keys

Last weekend Josh and I went on our weekly date to the grocery store. It turned out that we hadn't had lunch yet, so we stopped at Sonic for some 2 for $0.99 corn dogs. We ate in the car and then made our way across the street to Dillon's. We had a bunch of recycling to drop off, and I had to haul in 2 big bags of grocery bags to recycle. Josh threw our Sonic stuff away and met me inside with a cart. We shopped, paid, and went to load up the car. We've got a keypad on the expedition, so Josh unlocked the door, we loaded up, and realized we were short one set of car keys. I checked my pockets. Josh checked his pockets. I checked my purse. Josh checked my purse. We checked in the car, on the car, around the car. No keys.
A small wave of anxiety hit us as we discussed the fact that we were missing the only set of car keys to this car. We have a backup key (20 minutes away at our house, that nobody is at) that unlocks the door, but won't start the ignition. Helpful, right?
We had no choice but to retrace our steps. We checked the garbage. We checked the floor of the store. We decided to ask customer service if any keys had been turned in. Luckily, someone had turned in some lost keys. Unfortunately, they weren't our keys. Josh decided to go check the car one more time, but I had accepted the fact that they had gotten thrown away and were in the bottom of the garbage can that is in front of the store. The one that everyone walks by when they enter or exit on a busy Saturday afternoon. The green one that has a lock on the outside.
After I waited and waited at the customer service desk, growing a little more anxious with each passing minute, I asked the customer service lady if she could unlock the can for me, because I needed to search the bottom of the trash for my car keys. She said that one of the workers had just emptied all of the trash cans and that it would be in the dumpster in the back of the store. But that she would call Shane and ask him to unlock it for me anyway.
So Shane and I walked to the garbage can in front of Dillon's (Josh is still nowhere to be found...long trip to the car, huh?). Shane unlocks the can, sticks some gloves on, and goes straight for the bottom of the luckily still very-full garbage can. He fished around for a minute, and pulled up a set of very juicy keys. "Are these yours?" he asked, as if there were a few sets of keys down there. I held out my bare hand and gladly accepted the dripping keys, grateful that I wasn't the one that had to fish them out of the dark and dreary bottom of the can.
I headed to the car with my keys in tow as I realized that Shane and I had an audience. There was an old man standing nearby who joyously remarked on our situation, "Well isn't that so cool? That is just really cool!" Yes sir, it was very cool.
Thanks Shane. You're the best.