Week 22: Key of Hope

By Kameron Clayton
Hinesburg Community School, Grade 8

The key doesn’t unlock a door, or some locker at the local gym. As the man walks down the street, belongings thrown over his shoulder, and food tucked under his arm, he sees it, sparkling like a diamond.

Thinking that it’s a coin he reaches down to pick it up, his legs aching from many years on the street. He is startled when he finds the cold metal key, which, in reality, much more than metal to this man. He thinks and dreams of the wonderful things the key could unlock. At the same time he realizes that this key could unlock more evil than the little letters inscribed on the side could tell.

He picks up the key in his hand and feels the patterned edge scrape up against his dry skin. The man pockets the key, although he almost certainly won’t find the door unlocks, and nor does he really want to. It won’t get him food to eat or a place to sleep at night. It won’t eliminate all of the man’s problems. Physically the key won’t affect him. The key will give him hope, something that had been missing from his life. Hope that he might one day find a home. Hope that he might get a job, and hope that his life will turn around. For a second in time, the world lights up for this man and he feels as if the world is in his hand.

A moment later, sirens blare and the man keeps walking, feeling the weight of the key in his pockets.

Three blocks north and a couple houses west a boy feels into his pocket for the key. There is nothing there. To the boy his pocket feels like a hollow cavern. The key is gone.
To the man his pocket is filled with gold. Hope is his.