My number is B1179-1D

I am a big and heavy key from a long time ago. In those modern times, keys are rather slick, and light weighted, fitting in any pocket, people even carry around their necks. But I come from a time when front doors because I am a front door key had two locks one for every day and a second stronger, heavier, hardly ever used one for security and just in case.

Out of all the copies made, I am the key kept at home on a hook next to the front door. Not sure what the lot fell on me but there always needs one to stay and wait and as a watcher know who comes or goes. The front bell is a bit too close for my liking and sometimes depending on who presses the button it deafens me for a while. I do not know much about the outside world, but I am in charge of the hallway, know its secrets and its lies but I will not tell.

It was not for me to spend time in a handbag, a pocket or beneath a gloved hand in winter. I was the spare, you see. The one used in an emergency or if the crime statistics went up in the arrear especially in the run up to Christmas or before the summer holidays. The rest of the time, I was happily ignored. The spare for all eventualities, that is me.

Over the years I saw many people walk by me, going in and out, happy, angry, or sweaty. I had the door slammed in my face on more than one occasion. An angry dad shouting for the kids to come in for their dinner. An energetic teenager nervous on the way to his first date. A mother so very annoyed with her brood for being late again, late for school, late for work, leaving the house behind in an absolute mess and thinking of the mess that nobody would come in to straighten for the rest of the day.

But most of the time, it is just me staring at the opposite wall, forgotten by all. I am not too keen of the dark, on my own in the hallway near the front door. I can hear the wind howling and the rain battering down the windowpane. The postman is whistling again this morning. The milkman stopped coming a long time ago. Not since the second car arrived in the garage.

I do come into my own when visitors are staying. Grannies used to turn up a lot to help when the children were small. They needed me to let themselves in and out in the daytime when everybody was out. And whilst they were indoors on their own, they liked to have all the locks in use. Then for Christmas, the years, they all came here to celebrate, there was not enough of me to go around.

I was in constant demand then in, out, forgotten in a pocket or bag. Often guests had to send me back once they noticed that they had taken me home with them by mistake. A couple of times they had to do without me for a few weeks as I was away from home. And they had planned to go up for Grandad's birthday anyway so saw no point in sending the key down, save the money. Although I am sure they would have missed me in an emergency. Keys are lost or misplaced, the keyring breaks all the time and then the spare one, in this case key Number B1179-1D becomes centre point and a major player. I am then lifted from the hook and passed from hand to hand, and I notice the smile on people's face to know that I am here at the ready.