The Adventure of the Locked Car Door, Part 1

"Have you heard from a Sarah yet?"

"Not yet.  I'll let you know if and when I do."

It was Saturday afternoon.  Morgan and I had been informed the day before that Sarah, my roommate for the past three semesters, was going to be in Ankeny and planned to stop by campus to see us.  The message had said 2:00, and the above conversation took place around 3:15.  Morgan especially was excited to see "her Sarah" and was rather eager for her to arrive.

"Sarah is in the library working on stuff," Morgan told me during a second call at 4:30.  "In about half an hour she'll head over here to see us."

I was working on revising a poem for my Creative Writing class when they arrived.  I hugged Sarah, whom I had not seen since we left for Christmas break six weeks ago.

We talked briefly before she informed me of the problem.  "I have a confession," she started.  "I locked my keys in the car.  So, I'm going to need to call security at some point and see if they can help."

After deciding it was better to call sooner rather than later, Sarah and Morgan headed back to the parking lot to wait for security to arrive.  By the time I had bundled up to join them, security had determined that Sarah's car had been designed to prevent wires from being used to enter.

However, Sarah had an extra "fob" (or "clicker," as we call it in my family) in her purse, which she had remembered to grab before locking the car.  The problem was that it no longer worked.  After some speculation, and examining the device, we determined that it probably had a battery inside.  The logical assumption was that the battery was dead.  Therefore, if we could get it open and find another battery, Sarah could simply unlock her door that way.

Being suppertime, however, we chose to eat first.  We ate slowly, using the time to catch up.

Once we finished eating, Morgan tracked down her tool kit and proceeded to figure out the best way to open Sarah's clicker.  After some experimentation, and prayers that nobody would get stabbed by a screwdriver in the process, the device was successfully opened.

There was a battery inside.

With that knowledge, we left for Walmart thanks to another student who was willing to lend us her car.  We were extra careful to make sure those keys were not locked in the car when we reached the store.

After purchasing the battery and squelching Morgan's desire to see how far away from the school she could get the panic button to work, we headed back to Faith.

It didn't work.

Refusing to give up, we hurried back into the warmth of the dorm to see if we had somehow missed something.  The alignment of the battery seemed to be accurate; however, it still wasn't working.  That is when I noticed the writing on the inside of one of the clicker halves: "After changing battery, press LOCK + UNLOCK near the car and hold for 7 seconds."

Well then.

As the Arizonan who doesn't care for the cold, I remained inside while Sarah and Morgan went back outside to try this new-found idea.  That was when we decided that the clicker was officially dead.  (This was also when Sarah and I learned the fascinating rumor about car clickers working through cell phones.)

Sarah called her parents to explain the situation.  Morgan and I sat on her bed, absentmindedly playing with her tool kit while attempting to come up with any other ideas.