Once upon a time there were two little boys who liked to do many naughty things. Two of these naughty things were:
1. Climbing on top of the kitchen counters, and
2. Throwing anything and everything they could get their grubby little paws on, away.
This second point of naughtiness caused their mother great consternation. Many a spoon, sippycup, toy, and other such things had met their fateful end at the bottom of the garbage bin; not to be found missing until it was too late.
It was common knowledge that on the island countertop there was a little blue, clay bowl (made by father many years ago) which held mother’s keys. They were placed here because they were in an easy place to grab when running out the door, and it was the only place the mother could remember to put them or retrieve them.
One day, the mother and boys came home from just another of many, many errands. She put her keys into the bowl, and the little boys went off to play. Later that day, the mother came up the stairs to find her boys on the kitchen counter, playing. She sternly scolded them and set them back on the ground. But, as fortune would have it, the next day when the mother went to grab her keys to run an errand, they were not there. In the mother’s mind she could clearly see her boys playing on the counter from the day before…and knew the keys had probably come to a very unfortunate end. She ran around the house, crazed, looking in all the toys’ and clothes’ bins; ripping apart the couches, moving the couches and other furniture, all in vain. She searched every purse, jacket, and pair of pants she had worn in the past month all for nothing. Her keys had been thrown away, and now they were Heaven knew where, in Heaven knew what, kind of junk.
When the father got home that night she relayed the story to which he replied, “It’s ok. We’ll just get another one made at the store”. For the moment the mother was consoled. But the next day as they sat at the store listening to the Key Maker, they could not believe their ears, “This van key will cost $40 to replace. It has a special chip in it”. The father and mother were floored, and years of owning only $600 cars which had $2 keys led them to walk away without the replacement; unable to pay the money required for a simple key. (Not because they were poor…but because they refused to pay that much for a key. They had been conditioned, after all).
The months (7-8) which followed were full of fear and frustration for the mother. Fear that she would lose the one and only key left to the van…(and to the house…and to the car); and be out $80 instead of just $40, and not be able to drive anywhere. And frustrated over so much time wasted putting kicking screaming kids in the van, only to take them out again to change diapers etc; finally getting them in the van and ready to go, only to realize she could not find the one key anywhere, and now all her hurrying and readying the kids was for nothing. On these days she would sometimes just sit in the van and cry; tears streaming down her face, sobbing uncontrollably. There were also times when the key would get tossed into the big outside garbage can while she was throwing things away; and then she was down on the ground, crawling head first into diapers, poop, and other disgusting waste…all for a key.
Well, the months passed, and one December evening the mother thought it would be fun to make some brownies. She went downstairs to look through her boxes of cake mixes, and spied a box which contained multiple packages of Ghirardelli brownies. As she stuck her hand inside to pull out a package, she felt something hard and metal. Confused, she looked in the box and saw…
her KEYS!!!! It was a Christmas Miracle! She had thought them lost forever, but there they were! Her immediate reaction was to run screaming and shrieking through the house saying “Look what I found! Look what I found!”. The father was stunned, but quickly started jumping up and down for joy also. This was truly a happy, very special day! And it taught the mother many important things: 1) don’t always assume the worst from your kids, 2) be grateful for the small things in life, and the big findings, and 3) don’t wait 8 months between making brownies.
The End :)
Oh, and writing a novel is on my bucket list. We’ll see. I have very little patience and self-diagnosed ADD. But someday…that would be a dream come true. 
