The Lost Key

I recently enjoyed a week-long trip to the North Carolina mountains to enjoy the scenery and get away for a while.  I normally stay at the same quaint motel and decided this time would be no exception.  The twelve rooms were tucked into a small corner of the town and the time I spent there was both quiet and enjoyable.

Upon my arrival, I was given the room key on a green key fob that simply bore the number “11.”  I usually requested room twelve, but it had already been taken by a couple visiting from Australia.  So room eleven it would be.

On the last full day of my adventure, the sun was scheduled to rise at 7:16 a.m.  I decided early on that morning to go the the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway to try to get some pictures.  Although it was quite chilly that morning, the decision to go was a good one.  After warming myself with a large cup of coffee, I headed out and got some really scenic pictures of the sun rising.

I continued my journey afterwards, venturing to several small nearby towns to see the sights and get some more shots.  When I finished the sixty mile round-trip, I was disheartened to find that I couldn’t locate the room key.  I searched in my car and it was nowhere to be found.  Thinking I had perhaps left it in the room, I got an extra key from the innkeeper and scoured the room looking for it.   No key was to be found.

After pondering awhile, I figured the only solution was to retrace my steps and see if I had dropped it somewhere.  I was thinking one of the several shops I had visited would perhaps have had someone turn it in to them.  The first stop that day was at an overlook to get the sunrise pictures.  I really didn’t think it would be there, but thought that was the most logical place to start.  All the while, I kept a positive frame of mind, knowing that keys just didn’t float into thin air.  But I also realized my chances of finding it weren’t that great.

Upon arriving at the overlook, I examined the ground on the area I had walked and it was nowhere to be found.  I then remembered I had crossed the road over to the other side to get some early morning pictures from there.  Imagine my pleasant surprise to see the green key fob emblazoned with the number 11 that was attached to my room key.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief with the realization that I wasn’t going to have to retrace all of the many stops I had taken that day.

Best I can figure, I had dropped the key out of my pocket while taking pictures that morning.  I’m still not quite sure how that happened, but it certainly did.  Someone else on the trail that day must have seen it and wanted to make sure the owner got it back.  But the fob didn’t contain the name of the motel, only the room number.  So this person decided to leave it there, on a rock where the person who had lost it would easily see it.

I’ll never know who it was that found the key and placed it on the rock that day….All I know is that I was so very grateful that whoever it was had decided to be of good nature and place it where it would be easily seen.  They must have, in some way, known the person that had lost it, in this case me, would return to try to find it.

There are times in life when we lose things of value to us…perhaps it’s a key or card of some sort….or just perhaps it’s a person that was an important part of our lives.  We can go in search of those things lost and may or may not find them along the way.  But I know for certain that if I hadn’t taken the action to find the key that day, I wouldn’t have found it.  I had to keep the faith that I might just find it and all the while realize it might be lost forever.  Such is life.

David Lee