Sherlock Holmes Sometimes Freaks People Out (or the Night I Turned Into a Creeper)

I went to the movies and saw Les Miserables last night. Have you seen it yet? I love the debates about it flying around the internet. It’s more fun when we debate Les Mis, Shades of Gray, Twilight, and Elf on the Shelf instead of politics, guns, and sports, although I think people get equally worked up about all those subjects. (Have you ever hung out with a Twi-hard?) Overall I liked Les Mis, but I got distracted halfway through by an astonishing coincidence. Here’s what happened:

It was already dark when some friends and I got out of the car to go into the theater, but a set of keys on the ground in the parking lot caught my eye. I picked them up and looked around; the owner was nowhere in sight. The keychain had a yellow submarine on it. In the back of my mind I knew I had recently seen another yellow submarine, but I couldn’t pinpoint it. Hmm. I turned the keys in at the theater desk hoping that the owner was in the movies and not at one of the several surrounding restaurants or shops.

Once we were settled with our popcorn and drinks, I recognized one of the people sitting in front of me. She works in customer service at a store I frequent. She’s easy to remember because she has a very alternative look, but there was no reason for her to know me so I didn’t say hello.

Halfway through the movie, it dawned on me. The last place I saw a yellow submarine (besides on the keychain) was on this woman’s belt buckle when she helped me in customer service about two months earlier. I just knew that the keys had to be hers. I couldn’t concentrate on the movie anymore because 1) Marius sounded like a frog (in the movie), and 2) I could not wait to tell this chick that I found her keys that she probably didn’t even know were missing.

So, as soon as the good part of the credits were over, I tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she happened to be missing her keys. She replied, “Do they have a yellow submarine keychain?”

YES! Oh my gosh! Yes, they do!

Excited and breathless, I told her how I found them in the parking lot and I recognized her from the store and I knew she had a yellow submarine belt buckle so I figured they were hers and OH MY… She started to get a really creeped out look on her face.

I tried to pretend like this wasn’t weird by joking that everyone should have matching keys and belts so we’d know whose stuff belonged to who, but it didn’t help. Then I started explaining how amazing this was. Frankly, I expected her to be a little more in awe of the coincidence and my sharp observational skills. However, she pretty much mumbled thanks, looked at me like I was a stalker, and then promptly got up to get her keys from the front desk. I wonder if she suspected foul play. There I thought I was used by God to make her day better, and she thought I was sent from Satan to freak her out.

On the way out of the theater, I explained the whole story to my friends who had only witnessed part of the conversation, and they were appropriately amazed. THANK GOODNESS they were because I was gonna be really disappointed if nobody thought this was remarkable. They laughed about how she must have thought I was so weird, but the whole situation was a series of cool coincidences. I found the keys, the owner happened to be sitting right in front of me in in the same movie in a huge theater/restaurant/shopping complex, I recognized her, and I remembered she had a yellow submarine belt buckle.

Tell me that’s not cool. Oh, and I’d like to go by Sherlock from now on. (Have you seen that new show Elementary about Sherlock Holmes? It’s a fun show! I highly recommend.) But I’m actually not like Sherlock at all. I read Les Mis the book, listened to the soundtrack repeatedly in college, saw the play, and still couldn’t remember the story. It was all new to me. In my defense, I’ve read several books by French and English authors about Paris; it’s like a French prostitute stew up in that part of my brain. And I think I’ll end with that statement.