Sitting in the courtyard at lunch break, turning the key over in her hands, Jenny pondered it with care. She was so lost in contemplation that she didn’t hear Josh come up behind her until he exclaimed, rather loudly, “Nice key!”
Jenny nearly jumped in the air. “Jeeze”, she glared. “You nearly scared me to death.”
“Sorry,” he smiled, clearly not sorry. “What’s that? Finally found the key to my heart?”
She just shook her head in disgust. Josh was cute, but there was no getting around it — boys simply did not mature as quickly as girls. For the crime of liking the male half, it seemed she was forever doomed to the company of geeks and morons. Oh why couldn’t she like girls instead, like Chloe? Life must be so much more pleasant for Chloe. Besides, that might be a way to get through to Mom — finally something Mom would really have to notice. The thought made her smile.
“Ah, starting to appreciate my fine sense of humor, I see,” Josh grinned.
“No, you dork, I was just thinking how great it would have been if I’d been … oh never mind. You wouldn’t understand.”
Josh shrugged. He’d learned long ago not to try to follow the convoluted path of Jenny’s thoughts. “So, what’s with the key?”
“I’m trying to figure out what it opens.” She continued to regard the key thoughtfully.
“Looks like a pirate key to me,” Josh suggested.
“It’s called a skeleton key,” Jenny explained impatiently.
He grinned at that. “Why would anybody want to lock a skeleton?”
“Can you please be serious for five minutes?” she asked. “This is important.”
“Sorry,” Josh replied. “Serious is against my nature, but for you I am willing to make an effort. Why do they call it a skeleton key anyway?”
“I think it comes from the shape of the keyhole,” she explained. “Round at the top and kind of flared out below — kind of like the shape of a skull.”
“Oh, right,” he said. “You mean like the keyhole in that old wooden box in the school library — the one they supposedly found in that time capsule forty years ago. I remember Mr. Flanders told us in class it was the only object in the capsule they could never get open.”
The two of them looked at each other, then they both looked at the key. When Josh looked back at Jenny he saw that she was regarding him with the sweetest smile.
“You are a genius!” she exclaimed. “I could kiss you.”
Josh felt a very complex mix of emotions. He was sure that later he would think this was a very good moment, but right now he felt way out of his comfort zone. He knew he was supposed to say something here, but for once he was at a loss for words.
Jenny was too excited to notice. “Hey,” she smiled, even more sweetly, “would you like to go on an adventure with me to open that box?”
Faced with a concrete task, Josh once again found himself able to focus. “Well,” he said, “you do realize it would involve breaking into a locked glass case, tampering with school property, and probably violating about a dozen school regulations and at least one state law.”
“Will that be a problem?” she asked.
“I don’t see why,” he smiled. He wasn’t sure, but he had a feeling this whole crime thing was going to be a positive step in their relationship.