The Key

Josh was full of Egg Fu Young!  Satisfied, he sat back and picked up the fortune cookie that must have been left at his plate by his waitress.  It was heavier than he’d expected when he picked it up and when he unwrapped the cooke and cracked it open, out fell a small key.  He stared at it momentarily, then picked it up and studied it for an indication of what it might fit.  

On the key was embossed Q-4!  “What could that mean,” Josh thought?  He kept the key, left the restaurant, went home where he deposited the contents of his pockets, including the key, onto the small plate that held his pocket change, car keys, etc and forgot about the key.

As Josh was driving home from work a week later, having to take a detour home due to road work, he passed a nightclub whose neon sign read, The Q!  He knew that rang a bell, but was still mulling it over as he placed his pocket contents onto the plate at home, when he saw the key!

That weekend, Josh took the key with him and paid a visit to The Q.  Once inside the club, Josh sat at the bar, ordered a gin and tonic and surveyed his surroundings.  Quiet, dark, posh seating in banquets, clothed tables with upholstered chairs surrounded the small stage where a singer or comedian/comediene might entertain.  It was early and few patrons were yet in attendance. 

Josh, after finishing his drink and ordering a second, went to the mens room.  Inside it was spacious, clean, with marble counters and dark wood accents.    Against the inside wall, across from the mirror over the sinks, he found a bank of lockers on the wall.  Out of curiosity, he went to the wall of lockers and viewed the numbers.  Sure enough, there on the top row was a 6” by 6” square door marked Q-4 with a small round lock!

Josh reached into his pocket and retrieved the key.  He held it in his hand for a moment, then placed it in front of the locker and inserted it into the keyhole.  As he twisted the key, the small round lock popped out and the door swung open.

The inside of the locker seemed empty until Josh felt inside and lying flat against the back of the locker was a metal plate the size of a credit card.  It gleamed gold in the light, as Josh pulled it from the locker and felt heavy for its size.  On the front, in a stylized calligraphy of black, was embossed “Josh” and on the back, in a smaller size of the same font, it read “ I am yours, Josh, I will be of service should you need me!”

Josh, wondered how this sequence of events, the key, now the card, had happened!  Who amongst the people he knew could’ve or moreover, would’ve, pulled such a prank?  He took the card with him as he went back to the bar and drank that second gin and tonic.  He sat, fingering the card and pondering the last few days.  

The only out of the ordinary thing that had happened to him in the rememberable past was the derelict that Josh had encountered before entering the China Garden restaurant the night he’d received the key in the fortune cookie.  

As Josh had approached the side entrance to the restaurant, the derelict had appeared out of the shadows. The derelict was shabbily dressed yet was clean and his skin had a slight amber glow.  

He bowed slightly as he approached and asked, in a soft voice, “ Josh, might you help someone in need and would you do more if you could?” 

Josh, stunned at himself, pulled his wallet from his back left pocket, took from it the only bills it held, two $20’s and handed them to the man.  “This is all I have at the moment, I hope this can help you.”  The smile that lit up the derelicts face was warm and gave  Josh a good feeling as he bade the man “Good night” and entered the restaurant.

Now, as he sat, sipping his drink and thinking back, how had the derelict known his name?  He found no answer to that conundrum, though he stayed at the bar nursing his drink and mulling it over until he felt capable of driving home.

TO BE CONTINUED