. He seemed to understand, even sympathize, maybe. He followed me back around the side of the house. He pushed the window up, and it got stuck just as it had when I tried. He looked at the opening, and at me. "Are you sure you can't get in there?" he asked.

I glanced at him. It was nice of him to think maybe I could fit through that narrow opening, but I know my limitations. I was just saying maybe I could try, when he gave the window one more upwards shove. It rolled the rest of the way up.

"Oh," I said. I knew I could fit through it now, with no problem. I climbed up on the pail, and dove in through the window. Remember, Gram and I had just returned from church, so my clothes were not exactly appropriate for climbing into a tall window. I left my shoes outside, but the rest of me made it in. Hurriedly, I ran to the back door, unlocked it, and flung it open. "We made it!" I said to Grammie, who watched me, amused.

"Good," she said, climbing to her feet and reaching for her walker. "I'm hungry."

We both came inside, after a "thank you!" to the workman, and settled in to make a nice little Sunday dinner for the two of us.

I can already tell you what Mom or Dad will say when they hear of this little adventure. Mom will fix me with an exasperated look. "Michelle!" she will say, and roll her eyes a little. And that will be all she has to say. I know. If only I had attached my house key to the main key ring when I first thought of it this morning. But then I would not have had this wonderful adventure to share with you all.