Henry Locks Up!

I had 2 boxes of plastic recycling, plus a bag and some flower pots for the rubbish. I heaped it all in the back of Henry, climbed in and headed for the bins and the buzones at the bottom of the estate. While I’m there I suppose I’d better check for post.

I parked Henry and got out. As I did so he went cl-click! That’s odd, I thought, that sounds like his locking click. I turned to check the door – sure enough it was locked.

Henry had locked me out! Not only had he locked me out, but he had locked my handbag and its indispensable contents in – I had no phone, no money, no house keys, and of course no car key – that was still there in its slot, on the inside.

I tried all his other doors, all of which were securely locked. I swore at him. Loudly. He remained locked.

Verbal abuse wasn’t working, so I walked back home – fortunately it’s not far, to fetch his emergency key. Of course I couldn’t get into the house to get the key, because the house was locked, and the house key was inside Henry.

But I have a secret key, so I fished it out and effected entry. If I hadn’t had a secret key I don’t know what I would have done; I couldn’t ring for help, my phone was – yes – inside Henry.

Having re-locked the house door and re-hidden the spare key I set off back to the recalcitrant Henry, parked in the bright sunshine with an air of innocence and a smirk. He refused to acknowledge the emergency key, and remained obdurately locked. I swear I heard him chuckle.

OK, I’ve asked him nicely, and he has ignored me. With cold fury and a not inconsiderable amount of malice I dismantled the emergency key – it has a sort of skeleton key hidden inside its credit card shape, and it can only be reached by pulling the head off the end of the card and pulling the key out.

I shoved it into his door catch and turned it, as if it were an old-fashioned key. He obviously wasn’t expecting this, because he opened.

However, any trust I might have had in Henry and his key has been broken. I now go everywhere with the ordinary key in his key slot, and the emergency key in my pocket. That way I always have a key if he decides to pull that stunt again!

He is on a warning!