The Key to Salvation

The Key to Salvation

The man’s body lay across the sidewalk. His legs crossed at the ankles, his hands with fingers laced together across his chest. His head rested on a cushion of folded cloth, perhaps a jacket. A cap rested on his forehead, shielding his eyes.

“He can’t be dead,” thought Emily. “He must be sleeping.”

Next to him was a shopping cart filled with cardboard and large plastic bags of aluminum cans and glass bottles. A sign taped to the front proclaimed, “I clean the planet, so you don’t have to.”

Emily leaned down to see if he was breathing. He was. Relieved, she plucked four one dollar bills from her pocket, folded them up and gently placed them into his shirt pocket. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her wrist. Startled, she drew back and saw that he was looking at her with the most startling blue eyes.

“Thank you,” he said.

“It isn’t much,” she said.

“It’s enough to give to someone who has less. Thank you.”

He let go of her wrist and closed his eyes.

Emily carefully stepped over him and continued on her way to the library just a block away. Minutes later she climbed the steps and entered the large space where she left the books she was returning at the front desk.

“How are you?” asked, Rita, the librarian. “We have a slew of new books you might be interested in.” She pointed to a set of shelves in the middle of the room.

Emily thanked her and proceeded to the section where she took her time perusing the selection which included everything from fiction to nonfiction, politics, theology, horticulture, cuisine, arts and crafts, health and exercise. While searching for a good mystery novel, a little black book fell off the shelf and landed at her feet. Emily picked it up to put it back and noticed that it had no title. Curiously she opened the book and saw the first page was blank. The second held writing in beautiful calligraphy. She read, ‘You are the chosen one to receive this gift. Below is the key to your salvation.’ A small golden key was taped to the page and below that were numbers. 427.

“How odd,” she thought. “I wonder how this got here”.

Emily looked for the librarian but she was busy finding books for a group of children. Emily wondered whether she should put it back or just wait until the librarian was free. She decided to wait and she put the book in her tote bag.

After finding some books she wanted, Emily approached the librarian.

“I found this book on the shelf,” she said, handing it to her. “There’s no title or distinguishing marks.”

Rita took the book and glanced at it briefly, then handed it back to Emily. “I have no idea who it belongs to or how it got there.”

“There’s a key in it,” said Emily. She handed it back to Rita. Rita looked at the key and said, “Well, I don’t know what that unlocks, so be my guest and have a go at it. Looks like a joke to me.” She gave it back to Emily and wished her luck.

“Alright then,” Emily said to herself. “I’ll take it.” And she did.

When Emily left the library, she noticed the man with the cart was gone. “Perhaps he’s gone to the Sunlight Cafe to have coffee and a pastry or a bowl of soup and a sandwich,” she thought, feeling a little hungry herself, but happy with the thought that she might have helped someone eat a meal.

Within a few minutes, Emily came across a group of squares drawn in chalk on the sidewalk. Hopscotch! As she stood looking at it, she heard a voice say, “Go for it.” The voice belonged to a young girl around nine or ten who was near the other end drawing pictures on the ground.

“Alright”, said Emily. “Here goes.”

Step one, hop to two and three, hop to four, hop to five and six, hop seven, hop to eight and nine and finally to ten. When Emily finished she approached the young artist and saw her chalk drawing of a unicorn, and flowers, a rainbow and several butterflies.

“You’re very good,” she told the girl.

“Are those your drawings?” the girl asked pointing to the black note book.

“No, there aren’t any drawings in it. It’s mostly blank.”

“Are you going to draw in it?”

“No, I’m not an artists like you.”

“Then, can I have it?” asked the girl.

Emily laughed. “You are precocious, aren’t you?”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you are clever beyond your years.”

“Yep, that’s me!” she exclaimed happily. “So can I have it?”

“Why do you want it and why should I give it to you?”

“So I can draw in it and take my drawings everywhere with me.” She pointed at the unicorn. “See? I can’t take that with me. It’s stuck on the sidewalk. And besides you’re not an artist.”

“Hmmmm,” Emily said. “I think you have some very good points. Okay.”

Emily opened the book, removed with page with the key and handed it to the smiling girl.

“Thank you,” she said. “I will think of you when I draw.”

“I can’t ask for anything better than that.”

Emily said goodbye, then started to walk away when she looked at the page with the key. Sunlight striking the key made it glow and in that brightness, Emily noticed a tiny shamrock engraved in it. She stopped and turned to the girl.

“Do you know what a Shamrock is?” she asked.

The girl answered. “It’s a three-leaf clover from Ireland.”

Emily looked again. “This one has four leafs.”

“I think it means good luck. Why?”

“I have a key with a four-leaf clover engraved on it. I don’t know what it opens.”

Both were silent for a minute.

“The bus station has lockers with four-leaf shamrocks on it. I saw it when I went to my aunt’s house,” said the young girl.

“What?” asked Emily.

The girl pointed to the bus station blocks away.

“The bus station has lockers with shamrocks on them. They are painted green.”

Emily wasted no time getting to the bus station. As soon as she walked in, it was as if she was transported back in time. This particular station was not considered to be important enough to be modernized. The building itself was unassuming, kind of charming in a cottage style country way. Gabled roof, red siding, flower boxes. Emily walked into a waiting room still filled with high back wooden benches, a newsstand, a water fountain, two old-style phone booths, a window where one bought tickets on Greyhound or Trailways, one wall of US maps, a coffee kiosk, and a row of lockers painted green.

Half a dozen people sat scattered on the benches. An old man reading a newspaper, a young woman nursing a baby with a pair of twin toddlers beside her eating ice cream and swinging their feet which could not touch the ground. A young couple, teenagers, with purple hair and nails in their faces, making out with abandonment, a handsome young black man in a three piece suit tapping away on his laptop, and a woman of indeterminate age and nationality sitting quietly while weaving colorful yarn between two pointed sticks.

While Emily walked towards the lockers, she took notice of everyone there.

“How strange to be here,” she thought. “If it wasn’t for the key, I wouldn’t be.”

The green lockers with the shamrocks painted on them only went up to fifty. Fifty lockers. Not 427. Emily stood at the end of the line of lockers in disappointment. Then she thought.

“Maybe it’s 42 or 27 or something else?”

No. The numbers didn’t work. The locks didn’t turn. The doors didn’t open. Now what?

“Something has to be here. There must be a trick. Does four to seven mean something other than numerical. Does it mean four becoming seven means adding three.”

Three did not work. Now what? The shamrock normally has three leaves, four leaves are considered extraordinarily good luck.

“What if I added the numbers?” she thought. The locker numbered 13 opened easily, and inside was a large beat up leather satchel, with scrapes and scratches all over. Emily was disappointed at the sight. “What will I do with this? Throw it in the trash?” Emily dragged the bag out and suddenly realized how heavy it was. It was bulging with whatever was inside. After walking a few feet with it, Emily sat down on an empty bench away from anyone who might observe her. Slowly she unzipped the satchel and peeked inside. Quickly, she zipped it close, sat back and started breathing deeply. Her heart was pounding in her chest. The satchel was filled with cash. Lots of it. Thousands of dollars, maybe hundreds of thousands!

“What do I do?” Emily sat and thought about this for a few minutes while her heart rate went back to normal, or nearly normal.

“Do I go to the Police? Is it lost? Is it stolen? What do I do?” Looking around, Emily saw everything was normal. No one was watching her, there were no signs or posters of lost or stolen money. Emily took the page from the black book out of her pocket and read it again.

‘You are the chosen one to receive this gift. Below is the key to your salvation.’

“Who am I to refuse such a wondrous gift?” she thought. “How can I not appreciate this wonderful generosity from someone who only wishes me well? But who did this? Who gave me the key?”

Emily pondered these questions and realized she might never know the answers, but one thing was certain, it was the key to her salvation. She could now pay her bills, afford to finish her college studies, help her parents with their health care and so many more things. She smiled as she pictured buying the man with the cart a steak dinner. She smiled as she lifted the heavy satchel and walked out of the bus station.

The End or a New Beginning