January 16 — March 16, 2021
Antanas Gerlikas
The Key that Broke in the Pocket

Sometime, at the beginning of March, at 5pm, I drove from Plungė towards Vilnius. Before my drive I had made some strong coffee. I had a meeting in Vilnius at half past ten. It was a cold spring morning. I drove for about a hundred kilometers and decided to stop at the highway gas station in Kryžkalnis to get some water because the coffee I had made for myself was very strong. I got out of the car, locked the door and went into the gas station. I returned to the car with water. I pulled the car key out of my pocket and saw that I was holding the bow of the key in my palm, without its business end. I expected that the other half would be in the lock of the car door. I stuck my palm into my pocket and searched for some wire or a small part which I could use to pull the shaft of the key out of the car lock. When I pulled out what I had grasped for a look I saw in my hand the other end of the broken key. I realized that the key broke in my pocket. I returned to the gas station to ask the clerk where I could find the nearest place that would make me a new key. She replied that the nearest location was Kelmė, that is, 26 kilometers away. I sprinted to the bus station in Kryžkalnis. The bus to Kelmė was only in an hour. Unsuitable. I remembered then that my father's brother, Algis, lived in Kelmė. He is a long-distance truck driver, cruising to Russia. I thought, perhaps he was at home and could help me. I called my dad in Plungė to ask for Algis' phone number. My father, Antanas, contacted Algis and told me to wait for him in the gas station. Algis and his friend came very quickly. I sat in the back seat of the car. There I was, early in the morning, on the road towards the opposite direction I was meant to be going in, to Kelmė, to make a key, with my father's brother Algis (whom I had not seen for a while) and his friend. We had a fun conversation and soon arrived in the town of Kelmė. Algis briefed me on where we were going to make the key. The locksmith was a former policeman with a passion for manufacturing and falsifying keys. The car service was nothing exceptional, just an impressive wall of keys. Not before long the key was made and we drove back to the Kryžkalnis gas station ...