It was as if she had been resisting putting the puzzle together until then. She knew very well what the answer was, but she hadn’t been able to make the connection. She reached into her skirt pocket and drew out the key that Forst had found in the garden. She had a key. She had been trying to find the lock for it so that they could claim her treasure. Now she was presented with a lock without a key, and she hadn’t made the connection.
“Do you think this is it?” Reg asked Starlight. She held the key up. “Is it that simple? The key was in the cottage garden; there is a wormhole from the cottage to here. There is a locked closet here.”
On the one hand, she was disappointed. She had been hoping for a treasure chest, sarcophagus, or some other proper receptacle for a treasure. But a basement under-stairs cubby? What treasure was she going to find there?
There was no reason it couldn’t hide a trove of gold bars, jewels, or some other priceless treasure. But it seemed highly unlikely. Probably it was nothing but dust and spiders. And a broom. Maybe she could ride the broom home if Harrison didn’t want to transport her again or the wormhole had mysteriously closed.
Reg held the key in the palm of her hand for a few more seconds. It was warm, and the familiar tug was stronger than ever. It wanted to be reunited with the lock. That was its purpose.
She reoriented the key and slid it into the lock. Unlike the other keys, which didn’t even fit into the slot, let alone turn the tumblers, it fit neatly into place. Reg held her breath. She looked at Starlight, then twisted the key.
There was no explosion or magical spell. Reg turned the handle. It was now unlocked. She pulled the closet door open.
The magical phenomenon she had expected when she had turned the key blasted into the basement. Light seared Reg’s eyeballs after the darkness of the basement. It exploded out of the closet and lit up the room like midday. She couldn’t look into the closet; it was far too bright.
“What is it?” she asked aloud.
“It’s about time,” a male voice boomed.
The light coalesced into a single form but was still too bright to look at.
The basement disappeared, and Reg and Starlight were, once again, in the living room with Harrison, Nicole, and the kittens. But this time, there was another man too.
He was tall like Harrison, but fuller in the chest, a huskier build. He didn’t have a mustache and looked vaguely like the lumberjack in a TV commercial—handsome, rugged, and glowing from inside.