A Key to the Past

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Choose Your Adventure.”

When she bought the farm she had no idea how much land she actually owned. She knew the little church in her pueblo was on her land. There was a legend often repeated by towns folk. They said there was gold buried by the Indians on her land. Sometimes at night when all was quiet she would hear strange sounds like a door opening, or knocking, but she dismissed it as the wind and an overactive imagination. She liked the mystery that surrounded her home.

One night it was really stormy, the basement entry was left open and she could hear the door blow open and creak from the rusty hinges. She heard her dogs howling. The wind was making the curtains blow in her bedroom. She got up to close the windows, as the rain really started coming down in torrents. She saw a shadow run across the land. She knew it was nothing, probably an opossum, but with the dogs growling and whining she needed to investigate. Flashlight in hand she went out into the night. She felt no fear as life on the farm included storms, power outages, and sometimes storms that came out of nowhere. She just wanted to shut that creaking entrance-way to the basement and go back to bed.

She could hear that door moving as she approached the basement. The dogs were all around her, and there was no reason for fear…her dogs were her mighty protectors. She entered the basement and flipped the light switch. Nothing happened. Now, there was no electricity and the storm grew stronger. She entered the basement although she just needed to close the door. The flashlight led her and she saw an opening she had never seen before. There was a passageway that looked like stairs going down. She put the light from her flashlight on this space. She knew better, but she had to descend. She found herself in a tunnel. She knew she was crazy but kept walking along a dark pathway. Her dogs were behind her. She started to ascend. She was at a trap door; which she pushed and it opened! She shown her light around and she was inside the church that was on her land! The opening was the storage area of the church, and a key was plainly visible. “Where does this key fit?” she wondered. She grabbed the key and ran back down the passageway as she now felt frightened. The key clutched in her hand. She re-entered the basement. There in front of her was a sight that was unexpected…it was like the basement had shifted. It was no longer storage for her suitcases and old clothes. It was a city that was from a time past, a place that looked nothing like the world she lived in. There was a church with an old wooden door, the door was incredible with inlaid carvings. There was a keyhole. She wondered if the key she held tightly in her hand would fit. She walked over and put the key in the door: it turned and clicked. She pushed the wood slightly, and she watched as the door opened to a magnificent room filled with light. Her being felt lighter, her heart pumped rapidly. She saw sights she never thought she could see in her life. “Was this a dream, or did she enter Paradise?” She saw people from her past, some dead, some still alive, but they were in front of her at this moment. She wondered how she became entwined inside this time warp. There were her parents, her daughter, a friend she knew had died too young. There also were people from her present world, they were still alive. They all were smiling and trying to talk to her. The sounds came out as melodic, like a choir of angels singing, but she couldn’t really hear what they were saying to her. Then she was given a letter, she was able to understand every voice at once: “Burn this after you read it!” She took the letter and all the glorious sounds disappeared. She was standing in the basement once again surrounded by suitcases. The letter was in her hand.