My daughter will want to kill me when she reads this. She won't think this is very funny.
On an ordinary school day, my oldest arrives home around 3pm. My son, although 4 years younger, does not finish school until around 4 pm. So on this particular day, when my daughter arrives home from school, we decide to take our 4 legged little girls for a walk, but we decide to drive to Tyler's school and use his school as our starting point. This makes it easier as when we get back from our walk, as we meet Tyler at his classroom. The 2 children and the 2 dogs pile into the car and we start for home. But Tyler needs new runners, so I decide to make a quick stop at the sports store at the mall. Hunter chooses to sit in the car with the dogs, and I expect to be not more than 20 minutes. Just before I get out of the car, Hunter asks if she can listen to the radio while we are shopping. I leave the radio on for her.
Tyler and I head into the sports store. He is not a big shopper and he quickly narrows down his choices to 2 pairs of runners that he would like to try on. He tries on the first pair and runs around the store to see how they feel. This always cracks me up. Then he tries on the second pair and takes another lap around the store to see how they feel. He decides that he likes the first pair the best and just as as we are boxing up the first pair to go to the counter....in walks Hunter.
She announces to me, "I was bored, so I decided to come in. But don't worry Mom, 'cause I locked the dogs in the car."
While I was blissfully unaware, my daughter's grade 8 brain had suddenly disconnected itself.
I hear myself squeak out, "But Hunter, where are the car keys?"
Her blue eyes blink at me. "Huh?"
"Hunter, you wanted to listen to the radio. The keys are in the ignition!!"
Big blue eyes look at me. "Oh."
Yes. Ooooooh.
I tell the sales clerk that we will be back to pay for the runners. I rush out to the car to confirm with my eyes what my brain is telling me. The keys are hanging from the ignition. And just when I am fighting the brain fog to figure out what to do.... I hear it.
Bawling. Tyler is bawling.
A big, loud fog horn bawl. It echoes across the parking lot.
He is worried that the dogs will die of thirst or starvation before we get them out. His green eyes are puddled with tears. I assure him that the dogs will be fine...we did leave the windows down about 2 inches....plenty for fresh air. But not plenty for an arm to slip through.
My husband is in Cleveland for work. He will not be home for 2 more days.Our extra set of keys are with him. I know that we can call the automobile association to get a tow truck, but sometimes it can take hours. I go into the mall to get 2 wire coat hangers, but I have never tried this trick before. I really don't know what I am doing, but I have long heard stories of how bent coat hangers can save the day. This is the part where my brain disconnects. I try the old trick of trying to get the coat hanger wrapped around the hook thingy for the lock on the door. I really don't know what I was thinking. It doesn't work, of course. I call the car dealership where we get our car serviced and tell them about my predicament. Now, back in my little hometown, they would have sent out a cute back shop boy with a master key to come to your rescue. However, this is the big city....they don't do things like that...they are too busy.
Hmmm.
Just when I am weighing my options{Call tow truck. Wait for tow truck. Walk home. Call tow truck from home}, a few parking stalls over, my cute boy does arrive.... in the form of a red Ford truck. He gets out of his truck and asks us, "Did you guys lock yourselves out of your car?". Before I can even say yes, he is over taking the coat hanger out of my hands. He see the red crying eyes of my nine year old and says, "Don't cry Buddy! We'll get the door open!". I feel instantly grateful to this young man. I can also tell by the look in his eyes that he is determined to get our car open for us. He tells us that he has locked himself out of his car lots of times and he always gets the door open. Great! We are being helped by a cute MacGuyver. After 40 minutes of fiddling, he finally gets enough pressure on the lock button with the coat hanger and we hear the 'click' of the doors unlocking. I have never wanted to hug and kiss a complete stranger so much in my entire life. My children get to see a good samaritan in action.
I thank him profusely for taking the time to help us. I ask him for his mailing address so I can mail him a thank you. We leave, waving to our hero, and start to head home. Suddenly, I have a thought. I run in quickly to grab a movie gift card for our hero at the grocery store, but by the time we get back to the mall, he is gone. He spent more time helping us than he spent in the mall.
So I mailed the gift card to our hero.
I hope he likes it.
And here's a picture of our pretty little girls when we got home. They don't look any worse for the wear.
