The Old Key

The Story

It was a normal day for Henry Romaine in the town of Grey Stone, or at
least it started out as one. Little did he know that this would be the
day that everything in their simple life would change. As always, the
whole town was bustling. There were the towns people coming out of
their homes and going to the market with their friends and family,
there was the people at the market selling things like food, clothes
and toys, and then there was Henry who, as always, was with his
friends Harmony Willow and Roland Sorel. They were walking around town
trying to figure out what they should do that day.
"Why don't we go down to the park, we could hang out on the swings
and eat ice cream" suggested Harmony as she took at bite of her
breakfast sand witch.
"We did that two days ago" Roland responded "we could go down to the
beach and swim for the day".
"Good idea Roland, but the beach is closed remember, the mayors
daughter is having her birthday party there today" Harmony reminded.
Oh yeah, that's right. Why is she such a spoil... Oh hey Bridget"
Just then, the mayors daughter came up to them. She was, as always,
looking very "special". Bridget was accompanied by her best friend
Sidney, the two of them were basically inseparable and agreed on
everything. They had met in preschool and had been in the same class
every year since then. Bridget was wearing a pair of jean shorts with
a bright yellow shirt and flats. Sydney was wearing the same thing
(like always).
"Well, hey guys" Bridget explained, in a fake friendly voice.
"Speak of the devil" Roland coughed.
"Hey Bridget, happy birthday" Harmony replied, while elbowing Roland
in the gut.
"Thank you, I just came by to remind you that none of you are invited
to my party and if any of you are found on the beach you will be
removed" Bridget noted "well, have a good day" she finished and
skipped off towards her party.
"Wow, just wow. I can't believe her!" Roland yelled
"I know, but she's the mayors daughter. She basically owns this town
and there is nothing we can do about it" Harmony stated.
"So Henry, any ideas on where we should go?"
"Why don't we go to the woods, we haven't been there in a while"
Henry answered.
"Hey, didn't we have a fort down there?" Roland asked
"Yeah" Henry and Harmony exclaimed together, and with that they were
off to the woods.
As they entered the forest, memories flooded them of when they would
play games and go on adventures in the woods together when they were
younger. No a lot had changed since they had stopped going to the
woods. They walked down the trail and found the spot where they had
put a sign telling them the direction of the fort, which they followed
into the trees and around bushes. It was around 11:00 am by now and
the sun was fully in the sky. Through the canopy of leaves above, they
could see bits of blue and the sun shinning high above them. The cold,
misty morning had turned into a warm clear noon as they finally walked
into the clearing. Henry looked up to see the home made fort that his
dad had helped him and the others build before he passed away. Harmony
looked over to the target that she had made so they could do bow and
arrows. It was one of her favorite games and the boys weren't half
bad. Roland on the other hand looked at his old hut. Before he and
Henry had met Harmony, they had used this clearing for adventure.
Roland had built a hut out of leaves, twigs, trees and string so that
they could still come out here and play if it was raining. In the hut
there was old maps and papers that showed and told of distant lands
created by them. Henry had written the stories, Roland made sure that
they made sense, and their old friend Jake, who had moved away a year
before they met Harmony, had drawn the maps with his keen sense for
detail.
The three of them walked up the stairs, into the tree house, and
found that it hadn't changed at all since they had left. Clearly no
one had found it. the windows were still closed, their sleeping bags,
which they had left since their last sleepover, were still piled
neatly on the corner. There were full cans of pop and empty bags of
chips on the table and on desk there was a flash light, paper,
pencils, pens and old homework that had been handed back with full
marks.
"Looks like nothings changed" Henry observed.
"Yeah" agreed Harmony.
"Wait, why did we ever stop coming here?" Roland asked.
"I don't remember. I know it had to do with school, but why didn't we
come back when the summer started." Harmony pondered.
"Well, who wants to have a sleep over here tonight, for old times
sake?" Henry suggested
"Sure" Harmony and Roland agreed together.
The rest of the afternoon went pretty simply, first Harmony went home
and grabbed her bow and arrows, Henry grabbed his projector and laptop
so that they could watch a movie, and Roland grabbed some fresh pop
and full bags of chips for snacks. They met up in the center of town
around 6:00 pm after they had all eaten super and as they walked back
towards the woods, they could hear the music coming from the party on
the beach as the live band was performing.
"Sounds like Bridget's having fun" Henry thought allowed
"Yeah, but does she enjoy going into the woods and having a sleep
over under the stars? No, she doesn't." Harmony assured.
"I guess, but still. she doesn't deserve half the stuff she gets, we
have to work for our belongings and learn the value of a dollar. For
her, she'll never have to work for anything because once she's old
enough, the town is just going to be given to her on a silver platter"
Henry ranted.
"Henry calm down, we all know know she'll never be ready. Plus, if
she does run the town, we'll be old enough that we can move out so we
won't have to live with her being our boss" Ronald chimed in.
"Yeah, I guess you're right"
"So, who's ready for fun?"
"We are!" the three of them exclaimed together as they ran into the
woods laughing.
As they got to the tree house, the sun was starting to go down and
the stars were coming out as the moon rose high above the clearing.
From the window they could see the fire works going off from the
beach, so bright that it lit up the clearing. Red, orange and blue
lights crashing into the black night, scattering the earth with
millions of sparks.
"Hey Henry, how did Jake, you and I find this clearing anyway? I
mean, it is really far from the main trail." Roland asked.
"Well, we were trying our new bikes and then I lost control of the
peddle. I went into the trees and you and Jake followed me until I
came to a stop when my wheel hit a rock in the middle of the clearing.
See, you can stills see the dent." Henry explained pointing to a rock
beside the target.
"Oh yeah"
"So, what do you guys want to do?" asked Harmony as the fireworks ended.
"Well, we could watch a movie" Roland suggested.
Harmony and Henry agreed, so the three of them set up the laptop and
the projector. They decided to watch "The best friends", which was a
movie about two boys who met as kids and became best friends. They
didn't look alike but they were very similar and at the end they found
out that they were actually twin brothers. It had been one of their
favorite movies as kids. After the movie, they played a few games and
before they knew it, it was 11:45 pm.
"Well, we should probably go to sleep" Harmony yawned.
"Yeah, night guys" Henry agreed.
"Night" Harmony and Roland finished as the three of them got into
their sleeping bags and closed their eyes.
FLASH!
Henry awoke with his heart pounding. He looked around, but there was
nothing. Ronald and Harmony were still fast asleep.
"Funny, i could have sworn I..." a ray of light came through the
window and then disappeared immediately, followed by a loud crash.
"Guys?" Henry stammered, shaking the others awake.
"What?" Harmony asked, half awake.
"I think there is someone outside"
"Henry there's no one out..." The sound came again. "Okay, maybe
you're right."
The three of them crept towards the window and peeked out. They
looked all around, but there was nothing. All of a sudden there was a
knock on the door.
"Hello?" Henry asked, voice shaking.
The door burst open and in came a young boy wearing jeans, sneakers
and a green sweater. He had green eyes and brown hair.
"Henry, Roland, long time no see!" Said the boy, running into the tree house.
"Jake?!" Henry and Roland gasped.
"Yeah, and who's this?" he asked.
"Oh, this is Harmony" Henry answered.
"Nice to meet you" She said coming over and shacking his hand.
"You too" Jake replied.
"Wait, what are you doing here?" Roland chimed in.
"Oh, well. That's kind of a long story. I"m on an adventure" he exclaimed.
"Oh, of course you are. As in you ran away from home?"
"No. I found this map and it led me back here" Jake pulled out a map
from his back pocket.
"Cool!" Henry commented.
"Wait, why does it lead here?" Roland asked.
"I don't know" Jake admitted "all I know is that it does, so I
followed it to find out".
"Where did you find it?"
"Well, my grandfather gave it to me. He told me it would solve all
the problems"
"What problems?" Harmony asked.
"I'm not sure, he never told me"
"So, let me get this straight. You left your house and followed a map
back to the town where you used to live because your grandfather told
you it would solve all the problems, but he never specified what those
problems were, and it just happened to lead you to the exact place
where you, Henry and Roland used to hand out almost everyday? Sounds a
bit far fetched." Harmony explained.
"Yeah pretty much, and I thought so to, until I saw that flash" Jake clarified.
"Wait, so you didn't make the flash, or the crash?" Henry observed.
"No"
"Well, I think there's definitely something going on" Roland added.
CRASH!
"It came from outside!" Henry exclaimed.
All four of them ran down the stairs. This time, there was something
to see. The ground had a large hole in it right beside the hut.
"Um guys, that wasn't there when I got here" Jake stuttered.
"Wait, there's stairs" Henry pointed out.
"Should we go down?" Roland asked.
"Well, maybe it has something to do with the map" Harmony suggested.
"Grab that twig" Jake advised. Henry ran over and grabbed the large
twig that was laying on the ground and handed it to him. "Thanks" he
pulled out a lighter and lit one end of the stick on fire "there, now
we can see".
The four of them walked down the stairs and found themselves in a
dimly lit room with lots of papers everywhere and a long hallway at
one end. The room was cold, dusty and had a few torches lining the
walls. Jake went around and lit them all. Once they were all lit they
could see the room for what it was. The papers were letters and the
floor was made of silver. The room was round and maps lined the wall.
In the center of the room, there was a carving in the floor of a fox
and had the initials A. F carved above the fox's head.
"Wait, a fox? Wasn't the Mayor of Grey Stone Mayor Fox? Before our
current Mayor." Henry asked.
"Yeah, his name was Albert Fox" Harmony answered.
"Well, maybe he made this. It would explain those initials."
"Why would Albert make this? Unless..." Jake trailed off.
"Unless what?" Roland asked.
"Maybe this could lead to the key" Jake finished.
"What key?"
"The key to open his chest, you know, the one thats in the middle of
town square"
"Maybe" Henry agreed. "But, why would your grandfather have the map
to the key?"
"I don't know"
They walked down the tunnel and at the end they found a door. It was
locked. The key whole was in the shape of a feather.
"Hey Jake, doesn't that kind of look like your feather necklace that
your grandfather gave you?" Roland observed.
"Yeah" Jake agreed, taking the chain off from around his neck.
Jake grabbed the metal feather in his hand and put it into the whole
and there was a clicking sound. All of a sudden the door swung open,
revealing a perfectly clean room that was full of light. At the
opposite end of the room there was a key hanging from a hook. It was
big and looked very old.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go get it" Harmony insisted.
Jake walked over and grabbed the key off of the wall.
"We should go see if it is the right key" Henry suggested.
The four of them ran out of the room and up the stairs. Outside, the
sun was coming up and they could finally see. They ran out of the
clearing and onto the trail, they ran all the way to town square. The
town was already full of people walking around at the market but they
all stopped as they saw Henry. Roland, Harmony and Jake running
through the crowd. Everyone followed and eventually they were all
huddled around the chest. Even Bridget, Sydney and the Mayor had come.
"What is the meaning of this?" Asked the mayor.
"Well, Mr. Mayor..." Henry started.
"I'm not the Mayor anymore, Bridget turned 18 yesterday and so I
handed her the key to the town, just like I was always going to do"
"Yeah, so you four had better start explaining" Bridget chimed in.
"Well, Ms Princess, we just found a key that we believe will open
Mayor Fox's chest" Jake exclaimed.
He turned around and put the key into the lock of the chest, it fit
perfectly. He turned the key and the lock clicked open. The crowd
gasped. He opened up the chest and inside he found gold coins and a
folder titled "WILL". He opened up the folder and read allowed.
"Dear people of Grey Stone, I Mayor Albert Fox hereby give the deed to
this fair town to my grandson Jackson Fox, and if he dies it is given to my great grandson Jake Hillel, so long that he is of age meaning 18or older." He handed the note over to Bridget's fatherand he verifiedit.
"Well, I guess this means that Grey Stone has a new Mayor, pleasewelcome Mayor Hillel." he said, shaking Jakes hand while Bridgetstormed off crying with Sydney following close behind her.
"Wow Jake, so that's why your grandfather had all that stuff, his dad
gave it to him to give to you." Henry theorized.
"I guess so" Jake agreed.
"So, where do we go from here?" Harmony asked.
"I don't know, but this is huge. We finally put Bridget in her
place!" Roland cheered.
"Now, the only question is, what does this all mean?..."