Adventure...

[helen99]

Since it was a wonderful, blustery Autumn night, we decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood (it was around 9:30 or so). The weather was clear and crisp and smelled of turning leaves. We meandered here and there, purposely avoiding any direct routes and taking our time, enjoying the night. Finally, we returned to the house, and I said, "are you sure you want to go back in, it's so nice out...?" To which rialian replied, "Hold that thought" and began fumbling around in his pocket for the keys - and they weren't there.

Now, I never trust other people to remember keys, even someone who always remembers to bring them. But for some reason, this time I totally forgot to bring my keys with me. On the way out the door, I had realized I didn't have them and anxiously asked rialian if he had his, and he said he did. But at the end of the walk he realized he really didn't have them at all... Turned out he'd grabbed my car keys by mistake - his house keys were inside the house in another jacket. Oops.

We mulled over what to do. Worst case scenario, call the fire department and ask for them to bring a ladder (by a stroke of good luck, we *did* have a cellphone with us). But we wanted to avoid that if at all possible...

First we tested all the first floor windows. Locked and impenetrable (which made me happy - at least we were careful). Fortunately for us, we had left a second-story window open when we left the house. Question was, how to get to it.

I have a six-foot ladder, and the open window was about 20 feet up... There are trees close by but not close enough. The neighbors may have had a 20-foot ladder, but their lights were all out - we didn't want to disturb them. I thought maybe I'd given a key to my mom at some point, so I called her. Turns out I gave them a key years ago, but have since changed the locks and so the obsolete key was thrown out. But it also turned out they had a 10-foot ladder. That was still too short to reach the window, but I asked my brother to bring it anyway... I figured there may be something in the yard that could add the needed height.

In my back yard near the faerie cairn was a large bin made of tough plastic that I've had there for several years. In it was some old rotten firewood that had never been burned in the fireplace. The bin is about 3 feet tall - just tall enough that if a 10-foot ladder was placed on top of it, and a 6-foot rialian on top of that, then the 6-foot rialian could get through the bathroom window without having to do an impossible pull-up maneuver. My brother Jason arrived in about half an hour with the ladder, and he and I held the ladder steady on top of the large bin while rialian climbed up into his bathroom window. Presently, all we saw were two large feet sticking out of the window, with the rest of rialian in his bathroom...

He opened the door and let me in, and Jason took the ladder on home.

And thus did end the adventure of the walk with no keys...

rialian thinks the whole thing was planned by the faeries to get rid of the big plastic thing from the area of the faerie cairn. I tend to agree...