Oooh, Eerie, I Must Say

When it comes to the things that go bump in the night, I'm really not too easily bothered. If I can't find a good explanation, I typically think "hmm" and go on with my business. Strangely enough, I'm slightly bothered by the afternoon's events.

The kids came home from school today. The oldest got ready for work. I was getting ready to run to CVS. The youngest decided that he wanted to go along so that he could drive.

Have I mentioned how scary it can be to ride with someone who's just learning to drive? Well, that wasn't the freaky part, but it's enough to make one want to drink heavily.

He has his permit, though he's only in the book part of driver's training. I've let him drive on gravel roads and around our little town, but not in traffic. He was trying to talk me into letting him drive to the store, and well, since I didn't have a sucking chest wound or need some other medical treatment, I thought ah, don't think I'm quite ready for him and traffic.

But, I told him he could take back roads part way there, and then we'd switch.

I could not find my car keys with the house key on it. I knew I had them this morning when I took him to driver's training at the school. I looked in all the usual places - purse, stand by the door, etc. I even looked in the pocket of the sweatshirt I wore this morning. I looked in the kitchen, and they weren't on either of the three built-in shelves at the corner of the cabinets.

I know they weren't there because I picked up a 5 and a 1 dollar bill and moved them to the second shelf, and thought okay, good there's lunch money for the kids tomorrow. The only keys there were some hanging on the nail, no clue what it goes to, and the old truck keys on a bright green key fob.

My car keys were not there. I know they weren't. I moved that money and looked under it. In fact, I'd moved the money to the second shelf.

I walked around looking for my keys and nothing. I went back to the shelf again, and the money was back on the first shelf and there were my keys tucked under the cash. I told the youngest and he kept saying, "Nu uh, that didn't really happen. No way. You're nuts. Nu uh. You're lying." Then he finally says, "That really happened?"

I was like, "Uh, yeah, weird huh?"

So, we get in the car and he does alright except I have to keep telling him not to take off like he needs to be going 50 before he's gone a block. We turned on my brother's road, which is gravel, and went by the old cemetery.

I noticed it looked like someone had been planted recently, so I told him to pull in. It's a big U- shaped drive and the bushes, mainly an evergreen variety which are huge, are dangerously close to the drive unless you ride a bike into the cemetery. I cautioned him to be careful because I didn't want the car scratched.

We looked at the gravestones from the car. I explained the old woman had died recently, and that big rock marking her and her husband's site had been there for many years now, even before he died. I noticed there was some straw down over another fresh grave, and I attempted to read the headstone.

"Pull up a little," I told him. He started driving forward and the doors in the car start locking and unlocking. He freaks and he's asking me did I see that. I saw it, and I had no rational explanation.

He locked the doors with the button that locks all four, and damned if they didn't unlock on their own again. The car does have electronic locks, and they will lock on their own if the car reaches 15 mph. He wasn't going 15 mph, we were creeping forward, and the doors unlocked instead of locking, regardless.

This really freaked the child out, and he's all panicky, and damned if he didn't sideswipe the bushes going out. It didn't scratch the car, but my mirror got some decorative greenery.

I was like holy shit, I told you to watch those bushes. And he said he was too worried about the doors locking and unlocking and such, and my keys missing and appearing, so that's why he hit the bushes.

As I was sitting here after getting back home, I thought I saw a white figure to my left out of the corner of my eye. It's overcast and dark, and no lights were on in the dining room where I saw it, and it gave off a "lighter than light" sort of appearance. Sort of like when I've seen something that was blacker than night, but just the opposite.

Cue the "Twilight Zone" music because it's been a weird a day.