I don’t know if I’ve ever questioned my sanity so strongly as I did a couple Fridays ago. I was headed down to the Ideal Bar and Grill (on the beach) to play with Robert Lowery and Virgil Thrasher, two great local blues musicians whom I’ve played with a number of times. I got home late from playing on the mall with the family so I grabbed our mandolin, threw it in a soft-shell case, and biked down to the beach. Robert and Virgil were there, sporting very stylin’ hats (as usual). After shooting the breeze for a while, we got ready to play, so I went to open my mandolin case… and it was locked. I had never even seen the lock that was on there. I sure didn’t lock it. The keys were attached to it with a little plastic tie, so it was a cinch to unlock, but still… why was it locked?? I shared my puzzlement with Robert and Virgil, but I don’t think they grasped the enormity of this bizarreness. Soon, we started playing and I forgot all about it. (Important detail… the plastic tie was of the “untieable” variety, and it was attached to one of the zippers and would have to have been cut to be removed.)
Then I got home, took the mandolin out, and joined the jam class that was happening at our house (our friend Billy is teaching it). After that ended, our friend Sarah packed up her bass, and I saw the exact same lock on her case. Reminded of what had just happened, I told Kyle and pointed out the lock.
Later on that evening, I told Papa about the lock. He didn’t remember seeing it ever before, so I went to get the case to have another look at the lock—which was still tied to the zipper. But wait… it was gone! I stared, dumbstruck, at the case, and suddenly felt very nervous. Had I imagined the whole thing? The memory was so vivid… I even told Bob and Virgil about it—oh, and I told Kyle!
- Me: Kyle, you remember the story I told you about the lock, right?
- Kyle: (blank stare)
Turns out he was pulling my leg, but man did I feel nervous.
So there you have it. I still cannot explain what I experienced. Yes, maybe it’s possible the lock fell off on my way back home… but how did it get on there in the first place?
