A Key for Everything
I was somewhere on a sunny campsite with a small beach and a park. The place was pretty crowded, to say the least. And it was rather difficult for me to walk between all the towels that lay on the ground. Wondering how I came here, I walked around the site while looking for a place to take shelter in the shade.
It seems that even in my dreams I’m taking precautions from the burning effects of the sun. I always liked the sun very much, but my body always disagreed on that.
After a few minutes I found a nice tree for shelter, and I decided to take a sit in the grass under the tree. Then an old lady approached from behind of me. We had a bit of small talk about the weather and such. I continuously felt she had something important to tell me, but from our short conversation nothing significant came up.
At the moment I tried to end the conversation and walk away, the lady said that I needed to come with her and that she needed to show me something important. Her facial expression was very serious, and because of my previous presumptions I decided to follow her to wherever she wanted to go. About a hundred meters further we stopped in front of a small cabin with a large “keep out!” sign slapped onto the sturdy looking door.
Just by standing there I already had a feeling of what was coming from thereon.
The old lady carefully repelled the few other people that were in the neighborhood of the cabin. From my guts I could tell that the bystanders were not very friendly souls and were waiting anxiously to have a quick look at what was going on inside. After the other people were gone, the old lady grabbed into her pocket and showed me a key. She opened the lock of the cabin and told me I needed to take a look inside.
I cautiously went inside and closed the door behind me.
In the short time that I was inside, I saw parts from the life of a woman I know. Short clips were being displayed on the walls. Like a movie in the cinema. I felt I didn’t need to watch the whole thing, but I was genuinely wrong, because I was kept inside until I watched it all. Afterwards the door magically opened by itself and I could step outside.
Upon exiting the cabin the old lady spoke to me again. “Do you understand?”, she asked me with a serious voice. I felt completely overwhelmed by the whole situation and didn’t immediately gave her an answer. “Here, take the key”, she said. “I want you to guard it from here on”. I gently took the key from the lady’s hand. Then she told me that someone I knew was waiting for me in the park behind the campsite. Obviously I already had a serious presumption of who it was.
“Of course it’s her”, the lady said. “Now go, you don’t have much time!”. I generously thanked the old lady and quickly continued my way to the park.
From a little distance I could already confirm my presumption of who was waiting there for me.
The woman and I friendly greeted each other, but before I could put any more words in she quickly told me a summary of all the things I saw in the cabin and the whole situation as it was at that time. After telling me all this, she started crying.
I put my hand on her shoulder and tried to calm her with words. But it seemed that she didn’t want me to. My hand was swept from her shoulder, and she slowly started walking towards the exit of the park. I tried to stop her, but the more I tried, the faster she walked. When we approached the exit she suddenly stopped… “Do you have the key?”, she asked. I admitted to her that I had the key. “Please, take good care of it for me”, she added. I promised her I would. Because taking good care is what I always do.
Through her tears I saw a little smile.
After a quick “thank you” she swiftly exited the park through a small gate, and followed her path down a long busy street. I decided to follow her, to see if everything would be OK. As soon as I exited the park, the weather changed abruptly into a dark and rainy spectacle. It seemed like time had accelerated very rapidly, because even though I almost immediately followed her, she was now already a hundred meters away. I tried to keep up with her, but the weather was keeping me almost in the exact same place. In the distance I saw her turn around and wave thankfully to me. Then she vanished and blended into the environment.
I anxiously grabbed into my pocket and felt the key. While tightening my hand around it I quickly pulled it from my pocket. Slowly I opened my hand… It was sparkling, just like the rest of all my keys.
