The Key

She approached the unfamiliar door and nervously took the key from her pocket. She took a deep breath, unlocked the door, paused, then opened it. To her horror she saw the inside of her childhood home, with her siblings and her opening presents on Christmas morning. Her sister had one large box towering in front of her. Her brother was already playing with his new train set. Alice saw her younger self tentatively holding a small gift in her left hand. The adult Alice wanted desperately to stop the little girl from opening her gift. She wanted to run into that living room, take the tiny package out of the girl's hands and run away with it, disposing of the cursed item into the deepest depths she could find. But she wasn't sure how her family would react to some random stranger frantically running into their house on Christmas morning. Worse yet, how could Alice explain that she wasn't really a stranger at all? That she was their daughter, all grown up, older than her parents in this moment? Alice reluctantly decided against her plan. She watched in helpless anguish as the little girl of 9 years old opened the delicately wrapped gift. For such a tiny box, much care was given into the wrapping of it. Alice was always a very careful little girl, and she slowly pulled on one end of a ribbon until the bow fell away. She gingerly peeled away the tape holding one end of the paper onto the box. Her older sister had long ago opened her large gift, carelessly shredding the paper to pieces like a famished raccoon. She already ran to her room to bring her dolls into their new luxury dream house. No one seemed to notice Alice. Entranced in her own little world, Alice didn't notice anyone else either. A smooth ruby colored velvet box now stood in her hand. Savoring the anticipation for as long as possible, she tilted the lid open ever so slowly. Could it be a locket? Perhaps a bracelet? She concluded that it must of course be some item of jewelry. Never could she have guessed what was actually inside. At the same moment, in the same space, yet separated by miles of time, little Alice pulled the very key adult Alice held in her hand from the tiny velvet box.