The Incident

It all started on a Tuesday evening when I was asked to babysit for the family next door. Before leaving my house, I ate dinner and took my purse. When I arrived, the mother, Sameena, gave me her cell phone number and told me that if the kids wanted to go bicycling in the driveway I would need to supervise them. After saying goodbye to Anisha and Iyman, the parents pulled out of their driveway. I gave the kids dinner and then we all got comfortable in front of the television. About half an hour later, the telephone rang and it was Keren, my younger sister, asking if she could come over to play with Anisha. Keren and Anisha went into Anisha’s room and played together for a while, doing puzzles and arts and crafts.

                  After Iyman and I had watched television for a while, he asked if he could go outside to ride his tricycle and I said yes. I called Keren and Anisha and asked them to come outside with us, because I would feel better if I knew what they were doing. They agreed and we all went outside. After walking down the stairs, I suddenly realized that when the door closed behind us, it might have been locked from the inside. Even worse, I had forgotten to ask for a spare key to the house. Dreading the worst, I turned around and went to the door. I attempted opening it, but failed to do so. Oh my god, how could I have been so careless? I thought to myself.

                  I turned around to tell the kids but before I could do so, a huge dog came bounding toward us. I recognized it as the neighbor’s dog and wondered what it was doing outside without a leash on and without one of the owners. Just then Pongo, the dog, ran into the garage and without thinking Keren shut the basement door to keep Pongo from going inside the house. Realizing now that we were most certainly locked out of the house, I began to panic. I told myself that the first thing to do was to take Pongo back to his owners. “Everyone calm down please, we need to bring Pongo back home,” I said to everyone. I realized that it wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought, because Pongo was jumping around happily and backing away playfully whenever I tried getting a hold of his collar. Furtively I grabbed onto his collar quickly when he wasn’t looking and took him back to his owners, Laura and Ron. They thanked us for returning Pongo and asked how he had gotten out.

                  “I’m not sure. I just saw him running towards us and figured I should bring him back,” I said truthfully.

                  “I wonder how he got out of our yard, someone must have left the gate open,” David said thinking aloud. He looked at Keren suspiciously and suddenly I realized that he meant Keren. To save Keren from embarrassment I said quickly, “We have to go, bye,” and hurried out the door. While walking across the lawn to Anisha’s house, she had a look of dread on her face.

                  “Are we locked out of the house?” she asked.

                  “Yes we are, but don’t worry. I will figure out a way to get back into your house and everything is going to be fine.”

                  “Oh no, we’re locked out the house and I’m never going to see mommy and daddy again,” the four-year old, Iyman, kept repeating. Suddenly I had an idea of how to get in.

                  “Anisha, do you know if there’s a spare key somewhere?” I asked her hopefully. She shook her head saying, “I don’t think so.” My heart sank to my stomach as I tried to figure out what to do.

                  “Let’s go to my house and I’ll see if my dad can help,” I said trying to sound cheerful. We walked over to my house and I told my dad what had happened.

                  “I wonder if any of the windows open,” my dad said after a minute of thought. He took a ladder from the garage and we followed him. After leaning his ladder against the side of their house, he climbed up, being careful not to fall.

                  Next to me, Iyman continued his repetition of, “Oh no, we’re locked out the house and I’m never going to see mommy and daddy again.” On my right side Anisha gazed at my dad hopefully while he climbed up on the ladder one step at a time. I stared up in anticipation with my fingers crossed behind me. Once my dad had reached the top, he gently coaxed one of the kitchen windows open. I nearly fainted in happiness as he climbed in through the window and, only moments later, opened the door for us from the inside. I was so grateful to my father.

                  As soon as we entered the house, the phone rang and before I could get it, Iyman picked up the receiver and said, “Hello.” There was a moment of silence and then Iyman said, “Guess what mommy? We got locked out of the house.”

                  I grabbed the phone from him and explained to Sameena what had happened. After hanging up, I sank into one of the chairs thankful to be back inside the house and hoping the parents would hire me again after such an adventure.