Kimono Car Seeker
I was walking into a store to pick up a gift card (‘it’s the season for gift cards), enjoying the warming sunshine and relative tranquility offered on a quiet morning in a mall parking lot the week before Christmas in America, when my moment of bliss was turned upside down by a car alarm beeping urgently nearby. Properly encroached upon, I looked at the car, and as expected saw no burglars backing away. I looked up at the store I was walking towards and saw a tall woman in a kimono (I’m no expert on such things but I’m going with kimono) holding keys up and looking around. She determined the direction of her car and clicked the fob to turn off the alarm, felt unsatisfied with her new compass heading and clicked the fob to activate the alarm again. I walked past her and smiled, content in knowing she had figured out where her car was, and we separated as forever strangers, sharing this one brief moment on our trip around the sun. I started to wonder why you’d where a kimono to a liquor store, thought the better of it, and just let it be. Some of life’s mysteries are better left unanswered.