Week 22: The beach key -- Mahoney

By Kenzie Mahoney
Hinesburg Community School, Grade 8

I opened the drawer on my bedside table and pulled the key out like I had so many times before. It wasn’t anything special or fancy it was just an ordinary, dull silver colored key. It had some dents on it, but other than that it looked brand new. Even though it wasn’t. I knew it wasn’t because I had had it for 10 years. I can remember the day I found it very clearly.

I had just turned 6 years old it was my first birthday in our new home on Cape Cod. I was combing the beach with Wyatt, our 4 year old black lab, for anything different or unique. I had picked up some shells and rocks, but there wasn’t anything different about them so back they went into the ocean. That is when I saw it. The key was partly submerged in the sand and had just a little bit sticking out. I would never have noticed it, but the early morning light shone just right and reflected the light off the key and into my eyes. I grabbed the key, examined it quickly then ran back toward my house with Wyatt at my heels. I couldn’t wait to tell my Mom, Dad and my older brother Matt about my discovery. There was nothing that I had not shared with them. But that was when it hit me, this was something only I knew about, nobody else knew about this one key. Nobody except ME! So I never told them, I have never told anyone for all the 10 years that I have had this k