Love
is the Key
by
 |
| Mathew, Alisa and Joshua - the family love detectives |
by
Grandma
Baadsgaard
Joshua
this is a special story I
wrote just for you on
your 13th birthday.
I love you Josh.
On Sunday
afternoons, Josh and Mathew always went to their Grandma’s house after church.
After they ate dinner, Josh and Mathew liked to explore the back two acres with
their aunt Alisa. Alisa was the same age as Josh so she seemed more like a
cousin than an aunt.
One Sunday while the
whole family was eating Grandpa’s Dutch oven pork ribs, Josh heard something
that peeked his interest.
“When I was a little
girl,” their Aunt Arianne said. “I found an antique key buried under a stone
threshold that led into that small room in the barn with a cement floor.”
“Key?” Josh asked. “You
found a key? What did it look like?”
“It was one of those old
ones they don’t make ones like that anymore,” Aunt Arianne answered.
“Did it unlock anything?”
Josh asked.
“That was the strange
thing,” Aunt Arianne said. “There is only one door in the barn and sometimes
that key opened the door and sometimes it didn’t. Once I thought I heard a
small child crying in that room so I dug around where I left the key, dusted it
off and tried it in the lock. But it wouldn’t work. When the crying stopped, I
tried the key again and it worked this time. I opened the door but no one was
in the room.
“Did you save the key?”
Josh asked.
“That is the other
funny thing,” Aunt Arianne answered. One day I dug for it where I left it and
it wasn’t there. I’ve never seen it since.”
Josh poked Mathew and
Alisa seated on both sides of him. Then they quietly excused themselves from
the table. They quickly ran out to the
back yard and sat in a circle under the old cherry tree.
“We’ve got to find that
key,” Joshua said.
“She said there is only
one door in the barn and she found it under a stone threshold there. That’s
where we should start,” Alisa added.
“I’ll get a shovel out
of the shed,” Mathew said as they all stood up and walked quickly toward the
barn.
When they got to the
barn Joshua found the threshold stone and asked Matthew to pry it up with the
shovel. Then Josh pushed the stone over and Mathew turned over the dirt beneath
it. Alisa and Josh sifted through the loose power with their fingers. Before
long Mathew joined in the sifting. That’s when they heard a faint noise that
sounded like a whimper. They looked at each other with frightened faces.
“What was that,” Mathew
asked?
“Sounds like crying to
me,” Alisa said.
“Just the wind,” Josh
answered.
They went back to
sifting through the dusty dirt with their fingers in silence. That’s when
Joshua felt something solid in the dirt. He grabbed it, pulled it from the dirt
and dusted it off on his pants. It was a key, an old-fashioned rusted key like
the one his Aunt had described. His eyes opened wide and she tapped Alisa and
Mathew on the shoulder to look.
Then they heard the
sound again. This time it was more than a whimper. It sounded like a child
sobbing. Cold wind whistled around the corner of the barn and sent a chill up
their Josh’s back.
Alisa pointed to the
rusted door handle with a keyhole lock. Joshua placed the antique key into the
lock and turned it until he heard a click. Then he motioned for Alisa to
quietly walk around the barn and peek in the small window on the south side of
the room. He motioned for Mathew to crawl to the window on the north side of
the room. When everyone was in position, Josh finished turning the key just as
the blustery wind blew open the door with a loud bang.
Joshua looked inside.
There was no inside. After he walked into the room he called for Mathew and
Alisa.
“Did you guys see
anything?” Josh asked.
“Nothing,” Mathew
answered.
“I did,” Alisa said. “But
only for a second. Right before you opened the door, I saw a little girl
crouched in the corner of the room with her head on her knees. When she heard
the key turning in the lock, she looked up at me in the window and then she
vanished.”
“Are you sure?” Josh
said shaking his head. That doesn’t make any logical sense. Real people don’t
just vanish.”
“Josh, you’re always so
logical and scientific,” Mathew added. “If Alisa said she saw a little girl, I
believe her.”
“So you believe in
ghosts?” Josh asked his brother as he poked in the ribs. “You better watch out or
she’ll get you! Come on you guys. Ghosts aren’t real and you know it.”
Just then Josh and
Mathew heard their mother call from the house. Josh buried the key where he
found it and replaced the hearth stone. Then and he and Matty raced back toward
the house. Alisa stayed behind in the small room in the barn. She felt something
drawing her to the little girl she had seen. When everything was quiet again,
she listened. Wind whistled around the barn and made a moaning sound.
“Well are you coming or
not?” Josh said poking his head back into the room.
“If I were you I
wouldn’t stay in that room by myself,” Mathew added.
“I’m coming,” Alisa
answered.
“We can’t tell anybody
about this,” Josh whispered. “It’s more exciting if it is a secret.”
The next day when Alisa
was in the car with her mother after being picked up from school, she started
asking questions.
Do you believe in
ghosts?” she asked her mother.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean people who suddenly
appear then disappear.”
“I don’t know about
that,” her mother answered. “But when I was a little girl I used to hide out in
the yard when things were sad in my house. Sometimes when I was alone and
crying, I'd see smiling faces above me in the air just before they'd
disappear.”
“Were the faces scary?”
Alisa asked.
“Just the opposite,”
her mother answered. “They were kind faces and what they said comforted me. They
told me not to be scared; that everything would be alright. They told me not to
feel alone because they would always be there for me even if I couldn’t see
them.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“No. I didn’t think
anyone would believe me.”
The next Sunday when
Josh and Matty came over, Alisa took them outside and led them toward the barn.
“I think we’re seeing
my mom when she was a little girl,” Alisa said after the threesome sat down in
a semi-circle around the old barn door.
“What do you mean?”
Josh asked as he pried off the hearth stone and grabbed the key.
“When I asked her if
she believed in ghosts, she told me that she used to see faces, smiling faces
that made her feel better when she was a little girl.”
“Oh that can’t be it.
Grandma is old now. How could we see her today if she was a little girl over
fifty years ago? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Things don’t have to
make sense,” Matty answered. “Maybe grandma needs us to make her feel better.”
“I think families who
love each other aren’t bound by time,” Alisa said. “Your grandma has spent her
whole life helping us. Maybe this is our chance to help her.”
Josh was quiet. “I’ve
always wanted to believe in time travel or another dimension we can’t see,”
Josh said. “But nothing in scientific theory can explain that.”
“Maybe you won’t be
able to see until you feel,” Alisa said.
“Feel what?” Josh asked.
“Love,” Alisa said.
“It’s easier for me because she’s my mother. Maybe that is why I saw her
first.”
“I remember when she
came to my school when I was bleeding and they couldn’t find my mom and dad,”
Josh said.
“I remember when she
slept over at our house while Mom and Dad were in the hospital with Caleb,”
Matty added.
“But how do we get her
to appear and stay long enough so we can talk to her,” Josh said. “We can’t
help her if she doesn’t stay around long enough for us to talk to her.
“I think I need to be
the one who unlocks the door this time,” Alisa said.
Josh handed Alisa the
key then walked around the barn to the south window while Matty took his place
outside the north window. Then they waited. A strong gust of wind blew around
the old barn wood walls and the loose boards moaned and creaked. Alisa
shivered. Josh and Matty held their breath.
Then the crying began
again. Alisa took the key and quietly placed it in the lock. Then she slowly
turned the key.
“Don’t be afraid,”
Alisa whispered when she entered the room and saw the little girl in the corner
with her knees bent to chin. “Everything will be alright. Don’t feel alone. We’ll
always be with you even when you can’t see us.”
The little girl looked
up at Alisa with a startled expression, then wiped her tears and relaxed. Alisa
felt the room fill with light and warmth as if they were next to a blazing
fire.
“I’ll always be here
for you,” Matty said walking into the room behind Alisa.
“I love you,” Josh said
quietly as he entered the room.
Then the little girl
wiped her tears and smiled. She turned and looked at each of their smiling
faces just before she vanished.
“Did
you see her?” Alisa asked as she turned around.
Both Josh and Matty silently
nodded. Alisa and Matty stayed in the barn while Josh slowly and silently
walked back into grandma’s house. He found the large binder with old black and
white pictures. He carefully turned the pages until he came to a small photo of
his grandma when she was a little girl frayed and faded with age.
“It’s her,” Josh
whispered. “It’s really her.”
Later that night when
Josh was leaving, his grandma hugged him tight and whispered in his ear, “I’ll
always be here for you. I love you Josh.”
“Grandma, do you think
time always goes forward?” Josh asked. “Or is it a circle that never begins or
ends?”
