Unlocking Some Great Powers

I’m about two or three. I am able to get out of a lot of child-locked car seats.

My mom has the windows cracked, but she has to go into my father’s shop, since he works as a mechanic. She wants to make sure we are safe, so she locks the doors, but she forgets to take her key out of the car with her.

Fast forward about ten minutes: she’s back from talking to my dad and finds she locked herself out of her car with three young children in it. I am the eldest and the one closest to her door at the time.

After she runs back to my dad, she calls the cops because she figures that, while my dad is unable to help because he has just clocked back in, the cops might be able to help. It turns out that the car we are in needs a locksmith to get the doors open.

Well, we can’t afford that, so my mom kind of gets a defeated look and tells the officer never mind, and that because she can’t afford it, she will have to wait for me to do it.

For almost six months I have been wiggling out of the harnesses and child seats, and I keep getting into trouble so I have learned not to try. My mom convinces me, the two-year-old child, to unlock her door.

So, while the officer stands there, I wiggle around and squeeze out of a five-point harness that is snug against me and my coat. I crawl up front and unlock her door.

I’m still getting reminded of that now, at the age of 27.