Mother forgets car, son

When Sheila got home and prepared to fix her family some dinner, she had a feeling that something was different, she just couldn't put her finger on what it was.

 

She looked around the house, paying particular attention to the route she had taken to the kitchen from the front door.

 

Her keys to both the house and the car were on the tray by the front door. That was ok.

 

She peered out the front window and saw that the garage door was closed. That was ok.

 

In the living room, her two-year-old son Evan's toys were all put away neatly. That was ok.

 

She checked on the playpen near the dining table where even watched her cook and he was not in there struggling. that was ok.

 

Then it hit her like a tonne of bricks! She didn't have her car!

 

"D****t, not again," she yelled at the top of her lungs at the empty driveway.

 

Her husband came running down the stairs thinking the 'not again' was in reference to burning the spaghetti or stepping on the cats tail.

 

"What's up?" he asked in a casual tone that indicated he really didn't know what the problem was.

 

"I lost the car again!" Sheila yelled again at the top of her lungs but this time at a shocked husband as opposed to the empty driveway.

 

"You lost the car again?" he asked incredulously.

 

"Yes, I brought the car with me to the grocery store and when I got home, I didn't have it any more. That's called losing something."

 

"Well I doubt it's lost, if you brought it with you to the grocery store, I'm willing to bet you left it at the grocery store," he tried to explain.

 

"I'm glad you see it that way Mr. Rose-colored-glasses, but I think it's lost. If it had been at the grocery store, why isn't it now in the driveway?"

 

"Because you walked home and left it there?"

 

"I walked home from the grocery store with all the bags of groceries, leaving the car in the parking lot? Are you suggesting I'm an idiot?" she asked angrily.

 

"I don't know that's what I'm suggesting, but I am indeed suggesting that you're strong as a damn bull if you walked all the way home with six bags of groceries and a child," he answered, trying to calm the argument waters.

 

"The child, why did you say I carried the child?" she asked.

 

"Because you brought Evan with you."

 

"Christ."

 

"You lost the child," her husband said under his breath as he moved toward the phone to call the police and let them know the situation.

 

"Wait!' she yelled after him. "You said the car wasn't lost. You said it was at the grocery store. So really I didn't lose Evan either."

 

"Honestly Sheila, you forgot our son in a car that you forgot in a grocery store parking lot, what the hell?"

 

"The groceries were heavy, I couldn't have carried all of them and a kid home with me," she tried to plead.

 

"That's what the car was for---to get from point here to point there and then back to point here. Not point here to point there and then stay at point there growing rust."

 

"You're acting as though I robbed a bank or something. You know I didn't rob a bank, I didn't kill a person, I didn't kidnap a child. It's not the end of the world. Look outside, the world is still turning."

 

"You can't tell that by looking outside rocket scientist and I'm not acting like you robbed a bank. I'm acting like you went to the store to get groceries and came back without a car and without our only child."

 

"So you would rather I didn't buy groceries any more? You'd like to eat our furniture until we have nothing left in the house is that it?" she went on, hoping he'd bite on her faulty logic and start to forgive her.

 

"You are not a smart person are you?" he asked, not biting on the faulty logic.

 

Sheila clammed up and started to cry, a ploy she hoped would make her husband stop making so much sense.

 

"Sheila your crying looks like a laugh," he said noting the lack of tears and hint of smile on her face, calling her on her emotional bluff. "I know you want me to stop making sense and if it was just the car you forgot that would be one thing, but our kid is in the backseat for god's sake. Can you just go get him, get in the car and drive back?"

 

"It's not like I didn't put him in the carseat," she defended herself. "He's safer there than if he tried to get back on his own."

 

"Oh my god Sheila, who cares. Is he safer here with us or in the car even in a carseat?"

 

"That's for god to decide, isn't it?"

 

"No, that's for us to decide. That's why they call us guardians of our son. If we were called 'do nothing's as god leaves your child in a carseat in a car you somehow left in a grocery store parking lot' I would think we were doing a bang up job."

 

"Now you're just making fun of me," Sheila said, now bordering on actual tears.

 

"I'm going to get Evan," he husband said, exasperated with the conversation.

 

"Bring back the car when you go," she said before he could close the door behind him.

 

"I'm aware of that Sheila," he said then slammed the door quickly before she could say another word.

 

"It doesn't take a brain surgeon to forget to drive home though."

Reviews

[Eira]

Hm... based on the ending I'd say he either leaves her or she wants him to leave? A bit confusing. Also I think it got kind of lost there in the middle if she did carry the groceries or not.
Bur all in all a rather nice humouristic piece.