The Purse Came First
By Varian Milagro
“Don’t forget your purse, Larry.”
I came to a stop. I turned and looked at the speaker; it was my co-worker Janine, a short, serious minded woman in her mid thirties.
She smiled at me and pointed to my desk. “You wouldn’t want to forget that.”
I looked at my cubicle and sitting on my desk was a black woman’s purse. It had short handles, was around a foot or so tall and looked like something a stylish lady might carry. It also had not been there seconds ago when I got up to leave work for the day. "Very funny, that's not mine."
“What?” Janine gave me a frown.
“Who put that there? It wasn't there a second ago,” I said. “Are you making fun of me?” I didn’t find this funny, not in the least.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied. “Look, if you want to leave it here that’s fine with me; I was just trying to be nice,” she said as she turned back to her computer.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
I looked around as I walked slowly back to my desk, fully expecting someone to jump out and laugh at their prank. This had to be a joke, but I didn’t know how anyone could have placed the purse on my desk without me noticing. Once at my desk I opened the purse and found a set of keys that looked remarkably like my own. I reached into my coat pocket for my keys, the place where they had been just moments before, but they weren’t there. I pulled the keys out of the purse and verified that they were indeed mine. “What the…?” I breathed.
I stood at my desk dumbfounded; there was a purse on my desk with my keys in it, a purse that appeared out of nowhere. After a few moments I picked up the bag and tucked it under my arm like a football and headed out the door. Once in my car I placed it on the passenger seat and examined its contents. Besides a matching lady’s wallet everything else in the purse belonged to me, my phone, my thumb drive and my pocket knife. I looked in the wallet and it contained my driver’s license, cash and credit cards. I was flabbergasted. As I wracked my brain trying to figure out how this was possible, my headache began to grow in intensity. I had awoken in the morning to a massive hangover. I had drunk a few beers the night before, but hardly enough to bring on a headache of that magnitude. Aspirin had helped a little, but the headache had persisted all day. After a few moments of not knowing what else to do, I started my car and headed for home.
