i expected to show up to class much earlier than had actually happened, today...then again, i also did not expect that today i would lock myself out my car for a third time. with the keys inside and everything, my drawings out for the world to see, phone, wallet in the microscopic center console, the whole enchilada.
i was only going to race to the art store across the street and back to buy some erasers....absentmindedly leaving the keys on the passenger seat, locking the car from inside and slamming the door. didn't realize the folly of my ways until i had already crosses the street. s**t.
here's the situation. the car us a 1990 toyota, with little lock "bars" on each door that have to be pulled to unlock. drivers side window, facing the street is very slightly open. i have skinny arms and wrists, but that little slit was far too narrow for me to worm my way in and pop open the lock. no way. the passenger's side window is totally sealed, that's the side where my key is, and it also happens to be the side that afces the sidewalk. now, this isn't exactly a bad neighborhood, it's one of the better spots in town and there's quite a few pedestrians that this hour, but i'm far from comfortable with leaving everything needed to start the thing and take off, right there for the world to see.
so i race into the art store across the street and buy my damn erasers. (83 cents) while it's being ringed up, i make an offhand mention that i have foolishly locked myself out of my camry and i need help. the clerk gives me some...short length of wire bent into a hook, and a wooden thing supposedly made from take and chopsticks. he says it's all he has, i shrug and take it, race back to my toyota.
it's of no use whatsoever, seeing as the door is locked, but using the contraption i am able to hook the wire onto the interior door handle through the opening in the window, and pull it a bit. i feel accomplished, even though i did nothing. this is where my mind starts to race. i return the useless apparatus to the store, and i stand around next to the car, staring, pacing looking more suspicious than usual as i think of my next cunning plan. tiem is running out, only 20 minutes left until my class starts. do i kick the rear right passenger window in and call it a day, explaining to my dad (and the insurance peeps) later? do i ask someone on the street to borrow a phone, to call my dad or a locksmith?
17 minutes left.
after debilitating a bit, i go with option B, i walk into a nearby italian eatery during slow hours, and ask to use their phone to call...someone, i don't even know who yet. an employee is already using it, i have to wait. s**t, again! my plan fades, as quickly as it came.
i walk back into the art store, i figure that if i manage to expend on the hook idea, and obtain a length of wire long and stiff enough to reach across the interior of the car, hook the keys and pull them tough the opening into the window, i may get off scot free. the problem is finding the right wire, most of their stock is brass and aluminum too thin, even if the entire length is folded, and i only have the 4 dollars on me that i used to buy the erasers.
12 minutes left.
i decide to go with aluminum, hopefully i can use it for something after i've managed to break in. i walk with the clerk (she went to high school with me, i bought an art piece from her that still hangs in my room) to the counter to buy the wire when i walk past the dowels.
THE DOWELS! long, tan, beautiful balsa dowels even cheaper than the wire while far more sturdy. screw the wire, i hatch a plan...i will buy the dowel, grab the other wire hook from earlier and tape it onto the end of the dowel, f**k the aluminum, use my invention to fish the keys from the other side of the car, and call it a day.
i'm ringed up, she gives me tape, i craft my tool, i race to the camry.
9 minutes left.
this is the moment of truth. i pray to every god ever created that i will hook the keys by the ring, pull them through the window and earn my freedom. if the tape bond is not strong enough and the two pieces fall apart to the car floor as the keys weigh the hook down, then i'm screwed, utterly finished, beyond saving, i miss my class, i have to leave all of it exposed as i walk the several kilometres home to retrieve the spare keys and just hope than another, more crafty thief does not have his way in my absence.
IT WORKS. ANGELS SING. MY FACE BRIGHTENS. i pull the keys through the window with extreme care and bathe in my self satisfaction. by this point, i have attracted a tiny audience, two men are watching me fish the keys through the windows, and it looks like they are rejoicing with me. i swear i hear a bloke on the street say "car thief..." under his breath. what do i care? i can explain to the cops later.
5 minutes left. the art store closes then, too.
i race back in there and i return their hook, which is not so useless as i had though, after all. i give it to the girl as the is talking to two other people about glues. "success?" "success!" (that wooden thing though...what's up with that?)
molecular biology awaits me. i end up being late after all, but i did enjoy the sound of the 2 litre 4 cylinder engine screaming through a tunnel as i refuse to let my own absentmindedness give me my first tardy of the semester.
now what do i do with the dowel??
_________________
הייתי צוללת עכשיו למים
הכי, הכי עמוקים
לא לשמוע כלום
לא לדעת כלום
וזה הכל אהובי, זה הכל.