The golden key glistened as Jenny held it up to the light from the attic window, turning it first one way and then another. She frowned thoughtfully. It’s one thing to find a key, but quite another to know what it opens — if anything. She wondered whether it was made of real gold. Not that it really mattered. After all, the real value of a key lies in what it can unlock.
She looked about the attic, trying to spot something that might require a skeleton key. Everything was in such a jumble — it had probably been decades since anyone had made a real attempt to tidy up in here. She had gotten the feeling growing in this house up that ever since Grandma had passed, the attic was not a popular place to visit. It wasn’t anything people said, more the way the subject just never seemed to come up. Whatever the reason, clearly Mom wasn’t a big fan of the attic and its secrets.
Still, she could try to ask Mom what the deal was, show her the jewelry box with its mysterious key. No, she thought, that probably wasn’t a good idea. She really wasn’t supposed to be up here at all, and in any case, something told her that it would be better, at least for now, to keep this little secret to herself. Besides, she was already late for school. Jenny tucked the key into the pocket of her jeans and headed on downstairs.