A momentary lapse of concentration

I arranged the purchased packet of items into my car trunk. As I laid down the last item into the trunk, I sensed a fleeting image of a person, and in order to take a better look, I closed the trunk and looked sideways. Satisfying my curiosity, I put back the trolley in its right place, and again came back in front of my car, and put hands in my pocket for the key. Surprisingly, I could not feel it, and so I made a thorough search of the four pockets - everything else was there, except the key. As I was thinking that somehow the key got dropped into the grocery store, after a moment I discarded the idea, because in that case, I would not have been able to open the trunk in the first place. Hence, the only possibility is that I have placed the key into the trunk (as the "last item" ) and closed it.

After pondering for a minute or two, the possibility changed into certainty in my mind. Fortunately, I had a duplicate key, but it was in my apartment. So I started calling my friends asking for a ride to my apartment, get the key, and return once again here.

But again, today is Friday afternoon, in fact the last Friday before the beginning of a new semester. So, I failed in the first 4 occasions. Either they were busy someplace else, or they had already started their Friday activities, or somebody else had taken their cars out! I was getting a bit tensed, because my sources were getting exhausted without any result, and hence the only possibility of calling a key-maker to get a new key was looming large. Well, this one would be both time consuming and expensive. I tried to make a last call, before switching into this option.

Surprisingly, it worked. This friend had just returned from his office, and agreed to help me. I was relieved a lot, as can be assumed. After that, it became very simple, and within 40 minutes, I was back home with my car.

But what made me absent-minded for a second? Well, to admit the truth, the fleeting image was that of a mind-blowing beautiful girl, who passed by me, lit a cigarette, got into her car and went away! Women, especially pretty women, have allured men into certain wrongdoings since time immemorial, and this case was no exception. Although the impact here was negligible, but the truth was verified yet again!