The Golden Key

By Colleen Wethern

Christmas Eve morning, a girl named Collette was inside her house drinking some hot cocoa. All of the sudden the door bell rang. “I will get it!” Collette said as she raced to the door. “Aunt Margaret, you’re here”, said Collette. Aunt Margaret was the nicest Aunt in the world. She would give you a present and let you open it as soon as she put it into the palm of your hand.

“Hello darling, I have a present for you”, Aunt Margaret said handing a little bag to Collette. The bag had a big snowman on it. Inside the present was a tiny box along with some tissue paper. Collette opened up the little box. Inside was a lovely golden key dangling on a beautiful matching golden chain. “It’s lovely!” said Collette.

“Does it go to anything?” Collette continued. “Aunt Margaret!” said Collette’s Mom who just walked into the room. Collette’s Mom is nice too. She and Aunt Margret are sisters. They hardly ever fight. “Look at what Aunt Margaret gave me!” Collette said holding up the key.

“Aunt Margaret is helping with the decorations” said Collette’s mom. “You can help with the cookies” she said to Collette. Mmmm, mom’s cookies are the best in the world. Then Collette put on the necklace and walked into the kitchen.

Collette got out the supplies while her mom got out the ingredients and the dough she made last night. “Here”, she said giving the dough to Collette. “You can cut out shapes and put them into the oven to bake”, said Collette’s mom. “Mom what does the key go to?” Collette said, knowing her mom would have an answer. “Well, it goes to a hidden door in this house”, her mom replied. “The room is filled with expensive pictures, books, furniture, jewelry, and more.”

Collette thought about this and said she was going to look for the hidden door after the cookies are tested. Just then Collette’s little sister walked in the room. “Can I help?” she asked. “Of course”, said Collette. Collette’s little sister’s name is Claire. She never got into fights and was always helpful. “Claire can you mix the frosting?” said the girl’s mom. Claire hopped up on a stool and started mixing the frosting. Collette cut out a lot of stars. Then oven timer went beep, beep, beep. “The oven is ready for another batch” said their mom.

Collette put the batch in the oven and took out the one that was done. “Let’s frost it”, she said to her sister. So they got a plastic knife and spread the creamy, soft frosting on the cookies. “Mmmm”, said Collette. “Yum”, said Claire.

“Now, let’s search for that hidden door”, said Collette. “You should start in the basement”, suggested their mom. So the two girls marched down the staircase. When they got down to the bottom of the stairs they saw a note. It said “You have the key, now have some tea.” “Claire, your tea set!” shouted Collette. They raced to the tea set. “I don’t see anything!” said Collette. Claire picked up an upside down cup and found a note.

The note said, “The third clue is in the store of age, minus eof” “What?! I have never heard of a store of age.” said Collette. “Neither have I.” replied a puzzled Claire. Collette walked into the kitchen to the chalk board and hauled it back to the tea set. She picked up a purple piece of chalk and wrote “Store of age” on the board. Then Claire look at the note and said minus eof. She looked at the board wiped away the e in store and of. Now the board said storage. “Storage room!” The girls both shouted in unison.

They went into the storage room. There they found the third clue. “The hidden door is in the locked closet”, Collette read out loud.

They ran upstairs to tell their mom the good news. When they got upstairs they tried to open the door with Collette’s present. It worked! When they got inside there was a staircase. They went up the stairs and found a door. Collette used her key again and “whoosh” the door swung open. There was everything their mom had told them about, even a huge TV. There was also a fold out bed. “What is this?” Collette said holding up a letter. It read,

“I hope you like the room.

Love, Mom

P.S. Merry Christmas.”

That is the story of The Golden Key.