Stuffed In A Trunk

My sister called me yesterday.

I answered the call with a cherry Hello. But all I could hear was heavy breathing. And a whooshing sound.

I started to think, OH MY GOD! Zan's in trouble! She's calling me for help! She must be in the trunk of a car, and still alive! What do I do?

I start yelling loudly into the phone, "HELLO? HELLO? ARE YOU OKAY?" Then I thought, maybe she won't be able to tell me she's NOT okay because someone is standing over her? And, man, we really should have some code words or something. Though no one would be standing over her if she's in a trunk, so maybe she CAN tell me what's going on.

Then the phone cut back in and my sister says, "Hello? Hey! It's me! Whatchya doing?"

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Me: When I heard nothing but breathing I thought you were calling for help from the trunk of a car!

Zan: Um, yeah. "Help! I've been kidnapped and have been stuffed into a trunk! But they let me keep my cell phone!" You're a dork.

My brain automatically goes to places like this, though. I think because I'm a mom.

I'm totally going to revive the code word thing, though. You know, the word you and your family were supposed to use in case you were kidnapped and you had to call home and pretend everything was fine. You could then throw in the code word and your family would know that you'd been kidnapped, and rush to your rescue. Actually, I can't really think of any other scenario where a code word would be useful, but just in case this particular scenario happens, it's best to be prepared.

(And are kids still taught this stuff, or have things advanced a bit since I was 11?)

Growing up, our family code word was giraffe. How we would have fit that into a conversation, I don't know. Maybe, "Hey mom, I'm fine, just late getting home from school, where we read a story about a giraffe! Get it? GIRAFFE!"

So we need a much better word.

And I'm really glad my sister hasn't been kidnapped or stuffed into a trunk. But if she had been, a code word would have come in handy!

Maybe no more late night mafia movies for me.