Grand Theft Auto

I was awoken this morning around 5:30 am by my mother. With surprising composure, she told me her car was not in the driveway, where I had parked it last night. In an alarmed-yet-half-conscious state, I racked my brain, trying to think of why the car wouldn't be there. My mom eventually gave in to the inevitable conclusion: It had been stolen. 

I, however, was still trying to figure out what had happened. I thought up absurd scenarios. Perhaps one of my friends just borrowed it without asking (in the middle of the night?). I actually flirted with the idea that maybe, just maybe, I slept-walked out to the car, slept-drove it somewhere, and then slept-walked home. Of course I knew it really had been stolen, but I couldn't get out of semi-denial. 

I was still in this state when, around 10 pm, the police called. The car had been found abandoned in Fitchburg. They said that there was no visible damage, and we are picking it up tomorrow morning.

So all is well. Except my sense of Princeton, my neighborhood, as a safe haven, separate from the real world. It is shattered.