A Message for Andrea McLeish

Chapter 8

Dad's walking around the house with his Bluetooth headset talking to work people at the top of his voice. The things he's talking about are hella boring, although Dad sounds excited. I wonder if I'll be like that when I'm an adult. I shove the key under Dad's nose once he finishes the phone call before he can punch in another number.

'Dad, do you know what this is?'

'It's a key, Andrea.'

Does he think I'm a moron or something? 'But do you know what type of key? It looks too small for a house key.'

I hand the key over to Dad and he squints at it. He needs to wear glasses, but refuses. 'Hmm. It looks like a key to a safety deposit box.'

'Oh,' I say. 'Do you know what Atlas means?'

'Atlas?'

'It's printed on the key. See?'

'No idea. Where did you get this?'

'Um, I found it.' I take the key back from Dad and shove it into my pocket. Dad knows all the business people in the world, so if he doesn't know anything about Atlas, then who does? He's looking at his phone.

'Can I see?'

Dad and I turn around. Bobby's standing there. Too many people are focussing on my key now.

'Nah,' I say. 'It's just some old key I found.'

'Can I see?' It's rare that Bobby is persistent but when he is, he can be a real pain in the arse. I grip the key tight.

'Mind your own business, Bobby.' I walk off in the direction of my bedroom.

'Andrea!' Dad calls after me. 'Can you at least try to show a little kindness to your brother?'

I keep walking and mutter, 'It's not as if you spend any quality time with him.'

I slam by bedroom door and get out my tablet. I feel crummy. It wouldn't have hurt to let Bobby look at the key, but I didn't want Dad to get all interested and take it off me. It's mine. Besides, Bobby hasn't followed me into my bedroom so he's probably lost interest.

I search online for images of safety deposit box keys and some of them look like my key. None of them mention Atlas though. I search for Atlas and about a billion entries come up, mostly of map books and some man carrying a globe on his shoulders. It's like I'm looking for a particular grain of sand at the beach but I have no idea what that grain looks like. I sigh and start getting ready for school.

***

Anthony's in the bike shed. Harriet's there too. I hover behind a bush, waiting for her to bugger off. Finally she does, smiling at the bush as she drifts by.

'Anthony Jarvis!' I emerge from my hiding spot and he gives me a wave.

'Check it out,' I say as I walk over to him. I hold out a silver chain I'm wearing around my neck. The key hangs from the chain.

Anthony nods his approval. 'Did you work out what it's for?'

'Dad said it could be for a safety deposit box. I searched some images and a lot look like this key.'

'Makes sense.'

We walk towards the classrooms.

'Still no idea what Atlas is though,' I say.

'No banks or security firms with that name?'

'Nope.'

'Well, whatever the key is for, it's important. Otherwise my dad wouldn't have hidden it in a rock years ago.'