Tuesday, July 15, 2014

team work

I came out into the bright sun and headed across the parking lot to my car.  Standing by the door, key in hand, I found myself staring in my car windows. Was it really my car? The key didn't fit.
I tried again.
Nope.
I peered at my license plate.
My car alright.
What in the world?......
I walked around to the passenger side and unlocked the door.
I reached across and unlocked the driver side.
Back I went, and into the car.
I didn't really think about the lock driving home.
I just assumed the lock had seized up.
Just needed a squirt of oil.....
When I climbed the stair at home, I mentioned the lock to my husband.
He disappeared out the door in a flash.
Moments later he appeared.
It was just as he suspected.
A broken key was jammed in the lock.
He headed for his shop bench and I headed for Google.
I've come to think of Google as The Wise Man of the Mountain.
My husband headed back out armed with a handful of lock picking sorts of things.
I hunkered down in front of the computer and watched a youtube video showing Nine Ways to Remove a Broken Key.
My husband toiled on.
When he returned to the shop for smaller tools,
I tried one of the nine ways but it just didn't work without a second set of hands.
Back he came.
Grimly he crouched by the car door and squinted at the lock as he gripped impossibly small tools with his big hands.
He didn't want my help.
He didn't want my suggestions.
He didn't want the broken key to be in our lock.
There are shifting dynamics in marriage.
I suppose it is because even though we are married to the same person for many years, even though our friendship remains constant, our inner life does not.
It shifts and changes.
There was a time when I would have resented my husband not gladly accepting my help,
not welcoming working as a team.
On that day, I just felt pity.
And, when he disappeared yet again in what I could tell from experience was getting close to being his last desperate effort, I hunkered down before the door and tried one of the Nine Ways to Remove a Broken Key again.
Just as I jiggled the broken piece of key to the edge of the lock, my eyes crossing, my husband appeared like the cavalry over the hill and plucked it out with tweezers.
Team work.

4 comments:

  1. You've captured the essence of a long marriage beautifully! Do you think someone else thought your car was theirs and tried to unlock the door?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Long marriages are a story waiting to happen. Opposites attract which is kind of a joke on us all.
    I work in an area that is known for crime, so it is more likely that someone was trying to steal the car. It was stolen once a few years ago while my husband was at work in a similarly dicey neighborhood.The police called him at work to let him know they had found it and he hadn't even known that it was gone.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought that maybe someone had been tryng to break into your car. I've just popped over to say thank you for your comment on my last post. I do get in a tizzy sometimes, and my blog can often bear the brunt of it. I have really enjoyed reading your posts.
    Leanne xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh hello Leanne!
    How wonderful that you have dropped by.
    Tizzy-ness is a universal dilemma. You spoke very heartfully for us all and there is such a comfort in that. Not in a misery loves company sort of way but in a fellow struggler on the road of life sort of way. Hope you have many joyous times this summer.

    ReplyDelete