Day 46 ~ Futile

Last night I arrived home with a friend who would have dinner with us. I manged to put the key in the lock with difficulty, as I was carrying many things. She then turned it for me. This morning I couldn't find my keys. I asked her if she had taken them from the lock. She said no. I didn't remember doing it either. I looked everywhere, I reached out to my neighbors. I felt lucky nobody had stolen my car yet, but I spent the day worrying that someone would try to get in thinking there was no one home. At 3:30 pm I managed to talk to all my close neighbors and no one had seen them. So I decided it was time to act. I started searching online and soon it occurred to me that I could contact the locksmith I had used to put a deadbolt in the patio door four months before. (He mentioned then that his daughter was going to spend a semester in my hometown and I helped her evaluate housing options.) He responded quickly and told me that he would get me the locks and stop by my home to install them, not charging me any after-hours fees. At 6:30 I texted my friend saying that I had changed all four locks in my home. She called me and was very sorry about what happened. I told her I needed to rush to get a club for the car before the store closed. Five minutes later, she called saying the keys were in her purse. I couldn't believe my ears. She explained that they were in an outside pocket where she never puts anything (because it has no zipper and things would fall off), so she hadn't look there. Only in the evening, she looked. We believe someone instinctively took the keys and placed them on her purse, which was on a sofa while we had dinner. At some point later, they accidentally slid in that pocket (it's a huge pocket, covering the whole side). She was incredibly sorry and came immediately with not only the keys but the money in hand. Of course, I took none of it. It is bad luck. She regrets not having looked better in her purse when I texted her in the morning. I regret not having asked her to do that. I didn't want her to feel guilty, since she had been the one turning the key for me, so I just asked her, "Did you take the keys after turning them?" Anyway, as my dad usually says in the face of accidents: "We are safe, no one is hurt. Money can be replaced." The whole day seemed like a big waste of time. Although in the end, I was feeling sorry mostly for the locksmith, whom I made come after a busy work day for nothing. But it was not all a waste, the trial had shades of teaching patience, appreciating friendship, and a dose of "what goes around comes around" that made my heart smile.