Part Two- Miracle

Maybe another reason I haven't written anything in so long is because honestly, after losing my job in 2009, things kind of spiraled downhill for a while. The job market was pretty cruel to me, as I'm sure many people can relate to, and I settled for some temp positions that really were not at all what I wanted to be doing. I had to revert to moving back in with my Dad for and barely felt like a contributing member of society.

In August of 2013, though, I can honestly say things have never been better. I've got a job I love and a girlfriend I love even more. In the past year and half I've bought a new car and moved into my own apartment. Life has bounced back for me in a big way.

As a guy who loves activities, I'm not playing pool anymore but lately have been making disc golf a weekly event on the calendar. Fortunate to have two brothers cut from the same mold to play with, every Saturday we've been checking out a different course around town. 

A disc golf basket.

Although most of you are probably familiar with the game, for those that aren't, disc golf is a lot like regular golf except instead of a club and balls you through discs, which are heavier and smaller than a standard Frisbee, across the course into a basket. Typically courses will have a good mixture of holes to play- meaning some that are in the woods and others are in fields with only a few trees attempting to thwart your throws. 

Yesterday, my brothers and sister and I decided to check out the course at Creve Coeur Lake. It had a fairly average review of  2.83 discs (out of 5) on the website we looked at but more importantly, it was the next closest to home. 

It was near 90 degrees in the middle of the afternoon when we headed up there and one of the first things you notice about this course compared to others is the lack of a wooded section. All 18 of the holes are in a wide open field with barely any trees to be seen. Although, you'd think this would be a good thing- less to hit- with the sun beating down on you, the holes in the shade are a nice break from the heat.

Snake!

The second thing you notice about this course that sets it apart is the grass. Most places you play have neatly mowed fairways and even the rough is nice and short making it fairly easy to find a stray disc. Not at Creve Coeur though. The grass here was only short in a narrow strip of fairway. The rest of the course was deep rough, grass up to your ankles, making it nearly impossible to find any stray shot you didn't keep a perfect eye on as it hit the ground. About hole five we also realized the grass was home to the biggest snakes any of us had ever seen in the wild. 

Burrs

The combination of these two things - the heat and the grass- were making our afternoon rather frustrating. On the 7th hole we spent nearly 45 minutes looking for errant throws careful not to step on snakes as we searched. Then, on the 8th hole, one of my brothers discs happened to find it's way into some deep brush. After searching for roughly 20 minutes, and completely covered in burrs, we left that disc for dead.


We set out to play the full 18 but at this point, our patience had run out and so had our water. Itchy from the brush and starting to feel sun burned we decided to finish nine and call it a day. 

On the 9th tee, as was the case with almost every hole we played, my sister lost her disc in the tall grass. With the three of them searching for it, I went ahead and took my shots hoping to get out of there as fast as possible. 

Around the time I was making my final putt, and the time they found my sisters disc, I reached into the pocket of my athletic shorts, reaching for the keys to the car in preparation to get the A/C running so that my family could be cool as soon as they were done. I reached into the right side and came up empty handed. Quickly I felt the left side...nothing.

My keys were missing.

After all the delays and the heat and the fact that we were hungry and thirsty and just wanted to get the hell out of there I realized that we were stuck. As my brothers and sister start walking down the fairway toward me I break the news to them individually that my keys are somewhere on the course and heads are hung in disappointment.

If we couldn't find a brightly colored disc the size of a plate, how on Earth are we going to find a set of keys in this grassy mess?

My thoughts turn to worst case scenarios:

I'm going to need to call a locksmith for the care.
My girlfriend is out of town so I'll need to somehow get into the apartment too.

At the very least, we aren't going anywhere for a long while.

My youngest brother and I start the long walk back through the course hoping to find the needle in the haystack although both knowing in the backs of our minds that the venture is futile. My sister and middle brother head back near the car to find shade.

How did this happen? Why did I leave my keys in my swooshy pockets? What are we going to do? 

***

It was right at this moment, in the pit of despair, we hear a whistle in the distance.

Maybe twenty steps into the long backwards loop of the course we were about to set out on there is a guy trying to get our attention a couple of holes away. 

(Did this guy find my keys? No way, there's no way he found my keys...) 
Are the thoughts circling in my head right now. We run towards the people a few hundred yards away when I hear the stranger say, "KEVIN??" 

(This guy KNOWS me? Who is this?)
Are my next few thoughts until I hear the stranger yell, "Did you lose a set of keys?" To which I shouted back, "Yeah!" and by this time I am close enough to recognize the person.

"Kevin!" I said. "Holy Shit."
"No way."

It was Kevin Ryan- the pool teammate that not a week earlier I met up with to return his guitar I had in my possession for the last four years. While walking down a previous hole to find his shot, he stepped right on my keys. 

Unbelievable.

I can't even fathom the odds of what just happened. We were saved. No locksmith, no waiting, and that much closer to food, water and being out of the sun.

What could have been one of the worst days of our lives ended up being the most remarkable.

Not only were the keys found- the guy who found them is the same person I just met up with for the first time in almost half a decade!
I'm positive that I would have walked right by them if I had gotten that far and he wasn't even looking. He accidentally stepped right on them.

This is the most phenomenal coincidence I've experienced in my entire life. It was a coincidence multiplied by a coincidence really in what could be called nothing short of a miracle.

Thanks for reading, 
Kevin

Part One- Resurrection

In 2009, the Kingdom of Kevin was in full swing. Working a job where I was able to accomplish all of my tasks in 3-5 hours of my eight hour day gave me plenty of time to pursue other things- like writing- in those days. (If anyone from my current place of business is reading this rest-assured not a moment is wasted there.)

The only pool trophy I will ever own.

Also in 2009, I was part of a championship pool team, Hit it Hard and Hope. Coming in first place at The Cue in Maplewood, we advanced to tournament play in Effingham, IL eventually falling in the third round of play. This was the highlight of my billiards "career" and was the farthest a team I've ever been a part of had ever made it.

It was on this team I met Kevin Ryan.

Kevin, was one of our better plays with a calm approach and a good eye for his plan around the table. A music lover and DJ, he had hair down to his back and had no wife or kids to speak of in those days. He was also very helpful to me at becoming a better pool player, however, it wasn't his mentoring that is especially relevant to the telling of this story. Read on...

As you may or may not know, I was robbed in the mid 2000's when living in a Manchester apartment. My roommate at the time was big into marijuana (and probably still is) and had a drug transaction with the wrong people. One day, I came home from work to an unlocked door- immediately triggering a mental alarm. I entered into a surreal scene that was my apartment but not at all the way I had left it in the morning.

TV- gone
XBOX- gone
GUITARS-gone
DVDS/GAMES-gone

Even my pillowcases were missing as that's what they used to carry the stolen games and movies, I assume. It was a pretty devastating event in my life.

I left that apartment the following day. I couldn't live in a place that had been broken into or with a person who would let people like that into our house anymore.

As it happens I told Kevin Ryan this story in 2009 and he immediately comes back with, "Well I have an extra guitar, you can borrow mine." At the time, we had really just met so I was blown away by the generosity but had the itch to play so I accepted his offer.

(Side note: I went on to most famously use this instrument in the preforming of a musical medley that the training class of August 2009 at Connexions Travel put on for the company.)

Rehearsing for the performance.

Fast forward four years. It's July 2013. The Kingdom of Kevin has been vacant since then and the pool team had gone their separate ways shortly after the championship run; life was changed. In fact I had pretty much fallen out of touch with Kevin completely despite still having his guitar.

Out of the blue, though, I get a Facebook message from him asking if we can meet up last week. He's got another person interested in the guitar that he wants to let borrow it. I've tried a few times over the years to contact him but this time we finally get together, last Monday at Pink Galleon in Creve Coeur.

Kevin is the same guy I knew but life has changed for him too. Now married, he's also has a child and another on the way. His hair, which was longer than my girlfriends, is now shorter than mine. It was really nice to see him and finally give him his guitar back. I can't believe I had it for four years and am so appreciative to him for letting me borrow it.

I left that night happy to have seen an old friend and glad that someone else will be able to get some use of the instrument that has basically just been sitting in my closet now for months.

As a reader, you were probably expecting the story to end here but you'd be wrong. In fact, it's only just beginning.