Prompt 2 - Lost Key
Characters: Charlie and Claire
"Claire?" Charlie called. He was standing outside their house holding two bags of groceries. He moved one bag to the other hand and rummaged through his pockets.
"Yeah Charlie?" Claire called from the car- she was unbuckling Aaron from his car-seat.
"Where's the key?" Claire pulled out of the car and looked over at him, now holding Aaron.
"It's not in your pocket?" She called back, giving him a confused look.
"No! I've checked it at least three times by now!" He answered, glancing back at her.
"How could you lose the key? I thought you said you were going to put it in your pocket 'for safe keeping'?" She asked. He turned around to face her and shrugged. She shook her head and sighed. "You have got to stop losing things, Charlie!"
"Oh c'mon, I don't lose everything!" He complained.
"Oh yes you do!" She said, laughing. "Remember Aaron's polar bear stuffy?"
"I never did like that thing..." He muttered. He'd had a bit of a phobia of polar bears since they'd gotten off the island, but then again getting attacked by one would do that to you.
"And you've lost, what, twelve pairs of sunglasses in the past month?" She grinned, walking over to him with Aaron still in her arms.
"Okay, so I lose things a lot." He admitted. "But that still doesn't solve out missing key dillemma."
"Try your other pocket." Claire suggested. He moved the grocery bags over to his over hand and dug through his other pocket... Still nothing. "Did you check all your pockets?" She asked.
"I only have two pockets, Claire." He told her, as if it was something as obvious as the sky being blue.
"Well sometimes you wear those pants with the extra pockets in the back." She said.
"... Oh yeah."
She rolled her eyes playfully and looked over at the door. "We really should keep an extra key some place..." She commented. She heard no reply from Charlie, and glanced around for him only to see that he was gone. "Charlie?" She called. "Where'd you go?"
"I'm back here Claire!" She heard him call from the other side of the house. She sighed and went around to where he was, knowing that he was probably doing some crazy stunt.
"Charlie get down from there, you're going to get hurt!" Claire yelled up at him. He had climbed up a large three in their yard, after dumping the groceries by a bush, and was now trying to climb across one of the longer branches, which led to Aaron's playroom window.
"Relax Claire, I'll be fine!" He called back, glancing down at her. He tried to walk across the branch like a tight-rope walker, but he started to wobble and nearly fell off, which caused Claire to gasp.
"And what's going to happen if you're not?" She asked- she would have had her hands on her hips, if she wasn't still holding Aaron.
"I'll be fine!" He repeated, looking down at her once again. "Don't worry, Claire! Just go by the door and wait for me, okay?" She sighed and reluctantly agreed.
"Well alright... But if you fall out of the tree and break your leg, it's your own fault!" She added as she left. He sighed and went down onto his stomach. The 'rock star' then started to crawl across the tree-branch, looking kind of like a caterpillar. Finally he reached the window and tried to open it... But it was locked.
"Of course." He groaned, suddenly remembering that they always kept Aaron's window locked, specifcally for if some one decided to climb up the tree and try to get in. He looked down and saw the window to the living room. Sighing, he turned and climbed back down the tree, then went over to the living room window. It opened easily. He wondered for a moment if it was really safe to keep their living room window unlocked like that, when they always kept Aaron's window locked. If anything, it would have made more sense to keep the lower floor's windows locked. He quickly shrugged the thought off for a slightly more obvious one: "... Why didn't I just do that before?" Shaking his head slightly at his own stupidity, he sighed and climbed in through the window.
"Ta-da!" He announed happily, opening the front door. "Told ya I could do it." He said proudly, grinning at Claire.
"You should just be happy you didn't get hurt." She told him playfully, smirking as she went inside. "Oh, hey, don't forget the groceries." She reminded him.
"Oh yeah." Charlie laughed and went back out through the window to get the groceries. ... His ideas didn't always make sense.
---
The next day the family came home from shopping for clothes for Aaron- he was a little over a year old by now, and was starting to outgrow his old clothing. Charlie went up to the door, holding the bags, while Claire went to get her son out of his car seat.
"Claire?" Her fiancé- that's right, they were going to get married- called from the door.
"Yeah Charlie?" She asked, taking her head out and looking over at him.
"Where's the key?"