THE BROKEN KEY

It is Friday, July 8, 2022. Let's take a mental health break from all the heavy news of late in our lives. It will be a good way to end the week. I will share with you an unusual incident that happened to me recently. You may find this of interest. Perhaps it will lighten your day as it did mine.

My only sister lives in Mississippi. We have always been close. Both of us have been going through some rough patches in our lives lately and so we decided we would take off a couple of days for R & R at a resort. We were to meet each other there at noon.

When I arrived, I found her sitting in her Honda Accord with the motor off and all windows down. She was in tears and shaking. "My key is broken!" she exclaimed. "What am I going to do?" she sobbed, "I can't start the car or roll up the windows." Sure enough, her car key had disintegrated (it was not the time to ask why). Strangely enough it had happened right after she had arrived. It was one of those remote control keys with the little buttons on it. The metal piece that goes in the ignition would not work without the rest of the key all intact. She had no other car key with her. 

We decided we might be able to duct tape the key to hold it together so I went to a nearby store and bought a roll (I have since decided that all cars should carry duct tape). We worked and worked with the little key. It was not easy to duct tape it together but we finally managed. We slid the key into the ignition. Low and behold, our patched-up key worked. The car started, much to our relief.

How long would the tape hold? Our precarious rig was not reassuring. We decided to call the nearest Honda dealer to see if we could get a new, duplicate key. The dealer turned out to be forty miles away. They had the key in stock but told us we would have to bring in the car to program the car to the key. Could we get the car to the dealership?

Next morning, we crossed our fingers, held our breath, cranked up the car and drove to the Honda dealership. We made it only to find a long line of cars waiting for service. Three hours wait, if you are lucky, they said. We assured them we did not care as long as we got a new key. (They laughed when they saw our duct taped key.)

Exhausted and flustered, we went outside to sit on a bench and get some fresh air while we passed the time. A young woman was sitting on the bench and motioned for us to join her. She turned out to be a college student who worked as a clerk at a Wal-Mart pharmacy. She was a bubbly, talkative young woman who kept us in stitches for an hour with humorous incidents at work. She was a natural comedienne who should be on the stage. My sister and I laughed and laughed. It was just what we needed. All of our cares evaporated.

Eventually, a large pickup truck drove up and stopped in front of us. Out hopped an elderly man without a right arm. He waved with his one arm and chatted a minute, then proceeded to collect large parts he had ordered. With his left arm, he alone loaded all the heavy packages into the bed of his truck. The man then waved, jumped back into the truck and drove away. My sister and I looked at each other in disbelief.

By this time we were wishing for some cooler air, so we went inside the dealership where the several salesmen were sitting around shooting the breeze. There were no customers. We struck up a conversation with one. He told us they had only eight new vehicles for sale and they were the gas guzzlers that no one wanted at that time with the high price of gas. On the used car lot, they had one vehicle, a pickup truck that had seen better days. We asked the salesman how he was managing with practically no vehicles to sell. His face turned grim and he said softly, "It is hard, very hard, and scary." Working on commission meant he might have little to no income for awhile. He too was a victim of covid.

Soon thereafter, we collected the new key and drove off. I said to my sister, "We are much better off today than we were yesterday. Your broken key led us to three blessings that we would not have had otherwise." The college girl entertained us for an hour and taught us not to take things too seriously. If she could find humor at a pharmacy in Wal-Mart, we could find it anywhere. That girl will never know how much she helped us, how much she meant to us at that particular moment.

The one-armed man taught us to be thankful we have all of our limbs but he also inspired us by his jovial can-do attitude. He acted as if he had no disability at all. He went right on with life making the best of things. If he could do that, we could too.

The salesman taught us to be thankful for our guaranteed monthly incomes. We must never complain about how much they are, just be grateful that they were there at all. Imagine having to live month to month with no idea how much income one would have the next payday. 

The broken key was the best thing that had happened to us in a long time. It came at just the moment we needed it the most. We have been counting our blessings ever since, most especially the three completely unexpected ones we had that day. When we finally ended our stay at the resort, we left better off, not from our stay so much as from the broken key.