I was at the store today, picking up some fruit since I gave up chocolate a few days ago. That’s right, fruit. I need something to combat these vicious cravings that hit me about 9pm at night. Instead of reaching for that Hershey bar, yours truly will now be reaching for some grapes and strawberries. I walked out of the store with my fruit in hand, and walked to the spot where I parked my car. My Jeep with the pink Vodkacalling.com sticker on the back was nowhere to be found. In a panic, I started walking fast down each line of cars. Nothing. Instantly, I was brought back to another time when I came out to find my car…gone.

It was 6:45am and as usual, I was running late for work. I grabbed my coffee and purse, while saying goodbye to Jen and Alphonso. They were still up from the night before, playing with makeup and gossiping about the latest drama at work. As much as I wanted to hear about how a cashier had two possible baby daddies’, I didn’t want to get “the talk” from my supervisor about being late again. I made my way down to the parking garage and got ready to get into my car…except there was no car. I freaked out and ran back upstairs.

“Did one of you guys move my car?” I said, trying to remain somewhat calm.

“What are you talking about?” Jen asked, looking at Alphonso, who happened to not even have his license.

“My car is gone!” I screamed at the two of them, irritated at their blatant obliviousness.

I grabbed the phone and called 911.

“Yes, my car has been stolen. No I don’t know who stole it. Yes, it has a bumper sticker that says, “Don’t hate the game, hate the player”.

This dispatcher was getting on my damn nerves with her questions.

As I am in a full out meltdown, I look over and Alphonso is doing something with Jen’s eyebrows. Am I in the twilight zone or what?

After pulling myself together, I realized that I needed to call into work and let them know that I would not be in today.

“Hi, this is Christin, I won’t be in today because my car got stolen”

“Would you be able to come in later, we need coverage in your department”

Was she serious right now?

“No, I can’t come in, I don’t have a car to get there at the moment because it has been STOLEN”

“Oh okay, well will you be in tomorrow?”

Really?! They are more worried about me coming into work than my $20,000 car being taken, probably by hoodlums that are headed to the Mexican border so they can strip it or sell it to the cartel for some beer money.

I hung up the phone, speechless at the lack of urgency anyone had about the situation. Jen and Alphonso were cool as cucumbers, work wanted me to come in and the dispatcher acted like this was the least of her worries.

A few days later and still no car, we needed to groceries. Neither Jen or Alphonso had a car so we had to walk. Alphonso was at work, so Jen put Vinnie in a stroller and the three of us set off for the store. Imagine seeing our little trio walking down the highway: Jen in full hair and makeup with her ankle boots pushing little bald Vinnie in his stroller and me, well, I was irritated and a mess.

An hour later we get to the store. Jen and I were exhausted, but at least Vinnie was sound asleep. We made our way down the aisles, grabbing what we needed, not thinking about how we were going to get the bags home.

After checking out, we hung as many bags as we could on Vinnie’s stroller without it tipping. We still had so many bags. We managed to get all the bags and began our trek home. By about half way home there was no circulation in my hands from the bags, Jen had bags in one hand and pushing a stroller in the other, so we stopped to catch our breath. As we are calculating how far we have to go, a black Mercedes Benz pulled up on the side of the road. I looked at Jen and she looked at me.

My first thought was to run, but how would we run with all these bags and a baby?

“What should we do?” I asked Jen, hoping she could be the voice of reason at this very moment.

“I don’t know, maybe he just needs directions or something.”

“Oh, shit Jen, he’s getting out of his car”

“Just calm down, let me handle it”

As the tall, dark, and very handsome young man came towards us, I just knew we were going to be on the front page of tomorrows newspaper. “Two Federal Way Women and A Baby Are Missing”

“Hey ya’ll, I saw you guys standing on the side of the highway, did you guys need a ride somewhere?”

I looked over at Jen because she said she would “handle it”.

“No, we’re okay. Thanks.”

The young man walked closer and held out his hand.
“Hi, I’m Jordan, nice to meet you”

……