Friday, April 20, 2012

4-20-12 and this is when you're sure the mind is starting to go...

Three days out of the week, Sam's is standing outside of school at exactly 11:24 for me to pick her up for lunch.

At precisely 11:26 today I glance at my computer's time and leap up, realizing I'm sure to be hearing a text alert or the cell start to ring with her irritated "are you on your way?" question.

I have socks on, can't locate the slip-ons, grab the flip flops, decide I've already wasted a minute I didn't have, and for some reason, just carry the flip flops with me into the car, still wearing the socks. I do not check for Witnesses.

The drive to the school takes me approximately 90 seconds, assuming no stops for other vehicles. I text one-handed and not looking down "onway" to her. It's about at the 70 second mark, just in sight of the school that it occurs to me....

Sam isn't at school today.

No one is at school today.

It's 4/20, the anniversary of Columbine, and I had to remind myself this morning not to wake her up because I thought she'd hit the snooze one too many times and was late.

About this time, as I'm making the turn around, the phone rings.

Sam, home of course, has received the text just a minute after hearing me pound down the stairs, into the car, and out the driveway, too late to stop her mother from picking her up from somewhere else.

I answer the phone: "Yes, I realize this. I'm on my way back."

She's standing at the garage door with a smirk on her face.

I'm still holding my flip flops.

She says, "I wondered what all that was. Didn't you hear me let Katy outside earlier?"

Well, come to think of it, I did wonder why the dogs sounded like someone was walking around downstairs. And the cat had started meowing around then. I'd thought it was them trying to herd her.

(By the by, any aspiring home invaders who are also blog readers out there, be warned, I do still have a barking dog, so don't get any ideas that everyone around can just roam the first floor of the house with impunity. And don't try ringing the doorbell. ;)


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