The Key
Genre: Contemporary / Fantasy
Length: 2,946 words
Publisher & ISBN
JMS Books LLC / 9781935753513
One day on her way into work, Adi sees a strange young man in the Metro station. She mistakes him for a homeless wanderer, but she doesn't know just how right her initial assessment is. Just as she's about to board her tram, he tells her she has the key he needs to get home.
Thinking he means the one she found that morning, she willingly returns the key. But he's looking for something much more personal -- a key only she has, one to get him to a place she longs to go.
This story appears in the print collection, Bones of the Sea and Other Stories.
Excerpt
The station was less crowded now than it had been ten minutes ago, most of the commuters already on the other trams and on their way home. Adi heard a shuffling step behind her and risked a glance.
A young man bumped along the wall of the station, watching his feet and muttering to himself. His hair was disheveled and his clothing dirty and torn. Wild eyes stared from beneath a fall of dingy hair. He looked like the kind of person who stayed up all night writing manifestos against the government to post online. As he walked along the wall, he kicked at the trash strewn about -- newspapers and tissues, soda cans, discarded fast food bags. He took another step, lost his balance and fell against the wall. With one hand on the plastic casing that housed a map of the Metro, he steadied himself and looked up.
Adi quickly looked away. Great, she thought. Now he’ll come over here and beg for money. She stared harder at the lights, begging them to blink.
Someone placed a hand on her shoulder.
She jumped and turned to find the young man standing right beside her. Up close, the wildness in his eyes frightened her, and his hair shone dully in the reflection of the running lights. Leaning toward her, he grinned, his teeth very white. “I’m about as crazy as you are,” he whispered.
Adi rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t be too sure,” she whispered back, suddenly very afraid.