My mother is forgetful.

She was probably born to be forgetful or something, but she has always simply been forgetful.

Yesterday, my mom ordered some food at a Chinese restaurant. While they made it, she paid money and then went upstairs to do some work. When she was done, she drove away, totally forgetting she had ordered anything in the first place.

That same day, when I was at choir practice, she sat outside, waiting for me. She looked at a newspaper. Suddenly she came across that restaurant’s advertisement.

It was then that she realized that she had totally forgotten about the food she ordered!

She told me that we would try to go and pick up the food, if they hadn’t already thrown it away.

We drove to where the shop was: a  market-square. There were several restaurants. My mom told me that it was the one on the center and went in.

The employee there looked at us as my mom began to speak.

"About noon today I came here and ordered some noodles. To go. But I went upstairs, and I forgot about it! Is it still here?"

The employee said, "Maybe." He began looking through the receipts that were sitting on a needle.

When he had looked all the receipts, he said, "I can’t find it." Yet, the employee still hollered into the kitchen, "MAKE NOODLES!" In a few moments, a box of noodles came out through a hole in the wall.

The worker gave it to me, and then we walked away.

On the way back, my mom began to think.

"Wait a minute…," she began, and I knew something had gone wrong. "I don’t think that I went to the right restaurant!"

I questioned her and she told me that two restaurants looked identical. Uh, oh.

We drove back and went into the restaurant next to it.

Same paint on the walls, same place where the desk was, even the Thank You! pad on the desk was in the same place!

Uh, oh.

Furthermore, the moment my mom began talking, the waitress cut in and said, "Oh, yeah! Sorry…" and gave us the food, all packaged.

We clutched the bag in silence as we walked back to the car. After a moment, my mom decided to return the other bag.

When I went there, the waitress said just to keep it. We paid some money and then we left.

As we went home, I joked, "You have a bad memory. Before long, you’ll be looking at our car, going, "When I went to the mechanic, I drove the wrong car away!"