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