A child with an unknown key will believe it unlocks treasure until proven otherwise.\u00c2\u00a0 Tommy was just such a child, thirteen years old, ready for adventure and romance, and he just happened to come into possession of a great old brass key.<\/p>\n
The other children marveled at it.\u00c2\u00a0 Though tarnished and, in some places, slightly green–Tommy insisted brass went green as it aged, just like his father\u2019s aunt was turning slightly yellow around the edges–though tarnished and green, it winked streetlights at them when turned in just the right way.\u00c2\u00a0 Tommy turned it often as he showed it off.<\/p>\n
One of the older boys scoffed.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cI bet it doesn\u2019t open anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Tommy would not be dissuaded.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cIt opens a cellar door under Midnight, a door that hasn\u2019t been opened in over a hundred years, and inside that cellar is treasure.\u201d\u00c2\u00a0 He gave that last word a great deal of reverence.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cWhiskey and sapphire and maps and guns–not just any guns, but Peacemakers, honest frontier weapons, the weapons of lawmen and the loot they took back from outlaws and scoundrels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Midnight, of course, had a wild frontier past, complete with shootouts and saloons, card playing and hand-rolled cigarettes.\u00c2\u00a0 Ask any child, they\u2019d tell you.\u00c2\u00a0 This let straight into the era of gangsters and private eyes and sexy nightclub singers.<\/p>\n
The older children, mostly, laughed it off and went away, and the younger children, mostly, were too frightened of zombie cowboys, so when everybody went away Tommy found himself alone with one of the girls, Sandy, a cute, older girl with blonde curls and dimples.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe you,\u201d Sandy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should,\u201d Tommy said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s true.\u201d\u00c2\u00a0 Then he asked, \u201cWhy do you believe me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandy smiled.\u00c2\u00a0 She leaned close to whisper, and nobody else heard.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve been to the cellar door.\u00c2\u00a0 And I\u2019ve been looking for a key just like yours.\u201d<\/p>\n
So down they went, into the dark, into the depths, to a subterranean alley running alongside the basements of places that no longer existed, delicatessens and bakeries, the Popcorn Poppery, Old Possum\u2019s Kitty Supplies.\u00c2\u00a0 It narrowed and twisted and darkened even more deeply until Sandy and Tommy stopped in front of a staircase.\u00c2\u00a0 The steps were steep, uneven, set inside a tiny alcove, and they led down to a\u00c2\u00a0 set of angled cellar doors.\u00c2\u00a0 Rusted chains still locked the two doors together.\u00c2\u00a0 The padlock itself was old as the key, and equally as tarnished, covered with grime and dust and spider webs.<\/p>\n
Tommy shuddered briefly, an involuntary fear of the Spider Dragon they said lived down here.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u2019d seen enough web to believe in that, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever\u2019s inside, we split it,\u201d Sandy said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cEvenly.\u00c2\u00a0 Half yours, half mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what are you waiting for?\u201d Sandy asked.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cOpen it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Tommy shoved the key into the lock.\u00c2\u00a0 It resisted, a little, and he got it all the way in, but then he tried to turn the key and open the padlock but nothing happened.\u00c2\u00a0 It refused to turn.\u00c2\u00a0 The grooves weren\u2019t catching, the teeth were misaligned.\u00c2\u00a0 Tommy struggled with it, tried to cajole it, to soothe it, and when that didn\u2019t work he tried to force it, and he pounded the lock on the door, and then he scowled at the lock and the key until Sandy put her hand on his.\u00c2\u00a0 She said, \u201cThat\u2019s not the right key.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr that\u2019s not the right lock,\u201d Tommy suggested.<\/p>\n
There, in the stairs in the underground, in a hole within a hole, Sandy, slightly older and filled with all her own adventure and romance, kissed Tommy briefly on the lips.\u00c2\u00a0 It was his first ever kiss.<\/p>\n
As Tommy suspected, the key led to great treasure after all.
\n~~~<\/p>\n
June 19, Thunderstorm Books<\/a> starts accepting pre-orders for Once Upon a Time in Midnight<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A child with an unknown key will believe it unlocks treasure until proven otherwise.\u00c2\u00a0 Tommy was just such a child, thirteen years old, ready for […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,6,2,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}