My Monday Morning Mystery

Yesterday, I lost my keys…not an unusual occurrence in my life but that’s the only part of this story that is. Sandy came over to try out puppetry with me. She and I also tried out my new rolling seats that Dad got me. I decided that they were a valuable thing behind stage. That means that I need two more. So we googled where the nearest Sears was…turns out that the Seatac Mall still has its, so we determined to go there. At this point I began the key dance. It’s set to the tune “Where are my keys?” chanted over and over again.
They are not a small set of keys. They have a huge green carabineer, my scion keys and the keyless entry remote, there are 2 retractors, one with Mom’s house keys on them and one with my UPS mail box key and all the store user cards on it, and finally, on a ring with no retractor is my luggage key and my key for my rolling file at work. The whole thing is huge and extends about a foot long—I have to remove the car keys from the carabineer to use it to drive, otherwise the long dangling keys hit my knees over and over again. So…not small.
I looked everywhere I could think of. Sandy helped too after it seemed to be taking me so long. We must have been at it for at least 20 minutes with no luck. Finally, we gave up and she drove us to the Mall. When I got home again, I was determine not to sleep without finding them. I looked for hours…I folded and cleaned…I unmade and remade the bed. I tried to put myself into a trance telling myself to retrace my steps…I lost a few hours there to sleep…heh. I one point I put on a re-enactment of the night before when I got back from the movies and arrived back home. Finally, after hours and hours of cleaning, rearranging, and searching, at about 2 am, I decided to get more sleep. As I drift off to sleep, instead of counting sheep, I repeated over and over “I will wake up remembering exactly where I last saw my keys”. This sort of thing has worked in the past and I was at my wits end.
I woke up the next morning to the chicken alarm, which I didn’t set, to find my keys in bed with me. They were under the covers next to my leg. If you read back a few paragraphs, you will find that I did at one point unmake and remake my bed. How did they get there? That’s my Monday Morning Mystery.
I have some theories…first, I walked in my sleep and continued to search, found them and took them back to bed with me. If I can do that, then I certainly can also set the chicken clock, too. I’m not someone who has been known to walk in my sleep, however. But the rest of my theories are crazier.
My second is the cats played with the keys the night before, hid them, then retrieved them last night, played with them again, then brought them to bed and tucked them under the covers with me. Yeah…oh and set the chicken clock. Are cats that amazing?
The third, and most scary is that some evil stalker stole into my room Saturday night, took my keys and copied them, then returned them last night…tucking them under the covers with me. His motives unknown, but somehow he was able to pick a locked door the night before because I do remember locking it. This nefarious person has also to be in possession of the fact that I am a deep sleeper—so they would know that tucking keys in bed with me would not wake me. They would also need to be aware that I am sleeping in a strange room of the house—not a huge leap if one considers this person should’ve been watching me for many nights. Plus they should also know how to work the stupid chicken clock, which is some what counter intuitive.
Fourth, some friend or family of mine played an evil joke on me…like that’s in character for any of them. Plus all of my family are over six hours drive from me, except of course if it was my estranged husband who did it. That would be less out of character than you think…he’s known as a practical joker. Except, who plays jokes on someone they are desperate to get free of and clearly do not love?
Fifth, call the Ghostbusters, because there’s always the supernatural angle to consider. A poltergeist is enjoying itself by taking and moving things. If I believed in supernatural phenomena, I might be intrigued by the idea. But I don’t.
Alas, we must consider that all things being equal, the simplest theory is the most likely, so the only thing that makes logical sense is that I continued to search in my sleep. But that raise more questions…why was I better able to find something while asleep? Why did I disturb nothing else? Why did I decide to take the keys back to bed with me? Lastly, why did I set the chicken clock when I knew that there was 2 other clocks already set?
What do you think?