The Magic Key - 2

Continuation of posts 10 Minute Madness Experiment and The Magic Key - 1

‘It’s obvious it’s old. You know no more than I do so just admit that instead of speculating the obvious.’

‘I was only trying to help,’ he answered, hurt by his older sisters comments.

‘Well I’d really appreciate help searching this place if you two don’t mind.’

‘Of course not,’ Sheila said, ‘I think we’d both like to know what it opens.’

‘Divide and conquer I say.’ Jeff jumped up. ‘I’ll take downstairs.

Slowly the three began searching every item and door in the house looking for anything with a keyhole and excluding each item in turn when the key refused to even insert into most let alone turn. After several hours of searching and with every nook and cranny checked to no avail Jeff threw himself down on the couch exhausted. ‘This is hopeless,’ he complained to the other two who had re-joined him in the living room after their own fruitless exploration. ‘We’re never going to find it. Mat are you sure dad didn’t give you some item, maybe years ago.’

‘No nothing.’ Mat thought back still unable to remember any item his uncle had given him with a lock.

‘Well that just leaves the gardens and outbuildings.’ Sheila stated less willing to give up so easily than her brother. ‘Come on.’

‘At least let a chap have some lunch first.’ Jeff protested.

‘You stay if you want but I want to find out.’

‘Oh all right.’ Jeff pulled himself off of the couch with effort. ‘This had better be worth missing lunch for.’

The Magic Key - 1

The following copyright and legal information applies to this post and all subsequent posts related to this story with the category/label ‘The Magic Key’.

Copyright © Yvonne Arlott 2015

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events and places in this publication are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover.

Posted below is what I wrote in the time given at the writers group.

He stared at the ornate bronze key wondering what it opened. There had been no note with it in his uncle's will just the direction it was to be given to him. Why him though? His cousins should surely have been left the key along with the rest of his uncle’s estate but that hadn’t been the case. His mind raced back trying to remember something, anything in the conversations he’d had with his uncle that would provide some clue to its use. There had been nothing though, except maybe that one line his uncle was so fond of repeating. ‘Happiness is the key to everything.’ How could that possibly help him now though? It made no sense. Maybe his only sensible recourse was to search every possible item in the house and grounds until he could find the lock the key fitted. His cousins wouldn’t object he knew but it was a large house situated in 5 acres of land and there was no guarantee he would even find it.

‘Have you got any idea why he left it to me Jeff?’ He asked his cousin.

Jeff stared, the same puzzlement reflecting in his eyes. ‘I’m sorry I’ve no idea. It looks old though. It must open something old.’

‘You’re not being very helpful.’ Sheila interrupted.

10 Minute Madness Experiment

I decided to attend a writers club as I thought it would be great to talk to other authors but an unexpected and interesting thing that came from it turned out to be a 10 minute task they set everyone in the group. They gave us the topic ‘The Magic Key’ and we had to write a story or as much of a story as we could about it in 10 minutes and then read our efforts at the end. I’d never done anything like that before and I found it extremely challenging and at first I thought I’d never think of anything to write in such a short time but I ended up surprising myself. Although it was written in a rush and was unedited I still found I wanted to know what would happen next.

So at the risk of putting myself under enormous pressure I thought it would be an interesting experiment if I were to post what I had written here and then, if I can manage it regularly, set myself 10 minutes (20 if I really can’t cope with the pressure) to write a bit more of the story.

I don’t usually like people to read a first draft of anything I write and this could turn out worse than a first draft with the time limitations. So please bear in mind what I post here will be unedited, rushed, written under pressure and will probably do any writing skills I may have no justice at all. I have no idea how long the story will be, what the storyline is or if I’ll even be able to make a storyline that makes sense. I don’t even know what genre it will be yet. Added to those problems once I’ve posted something I can’t change it which could well add to my storyline dilemmas.  Even just thinking of character names is awful under the time constraint and I end up just using the first name that comes into my head. My only consolation is that unlike normal where I spend hours thinking of a title I at least have something to call it already provided for this story, ‘The Magic Key’.

I’m really interested and somewhat nervous to find out how this experiment goes.