That Stupid American Flag Key

      This summer among some of the other things that I did, I babysat. I had gotten a message from someone I knew asking if I could babysit for their daughter’s boyfriend’s daughter. She is twelve. I, of course, agreed to babysit because I like kids and I needed the money.

      The first day that I went to babysit, I woke up at 5:30 so I could be there for 7. I got ready for the day and I left early enough to make sure I had time to get there and possibly get lost too and still be there 5 minutes early. I get lost a lot. So I was on my way. I made it there fine and I did not get lost at all. I found the door that said 10 and rang the doorbell. I was greeted by dog barking and a man opened the front door. I walked in and I was introduced to Kayla, the girl I was babysitting and to the dog, Mack. I was then told all of the information that I would need for the day, including contact information, lunchtime, shows we could watch, and where the American flag house key was.

     After her parents left, I got to know Kayla. She is a cute kid, she is very tomboyish. We talked for a while and then put on one of the shows she could watch. It was a cooking show that is on Netflix. We watched the show and talked for a while and before we knew it, it was almost lunch time. When we were watching the show, Mack, had started whining a little. Kayla was convinced that he need to go out so she got his harness and leash and we got ready to go outside. We headed outside with Mack, who seemed ecstatic to be outside.

     It was very hot and humid outside and there were gray clouds overhead. Kayla let Mack lead her around and I followed where they went. Mack was intrigued by the sticks on the edge of the woods area. Whenever we tried to get Mack to head back towards the house, he decided that he wanted to go in a different direction. Kalya and I walked Mack around for about thirty minutes.

     We had finally got Mack back to the front door and Kayla and I were ready for lunch. I walked up to the front door. Turned the door knob but it did not turn with my hand. Uh oh. I tried turning it the other way which had a similar result. Kayla looks at me and says, “So where’s the house key?”

     “I left it inside, I didn’t know the door was locked” I tell her. She goes around back to see if the back door is unlocked and I stay at the front door with Mack who decided to take a nap in the shade, unaware of my distress. The door knob had turned from the inside so I didn’t know that it was locked. Kayla returns from the other side of the house and informs me that the back door is also locked. I take out my phone and text Christine, hoping she’ll respond soon. We sit in the shade and begin our wait. I feel my phone go off a few minutes later. Their neighbor had a spare key and would be there soon to let us back in. Thank goodness! I had been freaking about what would happen and what they would say when I told them I had gotten us locked out, even though it truly was just a mistake. Everyone was really great about it though.

     Eventually, after about ten more minutes of waiting, we were finally let back into the house. The other days that I babysat there, they made sure I knew that they were leaving the door unlocked and they made sure I knew where that American flag house key was. We did not get locked out again!