9:15 on 9/15

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #6:

9:15

With the anticipation of this prompt, I put a reminder in my phone to go off today at 9:15. 

At that time, I was parked at an intersection waiting to turn left and listening to The House at Riverton (or The Shifting Fog) by Kate Morton. 

I could end my post there, and that would be the short version. Those of you who want the short version can move on now, but if you want the long version, here it comes:

Yesterday I checked Daisy out of school to take her to get her first COVID vaccine (Happy 12th Birthday!) I picked her up a little early so we could also go to lunch. She wanted to go to Zupa's, and we ended up having a little extra time before her appointment, so we popped into Burlington. We both picked a few things to try on, and I ended up with a shirt that I couldn't decide whether I should get. On the one hand, it was only $9, and it was cute for fall. On the other hand, I don't need any new clothes, and it would require an undershirt such as I don't already own, so a $9 shirt was quick to become a $20 shirt. 

I decided not to get the shirt, and I stashed it on a rack somewhere in the store. 

Shame on me, I know. I'm not proud.

A short time later, I started regretting not buying the shirt, and this morning after I dropped my girls off at school, I figured I would check the Burlington hours, and if they were open, I'd stop in quickly and buy the shirt. They were open! So I went in and went straight to where I'd left the shirt. It wasn't there. So I scoured every place an employee might have returned it if they'd found it on the wrong rack. 

I never found it. And I can't help but wonder if it's bad karma for not putting it back where I got it.  

And that, my friends, is why I found myself at the intersection at 9:15 on September 15, 2021 - driving home in self-defeat.