For Brenda and Sue

By Belinda

Today after our Good Friday communion service, our family got together for Easter dinner. In the afternoon, I got out the treats I had bought for our six grandchildren. I'd chosen them with care--chocolate hockey players for the two boys, and prettily boxed Belgian chocolates for the four girls. I swear there was nothing on the boxes to indicate that some of the chocolates were liqueurs! To my dismay though, when my daughter-in-law Sue looked at the little paper in the box that described the selection of chocolates, she quickly noticed! 

That resulted in an afternoon of leg pulling and funny stories, including the one below, a favourite that makes us laugh every time someone says, "Remember the time mom parked her car..."

Brenda and Sue suggested that I re-post the story, so here it is....
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I was on my way back to the office from a morning meeting; a trip that went right past a Jones of New York store at lunch time. 

The sign advertising a January sale caught my eye. I had half an hour for lunch, so I pulled into the large parking lot of the strip mall and parked my car as close as I could to the store. Then I splashed my way across the parking lot full of   slushy snow, with all speed.

I can power shop with the best, and thirty minutes later, having tried on about ten tops, I emerged with a zippy little black and white one that I liked, for only $14.99!

I fished in my purse for the automatic car starter, pointed it in the direction I'd left my car, while pushing the buttons that start the car and unlock the doors. Then I looked for a car with a running engine. I soon spotted my car. The engine wasn't running but the doors were unlocked. Not surprising; I needed to buy new batteries and the starter didn't always work first time.

As I got in, I noticed that the hand brake was on. I never use the handbrake, so I had the strangest feeling that someone had been in the car. My snow brush was still down on the floor on the passenger side, but I glanced around the car quickly to make sure my briefcase was there.

As I released the handbrake I simultaneously noticed three things: the gloves on the back seat were blue, and mine are black; I realized that this was a standard shift car and mine is not; and I saw that the car had been left in neutral, because it was rolling forward into the lane that ran between the rows of parked cars! As the realization dawned that I was in someone else's car, I desperately hit the brakes to stop it going any further.

The car had stopped halfway across the lane, but I had no way of getting it back to its original position or of knowing who or where the owner of the car was.

I didn't know what else to do, so rather sheepishly I put the handbrake back on, got out and carefully closed the door. Then I went back to innocently looking for my own car.

I imagined the puzzled owner coming back and finding that his or her car had moved forward into the traffic lane. It would be one of life's mysteries to them.

As I glanced over my shoulder, I saw the driver of the vehicle that had been parked across the lane from the moved car, trying with great difficulty to back out into an impossibly tight space. Yes, I admit it, I quickened my pace towards my car.

Warning: never leave your car unlocked in a parking lot. It can be hazardous!