THE KEY of DESTINY

THE KEY OF DESTINY

By: Jenise Johnson

“Jenny? Jenny honey, where are you? Jenny?” Mrs. Whitker called, while checking in all the rooms. “Maybe she’s outside.” Mr. Brighton said. Mrs. Whitker let out a draining sigh whiling turning to Mr. Brighton to continue the conversation. “Pour girl, to lose both parents at the innocent age of 6 and to lose her grandmother at age 14. She has no one left. Mr. Brighton looked worried, so he said, “Yes, this is devastating, but what on earth are we going to do with her now?” “What do you mean, what are we going to do with her? The whole town has suffered a loss this past winter, no way anyone can afford an extra mouth to feed! The only thing to do is to give her over to the Orphanage, matter of fact, they should be here within an hour. Shocked, Mr. Brighton questioned, “A hour?” “Yes, I know it may seem a little unconventional on the day of the funeral, but honestly I had no other choice. Oh, look there’s Mrs. Darling, I just love her dress, please excuse me.” As they went their separate ways, neither one knew that Jenny was hiding in a small pocket between the steps and a lonely wall. It was the only place she felt no one could bother her. They also didn’t know that she heard everything! Jenny knew she couldn’t stay there forever and eventually someone would find her. So, she wiped her teary face and tried to shimmy her way up from the tight spot, but as she did her foot kicked in a loose board in the wall. Of course, that made a loud sound. She was still trying to get her foot unstuck from the hole where the board once was, when she heard footsteps getting close. She knew it wouldn’t look good if whoever was coming, was going to see her foot in the wall. As she wiggled her foot, she felt something that she’d kicked inside the wall. She couldn’t make out what it was and didn’t have time, because the footsteps had gotten really close. Finally, her foot popped out and she quickly pulled the board back in place on the wall. Everything happened just in time as Mrs. Whitker stood right in front of her, “Oh there you are dear, I have been looking high and low for you!” Mrs. Whitker extended her hand toward jenny to help her out of her hiding spot. Jenny reluctantly accepts Mrs. Whitker's offer of a hand. “Now let’s go upstairs and get you all cleaned up and a little rest, I have a surprise for you, I will tell you about it later.” Obviously, Jenny already knew about the surprise, but seeing there was nothing she could do about any of it, she proceeded to go upstairs, get washed up and lay down. After a long day she quickly fell asleep.

The next time Jenny opened her eyes it was dark, the only piece of light, was from the moon hiding behind some clouds outside her window. She wondered if the people from the orphanage had already came and they changed their minds or if something had happened to them. None the less she was up now and couldn’t go back to sleep. She sat on her bed thinking of the whole day of events. She thought about the last time she spoke with her grandmother. Her grandmother was exactly like a grandmother should be, proper, poised, and elegant. She carried a level of sophistication that was unmatched by many at that time. It was done so well, that even through her illness no one knew she was sick until the night before her death. Jenny remembered her grandmother saying something about a key. She said, “The key is key to your destiny.” It didn’t make sense but to be honest the last few words of her life didn’t make sense. Something about untold riches beyond compare and maps to life in another time and unexpected paths. As jenny was reminiscing, she heard the clattering of horses galloping up the long driveway. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up! At that moment she could feel how real everything was about to be for her. Jenny knew that she couldn’t go to an orphanage. That was not the life that was ever meant for her and yet here it was riding up the driveway. She quickly spread open the sheet that was on her bed and in it she threw her clothes, a few pictures of her parents and grandmother and her small black notebook which had a small cobra ingrained in the bottom right corner. When she finished, she grabbed the rope from her curtain and tied together the sheet enclosing everything she had put inside. She opened her bedroom door and peaked out. She was thankful that the house was still sleep and that no one heard the galloping of the horses. Jenny crept downstairs and before she could reach the door, she had remembered feeling something inside the wall under the stairs earlier. She wanted to ignore it seeing she only had a small window to escape her terrible destiny, but she just couldn’t. As quietly and quickly as Jenny could, she pulled back a few boards on the wall. Feeling for what her foot felt earlier, she accidentally hit whatever it was, farther in the wall and out of reach. A bit frustrated she began pulling back more boards so she could squeeze her whole body through the entryway that she created. As soon as she went inside there was a loud bang on the door. Of course, Jenny immediately jumped! Not because of the loud knock that echoed through the entire house, but because she knew her time was up. She heard the footsteps from upstairs rushing to get the door. She hurried up and pulled into the wall with her, the tied sheet with all her belongings and she quickly fixed the boards. The boards had to be straight enough to hide the opening to where no one would notice. Just then she heard the front door open. “Hello, I’m James Kinnley, here from the orphanage to pick up a Jen Parsley.” Mrs. Whitker looked annoyed that she was woken up. “Ah yes, she is sleep, as we all were.” “Yes, I do apologize…” He clears his throat, “We had a mishap on the road with two of our wheels.” Halfway pleased with the response, Mrs. Whitker led the man and the 2 woman that were silently behind him, into the parlor room. She lit the fireplace and excused herself and proceeded upstairs. Jenny stayed as quiet as a mouse. Feeling around for what she felt earlier, Jenny’s hand bumped into something. Even though it was it was dark and she couldn’t see anything, she knew what she felt. It was a notebook of some sort and tied to it she could feel a key. A key to what exactly? She guessed it was for somewhere in the house. As she was trying to figure out where this key could possibly go, there was a loud scream of horror coming from what sounded like, Jenny’s room. The man and the woman in the parlor jumped up. Mr. Kinnley ran as fast as his legs would carry him up the stairs. “Is everything alright?” Jenny heard him ask. “She’s gone! She’s gone!” Cried Mrs. Whitker. “Well, lets go find her immediately!” Mr. Kinnley urged. Everyone started searching everywhere in the house. All the lanterns were lit, the home was very much bright now. Jenny was afraid that someone would see the crooked boards and look there. “She’s nowhere in the house!” someone called. “Let’s get in the carriage, she couldn’t haven’t gotten far on foot.” They all left the house, all the while forgetting to blow out the lanterns. Finally, jenny was alone. She, still afraid to leave her hiding spot, decided to move one of the boards to get better light so she can read what was on the notebook. As she was trying to adjust herself to get in the light, she felt something on the ground. A small hole, a keyhole to be exact. Immediately, she knew what to do. She took the key that was on the notebook and stuck it in the keyhole. As she turned it, the floor clicked and a latch on the floor popped open. Jenny curious and scared, dangled her feet down into the floor. Not knowing how deep she was going she began to slowly slide down, but she lost grip and suddenly fell. Jenny let out a high-pitched scream which did not slow her down. To her surprise, two minutes later, she was still falling. She kept falling and it seemed to have no end. She just knew it was not going to end up well. Suddenly, she started to see a light. The light started getting closer and closer and closer until finally, it was extremely bright! Jenny, helpless, shot through the light. Terrified, she put her hands up to protect herself from what she thought was a terrible and deadly landing. Instead, she founded herself submerged in water. She frantically kicked herself upward towards the same light she was seeing early. It seemed forever till she reached the top. Finally, she was able to break through the waters and as she did, Jenny wondered where she was. She definitely, was not home anymore, maybe not even on earth. She swam over to a shiny shore where the sand looked to be made of small diamonds and grounded gold. The sky was orange, red and purple. It glistened, with what appeared to be stars. She pulled herself onto the shore. While panting and collecting her sanity, she reached for the notebook which happened to wash up right next to her. She noticed it was black and as her fingers ran across the wet leather, she also noticed that it had the same cobra that her notebook had. As she opened the notebook, to her surprise, the first few pages were not pages at all. It was money! Lots and lots of money! She began counting it and it equaled exactly $20,000! Feeling a bit faint, she put the money on the side of her and continued with reading the notebook. It read:

“To my dearest Jenny,

If you are reading this, death has gotten the best of me, however, I wanted you to know, you are not alone. I need you to do this one thing, a test so to speak. In this notebook is $20,000 this is yours and in the same way you entered this secret world, you can leave. Or you can take the match in the back of this book and burn the money. Then, follow where the wind blows the ashes of the money to your parents who are, indeed, ALIVE! It is your choice.”

In disbelief, Jenny closed the black notebook, her heart was pounding. She had mixed emotions on what to do, she didn’t really remember much about her parents anyway. She knew if she took the money she could escape, survive and live very well, considering that she would be able to take care of herself. What was she thinking? Jenny quickly lit the match and she started to burn the $20,000 instantly. As it burned the wind was already blowing and it carried the ashes of the money to a huge boulder. Jenny used all her might and rolled the boulder away from the side of the hill that it laid upon. Before she could get her strength together, she heard, “Jenny? Jenny?” She looked inside the hole and seen a hand reaching out. “Take my hand my child.” Jenny grabbed the hand and… “Jenny wake up, Jenny wake up the orphanage is here!”

THE END!