Found Them!

“I’m going to take the girls on a ride in the wagon while you make dinner,” I told my husband when I got home from work last night.  The girls hadn’t been out to play for a few days because of runny noses and spring wind, but this evening was sunny and mild.  After spending most of the day on my computer at work, my legs were itching for a walk, too.  I bundled the girls up in their fleece vests and jackets, then grabbed their boots off the shelf.

I grabbed all four boots at the same time, but one felt a little off in my hand.  It was a little heavier than the others.  I peered inside and saw some silver. No way, I thought to myself.  I tipped the boot and shook the foreign object down from the toe to the heel.  The black fob of my husband’s car key came into view.  A huge smile broke across my face.

“Look what I found!” I sang out, practically dancing into the kitchen.  I jingled the keys in the air and dropped them into my husband’s hand.  His face went from surprise to relief.

“Where were they?”

“In one of the babies’ boots,” I smiled, feeling relief as well.  That key costs $500, and has been missing for five days.  I was the last one to drive the car.

“You didn’t look there?” he asked in disbelief.

I shook my head.  I had looked all over the house for the past five days.  I don’t think my house has been that clean since we bought it.  I moved furniture, checked inside every bag and box, got out the flashlight to check under the appliances.  My husband joined in, too, once he looked up how much the key cost to replace.  I went through every trash and recycle bin in our house, piece by piece.  I even looked inside all of the shoes in my closet and on the porch.  But I didn’t look inside the babies’ shoes.

I got the baby girls out the door and into the wagon, leaving my husband celebrating in the kitchen.  I must have taken their shoes off when we got to the car and put them in the diaper bag, I mused as I pulled the girls up the sidewalk, trying to piece together how the keys got inside the boot. Then when I carried Baby Girl A inside the house from the car, I probably dropped the key into the diaper bag and it went inside the boot.  That’s why the key wasn’t in the diaper bag when I emptied it out, the first place I looked upon realizing the keys were missing.

I thoroughly enjoyed our walk, the evening sun matching the light feeling inside of me.  Losing the keys had been driving me crazy because it was so uncharacteristic of me.  I finally felt like myself again now that they had been found.