The Key to Saturday

Tim's work schedule has been brutal this summer, often leaving me feeling like a single mom. It's not something he has much control over, so I try not to be resentful and too whiny (me? whine?) but after endless weeks of it, I'm done, fried, irritated, and anxious for things to fall into a better pace stat.
Yesterday was just like most Saturdays this summer - Sam and I were on our own all day long. We do have a lot of fun, from the playground to running errands to whatever, but let's get real: he's 2 and we live in rural east Boringville... you thought I was going to call it something else didn't you? Something about a big fat bee doing the naughty? Well, we can call it that too in our heads, I won't tell.
You just can't have a total blast every day, and being in rural east Mumbletruck with no neighborhoods or sidewalks, we mostly have to drive to do stuff. Grr. Anyway, Samuel had a cranky morning and then decided (against my counsel) to skip his midday nap. This situation never turns out well: I depend on his daily nap to shower and do things that require my focus and attention, and I get very frustrated when I don't get this precious 90 minute reprieve. Sam in turn gets cranky and demanding for the rest of the afternoon which leads to a lot of time-outs. OK, so you get the idea, we're both Waaas and it's only 3pm. He ate his snack, and I suggested we go play outside for a little while.
We have a new back door with a new lockset/lever. It's the kind that is unlocked from the inside even if the outside is locked - you know, the STUPID kind designed to complicate life. I opened the door, helped Sam down the steps, and promptly locked us out. It's about 3:15 and Tim wasn't due home until 5:30.
I tried not to think about it for a while. We watered the garden, checked the mail, and rolled around on the lawn. I soon realized that the kitchen window was open, so I set up a ladder and was able to open the screen - yes! I decided against squeezing in, however, because I didn't think I could clear the faucet - the lovely Kohler faucet that was expensive.
We can't easily go for a walk ever because we live on a 55mph road. I walk it myself, but would never ever walk it with Sam or the stroller. Our property actually forms the corner of a state highway (the 55mph) and a nice gravel road called Calder Hill...Calder Hill is a nice walk, but it's steep and not toddler friendly. Before I had Sam, I would also walk an area across the road where there's a river access to the Susquehanna, some rough paths, and the town's transportation department equipment, sheds, etc. I haven't walked there with Sam because (and this is the truth) I have secret fears that maybe it might be polluted - it looks ok, but there's grown-over areas where people have dumped stuff, there's old culverts, rusty things, and so on.
It had to be almost 4 o'clock and Sam was bored and asking to go inside and play blocks. I put unfounded fears aside and walked Sam across the street and down toward the river. We stuck to the main paths and it was ok-ish. He really liked seeing the bulldozers and dump trucks. When we got to the access, someone was launching a boat, so we watched that. As we made our way back, we climbed the gravel mounds. Sam was totally into this - he would try to scramble up, only to slide back down and kick up dust and make noise. Of course during the fun, Fretful Mother kicked into gear and I freaked out that 1) he didn't have sunblock on and it was HOT, and 2) we might be breathing in too much rock dust, so I coaxed him down and we continued back to the house.
We were probably gone about 45 minutes...but I had no idea what time it was. We played in my car....I let Sam twist and push every knob and lever and climb from front to back to front to back. Yay. He asked me for water several times. What a bad, bad mommy. No water for her thirsty, sunburned, toxic-dump frolicking child. We had the garden hose of course, but I'm going for drama here. We were laying under the maple (I think it's the one Tim calls maple) when Tim finally pulled up. It was 5:36.
True to form, Tim never told me that he put a new spare key right in the garage. Even if I suspected that we might have a spare, I never would have looked in the place it actually was.