Our apartment came with only two keys. On the day we moved in, I informed Nadia, a housekeeper/concierge for the building who is our main contact with the landlord, that we would need a total of four keys. Kate, Glenn, and I would each need one, and we would need an extra key for house guests, the dog walkers, our housekeeper, etc. (We actually tried initially for five keys, but abandoned that request almost immediately when we realized how ridiculous it would be to ask for five keys. We figured that we could manage with four if one was stored in a lock box in the courtyard that could be accessed by anyone who needed to get into our apartment.)
"Ah, that might be a problem," say Nadia. "The locksmith is on vacation. For the month." Ok, we can wait until September to get keys 3 and 4. It will be tricky and involve a lot of coordination, but we can manage in the short run.
So we started the year with Glenn and Kate both having keys and me unable to venture out of the apartment without either borrowing one of their keys or making sure someone would be home to buzz me in. The school year started, people returned to work, and things got trickier. For instance, we had to make sure someone was at home when the dog walkers were scheduled to come. The third key came about halfway through September. I'm not sure why both keys were not ordered and delivered at the same time, but we were happy to have one of them, though. We put that key in the lock box for the dog walkers and for me if I ever got locked out of the apartment. We were told the fourth key was ordered.
We waited. We waited a little longer. I texted Nadia. I asked her when I saw her. Weeks went by. Months went by. I continued to text and ask. Nadia's excuses became more baroque and strangely inconsistent over time: I had your fourth key but I don't know where it went. Some magnetic card is necessary to make the fourth key, and that's been lost. The locksmith is on vacation (this time for Christmas). The locksmith does not respond to my calls. I have your fourth key but I need it to let the man in to check the gas meter. I have your fourth key but I need it to let the man in to install the cable TV. I gave the fourth key to Emmanuel, the handyman. You will have it by the end of the week. You will have it on Thursday. I will leave it in your mailbox this week. I will put it on your dining room table on Monday. And so forth. (Admittedly, Nadia does not speak any English, and I typically understand between 60 and 80% of what she says, filling in the rest in my imagination. It is possible that some details of our conversations could have been fabricated in my mind, but, honestly, there could be no doubt that I had been asking for a fourth key since August.)
Needless to say, we tried to copy the key ourselves. "No, you need a letter from the landlord giving you permission." We tried multiple times to obtain the letter from the landlord. "Please don't worry, Nadia will deliver the key to you by the end of the week." We offered to pay for the fourth key. We tried unsuccessfully to find sketchy locksmiths that would copy our key illegally. But whenever we pushed, the key was always just a few days away from being delivered, just after some small thing happened or was resolved.
It had been nine months, nine months, and the weekly anticipation had given way gradually to the running joke, uttered as I arrived home every day, "Probably Nadia delivered my key today." Still, I had not given up hope.
Yesterday, Sunday strangely enough, Nadia was working in another apartment in our building. I greeted her with my usual smile, expressing surprise that she had to work on Sunday. "C'est dommage mais c'est necessaire. Avez vous la clé maintenant?" "Non," I said with a shrug. She looked a little puzzled, mumbled something about how Emmanuel should have given it to me, and told me to wait. A minute later, she appeared with my key. I could barely believe my eyes. That was it. Nine months of asking, pestering, texting, bugging, emailing, and begging was over. She handed me my key and sent me off with a cheerful "bonne weekend!" 
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